His full name is Thomas Jeffrey Hanks.¹⁾

He was born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California.²⁾

Janet Marylyn Frager was Tom Hanks' mother. She was a hospital employee with a Portuguese surname.³⁾

Tom's father was Amos Mefford Hanks, who worked as a chef. Amos was perhaps eight or nine years old when he observed Tom's grandfather being slain in a brawl.⁴⁾

Amos and Janet separated when Tom was about four years old, in 1960. Tom claims that by the age of ten, he had lived in ten different residences.⁵⁾

Jim Hanks, Tom's younger brother, is also an actor. In fact, their voices and physical appearances are so similar that Jim doubled for Tom in Forrest Gump and acts as a vocal substitute for Sheriff Woody in Toy Story spinoffs and video games.⁶⁾

Larry Hanks, his other brother, is an entomologist who teaches bugs at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.⁷⁾

Tom's third cousin four times removed is Abraham Lincoln. Abraham's mother was Nancy Hanks.⁸⁾

He is also connected to George Clooney, Walt Disney, and Mr. Rogers, according to IMDB.⁹⁾

Elizabeth Hanks, his daughter, appears in Forrest Gump. She's one of the schoolgirls that informs young Forrest he can't sit with them on the bus.¹⁰⁾

Colin Hanks, Tom's eldest son, is a prominent actor in his own right. He has acted in films such as Orange County, Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005), and Oliver Stone's W., as well as TV programs such as The Good Guys, Fargo, and Dexter.¹¹⁾

Tom's other son and Colin's half-brother is Chet Hanks. Chet has appeared in Greyhound, Empire, and Shameless alongside his father.¹²⁾

Tom attended Chabot College in California before moving to California State University, Sacramento to study drama. He dropped out of college when an internship at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland developed into a three-year employment.¹³⁾

His performance in a Happy Days episode (“A Case of Revenge”) in 1982 sparked a friendship with Ron Howard, who went on to direct him in five films.¹⁴⁾