Tom Hanks : Biography

Tom
Hanks born July 9, 1956, in Concord, California. His parents divorced
when Hanks was five years old; he was raised, along with his older brother
and sister, by their father, Amos, a chef. The family moved frequently,
finally settling in Oakland, California, where Hanks attended high school.
After graduating in 1974, Hanks attended junior college in Hayward, California.
He decided to pursue acting after reading and watching a performance of
Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, and transferred into the theater program
at California State University in Sacramento Hanks met his first wife,
actress and producer Samantha Lewes (real name: Susan Dillingham), while
he was in college. They were married in 1978 and had two children, Colin
and Elizabeth, before divorcing in 1987. In 1988, he married the actress
Rita Wilson, with whom he co-starred in Volunteers. Hanks and Wilson have
two children, Chester and Truman.
Tom Hanks : Career

In
1977, Hanks was recruited to take part in the summer session of the Great
Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Lakewood, Ohio. Over the next three years,
Hanks spent his summers acting in various productions of Shakespeare’s
plays, and his winters working backstage at a community theater company
in Sacramento. He won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
in 1978, for his portrayal of Proteus in The Two Gentleman of Verona.
By 1980, Hanks had dropped out of college, and after his third season
with the Great Lakes festival, he moved to New York City. Many rounds
of auditions later, he landed a small part in the 1980 slasher film, He
Knows You’re Alone. That same year, he was spotted by a talent scout for
ABC, and was cast in the television sitcom Bosom Buddies A string of critically
panned movies followed, most notably Bachelor Party (1984), The Man With
One Red Shoe (1985), Volunteers (1985), The Money Pit (1986), and Dragnet
(1987). Hanks managed to emerge relatively unscathed from these critical
failures, as critics often pointed to his performance as the best thing
about each movie. In 1988, he was finally cast in a star-making role,
in director Penny Marshall’s Big, as a 13-year-old boy transplanted overnight
into the body of a 35-year-old man. His performance charmed both critics
and audiences, and earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best
Actor. With Big, Hanks established his reputation as a box-office draw
as well as a talented actor.
Tom Hanks : Films

Cold Case,
A (2005), Polar Express, The (2004), Terminal, The (2004), Ladykillers,
The (2004), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Road to Perdition (2002), Cast
Away (2000), Green Mile, The (1999), You've Got Mail (1998), Saving Private
Ryan (1998), That Thing You Do! (1996), Apollo 13 (1995) , Forrest Gump
(1994), Philadelphia (1993), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), League of Their
Own, A (1992), Bonfire of the Vanities, The (1990), Joe Versus the Volcano
(1990), Turner & Hooch (1989), 'burbs, The (1989), Punchline (1988), Big
(1988), Dragnet (1987), Every Time We Say Goodbye (1986), Nothing in Common
(1986), Money Pit, The (1986), Volunteers (1985), Man with One Red Shoe,
The (1985), Bachelor Party (1984), Splash (1984), He Knows You're Alone
(1980)