Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks is an American actor, producer, director, and writer whose career has spanned broad comedy, historical drama, voice acting, and television production. Born Thomas Jeffrey Hanks on July 9, 1956, in Concord, California, he grew up in Northern California and studied theatre before beginning his professional career on stage and in television. He first became widely known for the sitcom Bosom Buddies and then moved into film roles that established him as a leading comic actor, including Splash, Bachelor Party, The Money Pit, Big, and A League of Their Own.

Hanks's career shifted toward major dramatic roles in the early 1990s. He won consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor for Philadelphia, in which he played a lawyer with AIDS fighting workplace discrimination, and Forrest Gump, in which he portrayed a man whose life intersects with major events in modern American history. The films made him one of the most prominent actors in Hollywood and were followed by starring roles in Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies, Sully, The Post, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Elvis, A Man Called Otto, and Here.

He has had long-running creative associations with directors including Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, Nora Ephron, and the Coen brothers. Hanks also became closely identified with family and animation audiences through his voice performance as Woody in Pixar's Toy Story film series. His other screen work includes That Thing You Do!, which he wrote and directed, and Larry Crowne, which he co-wrote, directed, and starred in.