| After his parents Amos and Janet divorced in 1960, siblings Tom, Larry and Sarah went to live with their father, staying in 10 different homes in 5 years, while younger brother Jim remained with their mother. |
| He has worked with 8 directors who have won a Best Director Oscar: Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, and Mike Nichols. |
| In 2015, Tom Hanks started using his official Twitter feed in part to post photos and locations of lost items (such as gloves, shoes, socks, etc.) that he saw on the streets of New York. In at least one case, this resulted in the lost property being returned to its owner--in October 2015, he found the Fordham College ID for a woman named Lauren, and she retrieved it from his office. |
| His daughter Elizabeth Hanks appears in the movie Forrest Gump as the girl on the school bus who refuses to let Young Forrest Gump (Michael Connor Humphreys) sit next to her. |
| Hanks designated "2001: A Space Odyssey" as his favorite film for an AFI poll. |
| Tom Hanks was respectively 38 and 39 when he won his back-to-back Best Actor Oscars in 1994 and 1995, exactly like Spencer Tracy when he won in 1938 and 1939. |
| He's a huge fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969). That's the reason he agreed upon playing one of the Canadian Mounties in the Lumberjack song during Concert for George (2003). |
| 9 actors received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for their work in a movie starring Hanks: Gary Sinise in Forrest Gump (1994), Ed Harris in Apollo 13 (1995), Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile (1999), Paul Newman in Road to Perdition (2002), Christopher Walken in Catch Me If You Can (2002), Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips (2013) and Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies (2015). Out of all these movies, Hanks was only nominated (and won) for 'Forrest Gump'. |
| Tom played Kip/Buffy Wilson in Bosom Buddies. His second wife is Rita Wilson and played opposite Wilson the soccer ball in Cast Away. |
| A recipient of the 2014 Kennedy Center Honors. Other recipients this year were Al Green, Patricia McBride, Sting, and Lily Tomlin. |
| Has played a captain in five different movies: Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Captain Phillips (2013) and Sully (2016). |
| As of 2016, has appeared in eight films that were Oscar nominated as Best Picture: Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Green Mile (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Captain Phillips (2013) and Bridge of Spies (2015). Of those, Forrest Gump (1994) is a winner in the category. |
| Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard, Emma Thompson, Daniel Brühl and Jake Gyllenhaal are the only actors to receive a Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Critics' Choice Award nomination for the same performance and then fail to be Oscar-nominated for it: for their performances in Captain Phillips (2013), The Departed (2006), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Rust and Bone (2012), Saving Mr. Banks (2013),Rush (2013) and Nightcrawler (2014), respectively. |
| Some of his movies use comedic scenes of his character urinating: The Money Pit (1986), A League of Their Own (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995) and The Green Mile (1999). |
| New York, NY, USA: Opens on Broadway in "Lucky Man", the last play written by his friend and frequent director, the late Nora Ephron. This will also be Hanks's first-ever appearance in a stage production since he was in junior college. And he'll be co-starring with another old friend, his old Bosom Buddies (1980) co-star, Peter Scolari. [February 2013] |
| Became a grandfather for the 2nd time at age 56 when his granddaughter Charlotte Bryant Hanks, via son Colin Hanks, was born on July 1, 2013. |
| Became a grandfather for the 1st time at age 54 when his granddaughter Olivia Jane Hanks, via son Colin Hanks, was born on February 1, 2011. |
| Became a father for the 4th time at age 39 when his 2nd wife Rita Wilson gave birth to their son Truman Theodore Hanks on December 26, 1995. |
| Became a father for the 3rd time at age 34 when his 2nd wife Rita Wilson gave birth to their son Chet Hanks on August 4, 1990. |
| Became a father for the 2nd time at age 25 when his 1st [now ex] wife Samantha Lewes gave birth to their daughter Elizabeth Hanks on May 17, 1982. |
| Became a father for the 1st time at age 21 when his girlfriend [now ex-wife] Samantha Lewes gave birth to their son Colin Hanks on November 24, 1977. |
| Has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes [October 7, 2013]. |
| Has often done films which (comically) use urinating/using the bathroom as a plot device (e.g. The Green Mile (1999), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995) and Dragnet (1987)). |
| Both Tom Hanks and his son, Colin Hanks, have been "Not My Job" quiz contestants on the National Public Radio show, "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!". Both won the quiz. |
| Lives in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, California and Ketchum, Idaho. |
| When he appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009), Conan's last NBC show in L.A. (Jan. 22, 2010), the Tonight Show Band played The Beatles' "Lovely Rita" as Hanks made his entry, undoubtedly a nod to the lovely Rita Wilson, Tom's beloved wife. |
| Was originally cast in the dual role of "Charlie Kaufman/Donald Kaufman" in Adaptation. (2002), but later dropped out. Nicolas Cage, who went on to receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance, was cast instead. |
| Is a fan of Doctor Who (1963). |
| Is a fan of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), and has expressed desire to one day guest star on the show. |
| Is a die hard Oakland Raiders fan. Featured in the documentary Rebels of Oakland: The A's, the Raiders, the '70s (2003). |
| Publicly endorsed Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. |
| Enjoys collecting typewriters, purchasing over 80 of them around the globe. His interest in them generated an idea for an iPad application that he developed called Hanx Writer, that simulates antique typewriters sound and feel. It was very successful and made it to to top list on Appstore in August 2014. |
| The asteroid "12818 tomhanks" was named after him. |
| In 2007, Forbes Magazine reported that his earnings were estimated to be $74 million the previous year. |
| Favorite baseball team is the Cleveland Indians. He purchased a stone in the front of Jacobs Field when it was built. |
| Has also credited Joe Spano, former co-star of the TV series Hill Street Blues (1981), as being another of his most important early inspirations. |
| Auditioned for the role of Joel in Risky Business (1983), which eventually went to Tom Cruise. |
| Was in attendance at Princess Diana's funeral along with Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, among others. |
| Married Rita Wilson at Saint Sophia's Church, converting from Roman Catholicism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. |
| Was a member of Monty Python for one night only, filling in for John Cleese, at A Concert For George. |
| Cited as America's Favorite Movie Star in Harris Polls conducted in 2002, 2004, 2005, a record number of times as the #1 favorite. Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood are the only other actors to have achieved that feat. |
| Forbes magazine estimated his 1999 earnings at $71.5 million. |
| Frequently works with director Steven Spielberg, and is related to Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Ironically, he was not involved in Spielberg's film about Lincoln, despite his frequent involvement in historical projects. |
| He once shared a record (with Tom Cruise and Will Smith) as the actor to star in the most consecutive $100 million-grossing movies (7). As of 2008, Smith holds the record alone with 8 movies. |
| Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". Volume 244, pages 199-202. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2006. |
| Ranked #16 on Premiere's 2006 "Power 50" list. Had ranked #16 in 2005 as well. |
| Is the third most-represented actor (behind Sidney Poitier and Gary Cooper) on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time, with four of his films making the list. They are: Forrest Gump (1994) at #37, Philadelphia (1993) at #20, Apollo 13 (1995) at #12, and Saving Private Ryan (1998) at #10. |
| His performance as Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump (1994) is ranked #43 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. |
| His top five all-time favorite films are 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), The Godfather (1972), Fargo (1996), Elephant (2003) and Boogie Nights (1997), with Stanley Kubrick's film holding the top ranking. |
| He and President George Bush are both related to 19th-century Presidents. Bush, a Republican, is descended, by way of his mother's family, from Franklin Pierce, one of the last Democratic presidents before Abraham Lincoln. Hanks, a Democrat, is descended from the family of Lincoln's mother. |
| His performance as Chuck Noland in Cast Away (2000) is ranked #46 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006). |
| His performance as Josh Baskin in Big (1988) is ranked #15 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006). |
| Sold popcorn and peanuts as a teenager at the Oakland Coliseum. |
| Stepson of the former Frances Wong, whom his father married in 1965. |
| Related to Bill Cosby's wife Camille O. Cosby (née Camille Olivia Hanks), as both share a biological lineage to Abraham Lincoln through his mother, Nancy Hanks. |
| Has been Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch) since 2001. |
| Born to Amos Mefford Hanks, a chef, and his wife Janet Marylyn Frager, a hospital worker, his parents divorced in 1960. |
| On his father's side, Tom is of English, and some German, ancestry. Two of his paternal great-grandparents were English immigrants. Tom's maternal grandparents were both of Portuguese descent (from the Azores Islands). Tom's maternal great-grandfather had changed his surname from "Fraga" to "Frager". |
| Shares his birthday with Jack White, David O'Hara, Courtney Love, Chris Cooper, O.J. Simpson and Donald Rumsfeld. |
| He and his good friend Meg Ryan have been co-stars in three movies as love interests: Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and You've Got Mail (1998). |
| Has worked with two actors who played Howard Hughes. In Philadelphia (1993), he worked with Jason Robards, who played Hughes in Melvin and Howard (1980) for director Jonathan Demme. His cast mate in Catch Me If You Can (2002) was Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Hughes in The Aviator (2004) for Martin Scorsese. |
| In three of his movies, he has had a scene where he is stranded at sea: Splash (1984), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), and Cast Away (2000). |
| He is an environmental conservationist and often advocates and supports natural causes. |
| Premiere Magazine ranked him as #28 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature (2005). |
| He once worked as a hotel bellman. Some of the celebrity guests whose bags he carried were Cher, Sidney Poitier, Slappy White and Bill Withers. |
| Has been good friends with Bruce Springsteen since his youth. |
| Was listed as a potential nominee on both the 2005 and 2007 Razzie Award nominating ballots. He was suggested in the Worst Actor category on the 2005 ballot for his roles in the films The Polar Express (2004) (referred to as "Bi-Polar Express" on the ballot), The Ladykillers (2004) and The Terminal (2004). He was suggested again in the Worst Actor category two years later, for his performance in The Da Vinci Code (2006). He failed receive either nomination. |
| Was considered for the role of Peter Banning (Peter Pan) in Hook (1991). |
| Between 1994 and 2004, he was the performer nominated for the most Academy Awards (four times, along with Sean Penn, Meryl Streep, Judi Dench and Ed Harris) and won the most (twice). |
| Shortly before the release of Columbia Pictures' Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), he was one of several actors speaking out against the use of "synthespians" (computer-generated actors) in the place of flesh-and-blood humans. Nevertheless, he took the lead role in the computer-animated film The Polar Express (2004), a film highly-publicized for its use of new (and expensive) technique of digital actors. |
| Had made four films with director Steven Spielberg, all of which are tied to Europe. Saving Private Ryan (1998) revolved around his character and his infantry unit seeking out a missing private in Europe during WW II. Catch Me If You Can (2002) involved his character tracking down Frank Abagnale Jr. in France; in The Terminal (2004), his character was from the fictional eastern European country of Krakohzia, and Bridge of Spies (2015) was a Cold War thriller where his character had to go to Berlin, Germany. |
| His first wife Samantha Lewes died of cancer 14 years after their divorce. |
| His three favourite bands/artists are Elvis Presley, Patrick Rondat and Alabama Thunderpussy. |
| He was voted the 26th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. |
| His heroic Oscar-winning gay character Andrew Beckett in the 1993 film Philadelphia (1993) was ranked #49 on the Amerian Film Institute's heroes list of the 100 years of The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villians. |
| Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 205-206. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387 |
| Has been referred to by many as "the modern James Stewart". |
| Is a fan of English Premier League soccer team Aston Villa and was presented with a shirt on a TV show with the print 'Hanks 1' on the back. |
| He gained weight for and later lost 55 pounds playing Chuck Noland in Cast Away (2000). |
| Lost 30 lbs. for his role in Philadelphia (1993). |
| Ranked #1 on Star TV's Top Ten Box Office stars of the 1990s (2003) |
| Is a diehard Cleveland Indians baseball team fan. |
| Ranked #13 in Premiere's 2003 annual Power 100 List. Had ranked #15 in 2002. |
| He is a third cousin, four times removed, of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Their common ancestors were John Hanks (1680 - 1740) and his wife, Catherine, who were the great-great-grandparents of Lincoln, and the six times great-grandparents of Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks is also a seventh cousin, once removed, of actor George Clooney (Catherine and John Hanks were the seven times great-grandparents of Clooney). |
| Jim Lovell, whom Hanks played in Apollo 13 (1995), is actually left-handed, but Hanks refused to write with his left hand for the movie. |
| Is a member of the International Thespian Society (a group supporting theatre for high school students internationally). |
| Returned to his old high school, Skyline High School in Oakland, California, to dedicate a renovated theater named for Rawley T. Farnsworth, the retired drama teacher he thanked in his Philadelphia (1993) Oscar speech. Oakland Tribune reports Hanks donated about 1/4 of the $465,000 cost of the project. Then he led the audience of some 1000 people in a chorus of "There's No Business Like Show Business" (6 March 2002). |
| Received American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, presented by fellow Oscar winner Steven Spielberg, the youngest ever to receive that award (12 June 2002). |
| Has another brother who is a professor at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, IL. |
| His Oscar acceptance speech for 1993's Philadelphia (1993) led to the plot of the movie In & Out (1997). Hanks thanked a gay teacher in his speech. |
| Born at 11:17 AM |
| Was asked to play the title role in Jerry Maguire (1996). |
| Received emergency treatment for serious staph infection in leg after returning from overseas location shoot (1999). |
| Hanks cited the help of a nearby ice cream shop which helped him gain 30 pounds for his role in A League of Their Own (1992). |
| Married his first wife Samantha Lewes (real name: Susan Dillingham) two months after their son Colin's birth. |
| After a one-shot guest appearance on Happy Days (1974), producer Ron Howard asked him to read for a secondary part in Splash (1984), and he got the lead instead. |
| Younger brother of Sandra Hanks and Larry Hanks and older brother of Jim Hanks. |
| Voted best actor by the readers of "Us" magazine (1995). |
| Attended California State University, Sacramento. |
| Attended Chabot College in Hayward, California. |
| Attended Skyline High School in Oakland, California. |
| Ranked #17 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list (October 1997). |
| Second actor to win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars, for his work in Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994). The first was Spencer Tracy, for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938). |
| Dislocated his shoulder when he fell through a rotting floor in a building in Germany while scouting locations with Steven Spielberg for the HBO series Band of Brothers (2001) (1999). |
| Entertainment Weekly chose him as the only actor worthy of $20 million. |
| Received the Distinguished Public Service Award, the U. S. Navy's highest civilian honor, on Veterans Day 1999 for his work in the movie Saving Private Ryan (1998). |
| Is a frequent guest host on Saturday Night Live (1975). |