 | Tom Hanks was born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California. Pedigree of Hanks ascends to Abraham Lincoln’s mother. His parents divorced when the boy was 5 years old, and after that he was brought up by father-cook, inclined to vagrancy and not stopping at one place for a long time. Tom early showed an interest in theatre, played on the school stage, then learnt actor art in the University of California, but preferred practical trainings in a small dramatic group to lessons on a “student bench”.Then he moved from place to a place, played Shakespeare roles in different small theatres and at last was offered to act in a serial “Bosom Buddies” (1980-82), where he was noticed and invited in movies. It was “Splash” (1984), where he had to fall in love with a water-nymph (Daryl Hannah), having swam for a big city bay. Easiness, disengagement and comic gift made him popular at once, and in 1988 Hanks was awarded with “Oscar” for the role in “Big” (a boy turns into an adult).
Commercially unlucky was a big job of Hanks in a movie “The Bonfire of the Vanities” by Brian De Palma (1990, by Tom Wolfe novel). The role of Sherman McCoy, “a master of universe”, Wall Street financier, whose life is broken up to pieces in a flash because of his mistress’s perfidy (Melanie Griffith) and vim of a sank journalist (Bruce Willis), was reviewed by critics as little expressive, and distribution of the movie failed.
After “A League of Their Own” (1992), which Hanks gained weight for with the help of ice cream, he had a period of luck. In 1993 he played two sure roles: a single father in a lyrical comedy “Sleepless in Seattle” (with Meg Ryan), and a dying of AIDS young advocate in a drama “Philadelphia” (1993) that shocked viewers by its physiological realism (this time he had to lose weight for 10 kg) and brought “Oscar” to Hanks.
The next year, when “Forrest Gump” came on screen, Hanks really became a triumpher. Playing a classical role of idiot (like a brave soldier Svejk), living with a lot of charismatic personalities, Tom Hanks turned into a true national hero with his character. Having got “Oscar” for this work, Hanks became the second (after Spencer Tracy) actor, who got this award two times one after another.
“Apollo 13” (1995) of Ron Howard is a story of unsuccessful fly to the Moon, in which plenty of people showed miracles of heroism. Lots of people went to watch this movie for several times in a hope – may be they would nevertheless fly to? For the first time, putting on an antigravity space-suit, Tom Hanks said: “My dreams come true, guys”. He flew together with his character Jim Lovell (co-author of “Lost Moon” book, which the movie was cinematized by). And the famous phrase “Houston, we've got a problem”, went in public.
Hanks got no more “Oscar”, instead he was presented heaps of civil awards for “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) by Spielberg. His fee for “Splash” was 70 thousand dollars, for “Toy Story” (1995) – 50 thousand, and for “Toy Story 2” (1999), only for voice – 5 million.
Hanks is a man with stainless reputation. In spite of a huge popularity in the USA, he doesn’t nose up and leads a quite modest way of life, reputed in Hollywood to be a perfect husband and father. His name almost never gets to pages of “yellow press”. He is married to actress Rita Wilson and brings up two children - Chester and Truman. Additionally, Hanks has 2 daughters from the first marriage with Samantha Lewes.
Having come in 1998 film of Steven Spielberg “Saving Private Ryan” that became one of the main movies for getting “Oscar” once again confirmed popularity of Hanks as a dramatic actor, however this time the golden statuette didn’t pass to him.
May, 2006 was really lucky for Tom Hanks, he not only unraveled The Da Vinci Code but got into the Guinness Book at the same time. Being an owner of two Oscar Awards he got "Actor with Most Consecutive $100 Million-Grossing Movies" title.
It means that Mr. Hanks managed to act in seven very successful pictures one after another. Generally 49 year old actor played in 14 films every of which got more than $ 100 000 000.
By the way Hanks shared his glory with such champions as Spencer Tracy, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman and Marlon Brando. Each of these legendary actors owned two Academy Awards but only Tracy and Hanks could do that amazingly sequentially. “The Da Vinci Code”, a new film with the assistance of Tom the Great was presented in May 17, at The Cannes Film Festival. It’s a real sensation of the year.
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