The most likeable Star of his generation, Tom Hanks is a throwback to the days when Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and Clark Gable towered over Hollywood. Whether he's playing a 35-year-old kid (Big), a simpleton from Alabama (Forrest Gump), a sullen soldier (Saving Private Ryan), a mobster hitman (Road To Perdition) or even a lawyer suffering from AIDS (Philadelphia), people react well to him - he possesses an all too rare nice-guy charm. He's willing to put that charm to the test, too. In Cast Away, for well over an hour, we saw nothing but Hanks / no pretty love interest, no wisecracking sidekick, not even a comedy dog. And, such is the weight Hanks carries with a worldwide audience; such is the skill he has developed over two decades plying his trade, he pulled it off.
I, first, remember seeing Tom in the ABC TV Sitcom, Bosom Buddies which was about him and Peter Scolari (Kip and Henry), two single men who must disguise themselves as women to live in the one apartment they could afford .. which was a women only building. I found the premise funny but I could see, even then, that Hanks would go on to greater heights.
Soon, Tom had moved his family to the San Fernando Valley, Samantha Hanks his first wife, gave birth to daughter Elizabeth. With Bosom Buddies over, Tom had to look elsewhere, and nabbed brief spots on Michael J. Fox's Family Ties, The Love Boat and, finally, Happy Days. There he met ‘Richie Cunningham’, or rather Ron Howard, then launching a career as a Director. When Howard was casting for his next film, Splash, about a sweet guy's love affair with a Mermaid, he called up Hanks to test for a Supporting role. So good was Tom that he got the Lead instead, the lesser role going to John Candy. This role propelled Tom into a minor Star. Bachelor Party and Volunteers came next, keeping him employed and in the public’s view. The Man With One Red Shoe, the hilarious The Money Pit and Every Time We Say Goodbye followed. The last of these proved that Tom could manage a romantic lead in a ‘serious’ Movie. It also earned him his first $1 million paycheck.
Although Tom's career was soaring upwards, his marriage was falling apart. Not wanting his kids to suffer as he had done, he took a break from film-making in 1985 to Produce, Direct AND build sets for a production of The Passing Game at the Gene Dynarski Theatre, with his wife Samantha co-Producing and Sarring. It didn't work. By the end of the year, Tom and Samantha were separated.
Despite the break, Tom was getting ever hotter. Dragnet, a semi-spoof of the old TV cop show, was fairly lame but a financial success. Then came Punchline, where he Starred with Sally Field as she attemped to learn the comic craft. For research, Hanks wrote his own material and tried it out live at various LA Comedy Clubs.
And then came the first big Movie, appropriately entitled Big, Directed by Penny Marshall (Laverne from Laverne and Shirley). Starring with Elizabeth Perkins, Hanks was Oscar-nominated for the first time. Incredibly, given that he was third choice, behind Harrison Ford and Robert De Niro, Big would be his first $100 million hit. Many more would follow. The Burbs, Turner And Hooch, and Joe Versus The Volcano where he Starred with Meg Ryan followed. But, the lousy Bonfire Of The Vanities threatened to finish him.
Fortunately, by now his personal life was coming together. With his first marriage over, Tom was free to date Rita Wilson, and the couple were wed, with son Chester being born in 1990, followed by another boy, Truman. Having learned from experience what a heavy workload can do to a relationship, he took a couple of years off, enjoying his new family and waiting for the right part to kick-start his career, again.
The right part came soon, alongside Geena Davis and Madonna, in Marshall's A League Of Their Own. Next, paired with Ryan once again, came Sleepless In Seattle which was a massive hit, and featured a natty cameo by Tom's wife Rita. 1993 brought the harrowing Philadelphia alongside Denzel Washington. Tom was duly presented with an Oscar and, incredibly, his acceptance speech, where he thanked his old teacher at Skyline School, Rawley T. Farnsworth, inspired another Movie, Kevin Kline's In And Out.
Then it got even better (if it possibly could) with 1994's epic Forrest Gump, again with Sally Field. With its home-spun wisdom and relentless humanity, Forrest Gump was beyond feel-good. And it cleaned up, with Tom winning another Oscar, making him the first man in 55 years (since Spencer Tracy) to win consecutive Best Actor statues. 1995 was another scorcher. First, he provided the voice of Sheriff Woody in the brilliant Toy Story. Then he was back with Ron Howard in Apollo 13, popularizing the immortal line "Houston, we have a problem" !
Hanks turned down the role of Jerry Maguire, when he turned to Writing and Directing with That Thing You Do! about 1960s one-hit wonders, The Wonders. 1998 brought You've Got Mail, again with Meg Ryan. Then he Starred in a real event Movie,
Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan. It was another triumph, with Tom Oscar-nominated once more. He and Spielberg followed with the award-winning miniseries Band Of Brothers. Before this, though, Tom would score again with Toy Story 2 and The Stephen King's Green Mile. A year later came Cast Away and a well deserving fifth Oscar nomination.
Hanks then returned to Writing and Directing, as well as Producing, with From The Earth To The Moon. It would win an Emmy as Outstanding Series, with Tom (who co-wrote 4 of the 12 episodes) being nominated for his Directing of the first instalment. His old mucker Sally Field was also involved as co-Director.
2002 came Sam Mendes' Road To Perdition then Catch Me If You Can. Tom, also, co-produced the comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding, AND there was a cameo in the long-awaited Rutles follow-up, Can't Buy Me Lunch. 2004 would see his next assault on the box-office, but would also see an end to his remarkable dominance. The Ladykillers followed and wasn't a success. Quickly after this came another reunion with Spielberg and The Terminal with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Next, as a favour to Joel Zwick who'd directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding and had earlier helmed episodes of Hanks' Bosom Buddies. He'd end 2004 by lending his voice and animated appearance to Robert Zemeckis's animated Christmas parable The Polar Express.
Having in 2005 been elected as the new Vice President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Hanks would next snap up one of the more coveted roles in recent times when he reunited with director Ron Howard for The Da Vinci Code, based on Dan Brown's bestseller.
If his extraordinary run of hits isn't proof enough of the respect he's garnered from peers and public alike, consider this: when Steven Spielberg, the biggest Director in the world, wants a hero, someone who can play a good guy in a bad position and somehow make it interesting, he calls Hanks. And when Sam Mendes, perhaps the hippest Director out there, needed someone to pull off a cold-hearted murderer who also loves his son, he called Hanks, as well. We all know he can play a loving father with his brain disengaged, but he's hardly known for his murderers. But what he IS known for is his acting. Of COURSE he can do a murderer. He's TOM HANKS, for Christ's sake.
LARRY..CURTIS..SPURLOCK
