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Tom
Hanks
Biography
(1956 -
) From Baseline's Encyclopedia of Film
AKA: Thom Hanks
Occupation: Actor
Birth Name: Thomas
J. Hanks
Born: July 9, 1956,
Concord, CA
Education: California
State University, Sacramento
Versatile, much-admired
actor whose early popularity in mainstream comedies led to a skillful transition
to more sophisticated comedic and dramatic roles. Hanks dropped out of
college in 1977 to intern with the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in
Cleveland, where he stayed for three seasons before moving east and making
his New York debut as Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew at the Riverside
Theater. Mainstream exposure came with his casting as Kip/Buffy Wilson
opposite Peter Scolari in the ABC sitcom "Bosom Buddies" (1980-82), about
a pair of ad men forced to cross-dress in order to keep a cheap apartment
in a NYC women's hotel.
Hanks found immediate
stardom with his first leading movie role, opposite a be-finned Daryl Hannah
in Ron Howard's mermaid comedy, SPLASH (1984). The funny, if relentlessly
sophomoric BACHELOR PARTY (1984) was followed by a handful of misfires,
including THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE (1985), VOLUNTEERS (1985) and THE MONEY
PIT (1986) before the actor rebounded with an Oscar-nominated performance
in Penny Marshall's BIG (1988). The role of a 12-year-old child stuck in
the body of a 35 year-old man capitalized on Hanks's youthful charm, though
it also fixed him—perhaps permanently—with the label "boyish."
Hanks's post-BIG attempts
to play against type have met with mixed results. His casting as Wall Street
heavyweight Sherman McCoy was considered one of the crucial misjudgments
that scuttled Brian De Palma's adaptation of BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES (1990).
Another attempt to shed his nice-guy image, in A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992),
also directed by Marshall, was more successful, though Hanks's hard-drinking,
tobacco-chewing, ex-ball player routine convinced moviegoers more than
it did critics. Hanks returned to romantic comedies with the cross-country
romance SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993), which reteamed him with Meg Ryan and
managed to suggest the loneliness of the aging "boy" who has found it hard
to meet people. His choice of roles ventured into even sadder—and considerably
more ambitious—territory with Jonathan Demme's well-intentioned PHILADELPHIA
(1993), in which Hanks played a gay man fired from his job once it is discovered
that he has AIDS. Hanks's wrenching performance earned him the Oscar for
Best Actor.
Filmography
(1956 -
)
Filmography from Baseline's
Encyclopedia of Film
1981 HE KNOWS YOU'RE
ALONE performer
1984 BACHELOR PARTY
performer
1984 SPLASH performer
1985 THE MAN WITH
ONE RED SHOE performer
1985 VOLUNTEERS performer
1986 EVERY TIME WE
SAY GOODBYE performer
1986 THE MONEY PIT
performer
1986 NOTHING IN COMMON
performer
1987 DRAGNET performer
1988 BIG performer
1988 PUNCHLINE performer
1989 THE 'BURBS performer
1989 TURNER &
HOOCH performer
1990 THE BONFIRE OF
THE VANITIES performer
1990 JOE VERSUS THE
VOLCANO performer
1992 A LEAGUE OF THEIR
OWN performer
1992 RADIO FLYER performer
1993 PHILADELPHIA
performer
1993 SLEEPLESS IN
SEATTLE performer
Awards
Nominated for Best Performance By an Actor
in a Leading Role 1988 : BIG
Best Performance by an Actor in a
Leading Role 1993 : PHILADELPHIA
Autors: Anna Laura
Miralles and Eva Velasco and all this information has been taken from From
Baseline's Encyclopedia of Film (Cinemania95).
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