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“Here’s what I’ve learned: the only thing you can do is to make it different. OK, you’re going to shoot something and it’s going to take 47 takes? In the course of those 47 takes, you’ll be able to do it different, and somewhere in the course of those 47 takes is the way it needs to be.” Tom Hanks has probably done millions of takes over his decades-long Hollywood career. It’s that commitment, perseverance, talent  and authenticity that has made him one of the industry’s most respected and influential stars. 

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Tom Hanks got his start performing with the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in 1977. Soon enough, he was a household name. How did Hanks make his way to the top and how does he feel about being there? Here’s a closer look.  

From Birth to Bosom Buddies

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Thomas Jeffrey Hanks was born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California. His parents divorced when he was five years old, and he and his siblings were raised by their chef father, Amos. The family moved around a lot, eventually landing in Oakland, California. 

After graduating from high school in Oakland, Hanks briefly attended junior college in Hayward, California. He set his sights on becoming an actor after watching a performance of The Iceman Cometh, and transferred to the theater program at California State University in Sacramento. During those years, Hanks spent his summers in Ohio participating in the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival and his winters working with a Sacramento area community theater. In 1978, his portrayal of Proteus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona earned him the Cleveland Critics Circle’s Best Actor Award. 

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Hanks eventually dropped out of college to move to New York City. His first big came in 1980 when he was discovered discovered by a talent scout and cast in the television sitcom Bosom Buddies. While the show lasted just two seasons, the exposure it gave Hanks was priceless. He went on to land guest roles on many popular television shows, including Happy Days, Taxi, The Love Boat, and Family Ties.

Making a Big Splash

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Hanks’s second big break came in 1982, when Ron Howard remembered Hanks from an episode of Happy Days and invited him in to read for a supporting role. Hanks didn’t get the part, which went to John Candy. Instead, he got the lead. That movie was Splash, which made Hanks a bona fide star. 

While Hanks was a household name after Splash, his career was not without its share of setbacks. Several of Hanks subsequent films were critically panned, including Bachelor Party, The Man With One Red Shoe, Volunteers, The Money Pit and Dragnet. Still, Hanks persevered -- and that perseverance paid off with his 1988 casting in Penny Marshall’s Big. His portrayal of a 13-year-old boy living in a 35-year-old man’s body earned Hanks his first Oscar nomination for best actor. 

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Post-Big, Hanks’s career again stalled with flops like Turner and Hooch, Joe Versus the Volcano, Punchline and Bonfire of the Vanities. These movies did give Hanks the opportunity to show off his acting chops in roles ranging from the comedic to the dramatic. In reflecting later on these failures Hanks has said, “I’ve made an awful lot of movies that didn’t make any sense, and didn’t make any money, but that doesn’t alter the work that goes into it, or even what your opinion of it is.” 

The 1990s became Hanks's biggest decade yet, starting with his beloved role in A League of Their Own. This was followed up by the massive hit Sleepless in Seattle, as well as Philadelphia, for which Hanks took home the Academy Award for best actor. His string of hits continued with 1994’s Forrest Gump, which enjoyed phenomenal critical and commercial success. Not only did the movie win Academy Awards for best picture and best director, but Hanks also won his second consecutive lead actor Oscar -- making him the first person in half a century to claim that honor.

By this point in his career, Tom Hanks’s name was synonymous with the word “blockbuster." It would stay that way thanks to roles in Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, You’ve Got Mail, The Green Mile, Castaway, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie Wilson’s War, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Cloud Atlas, Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Banks, The Post and Bridge of Spies.

Along the way, Hanks also voiced the part of can-do cowboy Woody in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story franchise while also venturing into production, including the hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. As if all of this wasn’t enough, Hanks made his Broadway debut in 2013, and was nominated for a Tony Award for his work in Lucky Guy.

Throughout his career, Hanks’s extraordinary charisma, charm, warmth and good looks found him compared to the likes of everyone from Jimmy Stewart to Gary Cooper.  In 2002, he became the youngest actor to receive the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award, while in 2016 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contribution to the arts from President Barack Obama. 

Most recently, Hanks has appeared in the Fred Rogers biopic, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, along with Toy Story 4. 

Hanks has also managed to achieve something else many actors lack: a 31-year-marriage with his wife, actress Rita Wilson, who is also the mother of his two youngest children. (He has two older children by his first wife, Samantha Lewes.)  Hanks's commitment to the relationship is consistent with the thematic interests of his films. He told The Guardian, “I think it ends up being the need for connectedness. Not just humankind, but also the human condition. Again and again, we’re searching for that person who’s a magic key for us, makes us feel connected, secure, part of something bigger than ourselves. Without it, the world ain’t any fun.” 

Hank also boiled his success down to something much simpler. He continued, “It’s the first lesson I learned as a professional actor. You must. Show up. On time.”