The awarded actor, who has a unique talent has a total net worth of $350 million. Thomas Jeffrey “Tom” Hanks was born in Concord, California (USA) on July 9th, 1956. He is the son of a stage assistant, Medford Hanks, and a nurse named Janet Marylyn, also, younger brother of Sandra and Lawrence Hanks.
He studied at Skyline High School (Oakland) and every evening he went with his best friend to theater classes. When he finished his high school studies, Hanks won the award for Best Theater Actor at his high school and enrolled at the University of Fine Arts in Oakland, California. Hanks’ relatives were Catholics and Mormons.
Beginnings.
In 1979, the Hanks family moved to New York, where in 1981 he debuted as a supporting actor in the horror film I Know You’re Alone. Two years later, a friend of his father offered him a starring role in a new film. He went to Los Angeles and participated in Bachelor Party (1984), a film with little success that served for Ron Howard to sign for Splash (1984). He then starred in several comedies, Best Friends (1980), The Money Pit (1988), Big (1989), Joe and the Volcano (1989).
Success.
In 1993, with Denzel Washington, he premiered Philadelphia, and won his first Oscar. A year later he played Forrest Gump, and won his second Oscar for Best Actor, becoming the only actor of the second half of the twentieth century who won two consecutive Oscars. After Apollo XIII (1995), the actor experienced few successes with his films, and produced the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, in which he presented his episodes, directed one and acted in another. In 1995, he also made the voice of Woody in Toy Story.
In 1998, he starred in Save Private Ryan, a film that was once again nominated for an Oscar, but he failed to win this time. In 1999, he played Woody again in Toy Story 2 and a year later, he was nominated for Castaway (2000). He has since acted in films such as Road to Perdition (2002), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels and Demons (2009).
Personal Life.
He married Samantha Lewes for the first time in 1978 and they had two children: actor Colin Hanks (1977) and Elisabeth Ann (1982). The couple divorced in 1985. She died of cancer in 2002. It was in 1988, when he married actress and producer Rita Wilson, with whom he is the father of two children, Chester Marlon (1991) and Truman Theodore (1996).
Other activities.
Hanks is a member of the National Space Society serving on the Board of Governors of the nonprofit educational space promotion organization founded by Dr. Wernher Von Braun. In 2006, the Space Foundation awarded the Morrow Douglas Disclosure Organization. The award is given annually to a person or organization who has made significant contributions to the public awareness of space programs.
