Hanks was born July 9th, 1956 in Concord, California. When his parents split up, he and his two older brothers went with their dad. A chef by trade, their father traveled a lot in search of work, bringing his kids with him. The result was a nomadic early life for Hanks, who never stuck around an area long enough to make good friends, and became painfully shy as a result. He was left to his imagination, an active one which still seems to flourish today. In high school he was finally given the opportunity to release some of the energy that was contained within him. He took roles in school theater productions and soon learned to love acting. He would eventually major in Drama at the California State University in Sacramento.

His acting while at the school impressed critics, and he was recruited by the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Ohio. Hanks subsequently dropped out of school and, after three short seasons with the Shakespeare Festival, decided to leave that behind too. He was off to New York City, where he was going to take the big gamble and try to become a star.

The stardom would come, but it would take a while. After many auditions, he finally found work, first with a role in the slasher film He Knows You’re Alone, and then on the television show, Bosom Buddies. The latter would prove much more beneficial to his career than the first. The show was set in a woman's hotel (the Susan B. Anthony) and had him starring opposite Peter Scolari as two guys who take up cross-dressing in order to stay at the hotel. The show only lasted for a few seasons but lead to guest spots on several major television series, including Happy Days and Family Ties.

Ron Howard, Richie Cunningham from Happy Days, remembered Hanks when later he would direct his feature film Splash. It was Hanks’ first starring role of note and would touch off a long career. Hanks began appearing in many of the 80s most notorious comedies and despite a distinct lack of box office success, he kept cranking them out. Bachelor Party, The Man With One Red Show and Dragnet (amongst others) were far from great cinema, but they kept his career going. He reached a peak in 1990 with Big, for which he earned his first Oscar nomination. Then things went downhill. They went from bad to worse, culminating in Bonfire of the Vanities, a disastrous film known as one of the biggest box office duds of all time. It seemed that Hanks was through.

Then, three years later, something happened. Early in the year, Sleepless in Seattle came out to great reviews and audience praise. It seemed like Hanks was back on top. Rumors then began to come out that Hanks would play a homosexual lawyer afflicted with the AIDS virus, in an upcoming drama. The stories were met with polite disbelief. Hanks was a goofball comedian, not someone who could be the first Hollywood leading man to play a character with AIDS.

The rumors became reality, and audiences and critics everywhere were humbled by the powerful and resonant performance given by Hanks in Philadelphia, for which he received his first Oscar. A year later, Hanks struck gold once more as Forrest Gump, a mentally challenged man who somehow ends up witnessing many of the most significant events of the 20th century. Hanks received his second Oscar for the portrayal and became one of the only men ever to win two Best Actor Oscars back-to-back.

Hanks would next re-team with his Splash buddy Ron Howard for Apollo 13, in which Hanks gave a dynamic performance as astronaut Jim Lovell. After wrapping work on Apollo 13, Hanks voiced the role of Woody the Cowboy in Disney’s Toy Story, and then began work on his own production. He wrote and directed That Thing You Do!, the charming story of a small band, The Wonders, trying to make it big in the 50s.

Tom Hanks now has the clout to do just about any story he chooses, but in many ways he is still the imaginative boy who was too shy to make friends in grade school. His fascination with space exploration lead him to produce one of the largest television productions of all time. From the Earth to the Moon was a mini-series that charted the birth and early growth of the space program, which Hanks watched with fascination as a child.

Tom continues to work steadily, and to please audiences and critics everywhere. His recent role as a shaken army captain in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan earned him yet another Oscar nomination. In order to remind people that he isn’t all serious drama, he also took a role opposite his Sleepless in Seattle co-star Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail - the story of an Internet romance.

Tom Hanks is undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s finest actors. He has a natural charm that audiences love and critics respect. It is no wonder that he has become an Oscar nomination mainstay, earning himself two more nominations for his work in The Green Mile and Cast Away.