Tom Hanks' Real Name: Thomas Jeffrey Hanks

Quick answer: Tom Hanks' real name is Thomas Jeffrey Hanks. He was born on July 9, 1956, in Concord, California. "Tom" is a short form of Thomas (Britannica).

Early life

Hanks' parents divorced when he was five, and he moved often with his father, a cook, around Northern California before settling in Oakland. He studied theater at Chabot College and California State University, Sacramento. He then joined the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, where he won a Cleveland Critics Circle award, before moving to New York.

TV start and comedy stardom

Hanks' breakout was the ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980–82), in which he and Peter Scolari played ad men who disguise themselves as women to rent a cheap apartment. Movie stardom followed with:

• Splash (1984), with Daryl Hannah.
• Bachelor Party (1984) and The Money Pit (1986).
• Big (1988): his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Back-to-back Oscars

Hanks won the Academy Award for Best Actor two years running. He won for Philadelphia (1993), as a lawyer with AIDS, and for Forrest Gump (1994). Only Spencer Tracy had done that before him (Oscars.org). He received more nominations for Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Cast Away (2000), and a supporting nomination for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), as Fred Rogers.

Career highlights

• Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998) with Meg Ryan.
• Apollo 13 (1995).
• The voice of Woody in the Toy Story films (1995–2019).
• Catch Me If You Can (2002), Captain Phillips (2013) and Sully (2016).
• Elvis (2022): as Colonel Tom Parker.

As a producer, through Playtone with Gary Goetzman, he made HBO's Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and published a novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, in 2023.

Personal life

Hanks married Samantha Lewes in 1978; they divorced in 1987. He married actress Rita Wilson in 1988. He has four children, including actors Colin Hanks and Chet Hanks.