Tom Hanks’ most iconic roles, from ‘Forrest Gump’ to ‘Toy Story’

Early TV days

Hanks memorably guest-starred on a number of sitcoms in the early-’80s, including Happy Days, Taxi, and Family Ties. But his breakthrough was his starring role on ABC’s Bosom Buddies, a comedy that paired him with Peter Scolari as businessmen who dressed up as women so they could move into the inexpensive Susan B. Anthony Hotel. Although the buddy comedy ended in 1982 after just two seasons, it put Hanks’ charisma and comedy chops on the map. Ian Praiser, a producer on the show, told Rolling Stone, “I thought, ‘Too bad he won’t be in television for long.’ I knew he’d be a movie star in two years.” —Rachel Yang

Splash (1984)

Praiser was right (mostly). Two years later, Hanks starred with Daryl Hannah in the 1984 rom-com Splash, which was critically and commercially successful. He was chosen over more established stars like Richard Gere and Jeff Bridges, as the producers had liked Hanks’ performance on Happy Days and Bosom Buddies. —R.Y.

Big (1988)

It wasn’t until the success of 1988’s Big that Hollywood took notice of Hanks as a multidimensional actor. The film, featuring Hanks playing a 12-year-old boy in an adult’s body, earned him his first Best Actor Oscar nomination and Golden Globe win. —R.Y.

A League of Their Own (1992)

Hanks followed Big with more comedies like the middling Punchline (1988) and the memorable Turner & Hooch (1989), which spawned a 2021 sequel series on Disney+. But his second home run came in 1992 with A League of Their Own. The ensemble film about a women’s baseball league boasted a cast including Geena Davis and Madonna, and it’s gone on to become an enduring classic (sparking a TV series of its own on Amazon Prime Video in 2022). Among many quotable lines from the film, Hanks as the team’s grumpy manager Jimmy Dugan gave us the iconic, “There’s no crying in baseball!” —R.Y.

Philadelphia (1993)

With 1993’s Philadelphia, many audiences saw Hanks in a more dramatic role for the first time, as AIDS patient Andy Beckett. Hanks’ moving portrayal, coupled with Denzel Washington’s powerful performance as Beckett’s lawyer, helped educate the public on homophobia and the HIV/AIDS crisis. The role would earn Hanks his first Best Actor Oscar. —R.Y.

Forrest Gump (1994)

A year later, Forrest Gump won us over with its invaluable life lessons from Hanks’ lovable titular character. The actor once again nabbed the Oscar for Best Actor, making him only the second man to win the category back-to-back. —R.Y.

1995’s winning double feature

Few actors have enjoyed a run like Hanks did in the early-1990s, churning out an astonishingly versatile output that began with A League of Their Own, continued with Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, and peaked in 1995 with the double whammy of Apollo 13 and Toy Story. Hanks, who once had aspirations to be an astronaut, got to live out his fantasy in the epic space film directed by Ron Howard. —R.Y.

Rom-com leading man

During the 1990s, Hanks starred in two Nora Ephron-directed features opposite Meg Ryan: 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle and 1998’s You’ve Got Mail. (They had previously starred together in John Patrick Shanley’s 1990 film Joe Versus the Volcano.) Both films made over $200 million at the box office, cementing Hanks as the ultimate leading man — appealing in a sensitive, Everyman kind of way. Hanks earned a Golden Globe nomination for Sleepless in Seattle the same year he won for Philadelphia. —R.Y.

Behind-the-scenes force

While he’s most famous for being in front of the camera, the Hollywood legend is also a powerful voice behind the lens. Hanks first made his directorial debut with 1996’s That Thing You Do!, a musical comedy film he also penned. Some of his producing credits demonstrate his interest in a wide swath of genres, lending his expertise to such films as My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), The Ant Bully (2006), Mamma Mia! (2008), and the HBO series Big Love, through his production company Playtone. —R.Y.

Dynamic duo: Hanks and Spielberg

Some of Hanks’ most memorable projects came out of collaborating with director Steven Spielberg. Arguably the most gripping was the 1998 World War II film Saving Private Ryan, which nabbed star Hanks his fourth Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe, while director Spielberg received his second Oscar win for directing. —R.Y.

Turn of the millennium

Hanks in the late-’90s and early-2000s continued to pick film roles that showcased his range. The year 1999 saw Hanks reprise his role as Woody in Toy Story 2 and star in The Green Mile alongside Michael Clarke Duncan. In 2000, Hanks took on the challenging role of a marooned engineer in Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away, garnering his fifth Oscar nomination and fourth Golden Globe win. —R.Y.

Band of Brothers (2001)

Spielberg and Hanks were behind the lauded 2001 HBO WWII miniseries Band of Brothers, along with its 2010 companion series, The Pacific. The duo won Emmys for their work on both limited series, with Hanks winning an additional Emmy for directing an episode of Band of Brothers. —R.Y.

Box office king

The 2000s saw Hanks starring in some of his most crowd-pleasing movies. He lent his voice to 2004’s The Polar Express, the first all-digital motion capture film, as well as 2006’s Cars. That same year, he played Professor Robert Langdon in an adaptation of the popular novel The Da Vinci Code, and he’d go on to reprise his role in 2009’s Angels & Demons and 2016’s Inferno. —R.Y.

Dramatic roles in the 2010s

In the 2010s, Hanks embodied a litany of dramatic characters based on real people throughout history. He portrayed the titular captain who’s taken hostage by pirates in 2013’s Captain Phillips (for which he earned another Golden Globe nom), while 2015 saw Hanks playing lawyer James B. Donovan in the Cold War picture Bridge of Spies. The next year, Clint Eastwood’s Sully featured Hanks as hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger, and 2017’s The Post starred the actor as Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee and gave him his ninth Globe nod. —R.Y.

A star for the people

The name “Tom Hanks” is pretty much synonymous with the nicest guy in Hollywood, and his reputation as a salt-of-the-earth guy may be one of the reasons Americans flock to his movies. Hanks once helped the Girl Scouts sell cookies. Another time, he personally refunded a couple who hated Larry Crowne (2011), a movie he not only starred in, but also directed and co-wrote. Spielberg may have captured Hanks’ essence the best, saying if “Norman Rockwell were alive today, he would paint a portrait of Tom.” —R.Y.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

In 2019, Hanks once again portrayed Woody in Toy Story 4, but his most anticipated role of the year was in Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. When Hanks was announced to play beloved TV personality Fred Rogers, a.k.a. Mister Rogers, everyone collectively went, “Yup, that makes sense.” Both are seen by audiences as a friend or fatherly figure, and Hanks’ role reminded us that, decades into his career, he’s not nearly done moving and inspiring us. In addition to scoring a sixth Oscar nomination nearly 20 years after Cast Away, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave Hanks his 10th Globe nomination for the role and named him the Cecil B. DeMille Award honoree for lifetime achievement. —R.Y.

Scene-stealer

While Hanks continues to lead films four decades into his career, he’s also been utilized as a reliable supporting actor. Through his work as Col. Tom Parker in Elvis (2022), Geppetto in Pinocchio (2022), and Stanley Zak in Asteroid City (2023), the actor has embraced scene-stealing supporting roles, contributing to this vision of auteur directors rather than leading with his natural movie star presence. He’s also frequently played in the sandbox of Studio 8H as a 10-time host with various additional guest appearances on Saturday Night Live. —Kevin Jacobsen

Loved by fans and respected by his peers

Amassing multiple Oscars, Emmys, and Golden Globes, Hanks has certainly felt the love of his peers in the industry over the years. Perhaps one day he’ll even nab the elusive EGOT. After all, Hanks did score a Tony nomination in 2013 for Lucky Guy — all he’s missing is a win, plus a Grammy.

On top of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Hollywood legend already has an AFI Life Achievement Award (he was the youngest recipient) and was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2014. We can’t wait to see what he does next. —R.Y.