Tom Hanks is well-known all around the world. He has the ability to elicit emotions through the screen because his acting skills are just that good. When you watch him, you are whisked away into the world of what he’s acting out. So, wouldn’t it be fun to know more about this incredibly talented man?
Tom Hanks is taller than the average adult male. He may be older than you think at 66. Tom’s weight sometimes fluctuates depending on roles he plays but he’s an average weight for his height. He has a long and successful acting career that dates back to 1980. He’s a family man and was a self-described painfully shy spaz in his teenage years.
Let’s take a look at the details of Tom Hanks. Read on to learn more about one of the greatest actors of all time.
How Tall Is Tom Hanks?
Tom Hanks stands 6 feet tall. That makes him taller than an average adult male. Many of the actors and actresses he’s played alongside are shorter than him.
He also doesn’t have a large frame. His body is quite thin so he appears tall and a little lanky at times.
How Old Is Tom Hanks?
Tom’s career started when he moved to New York and starred in a low-budget horror called He Knows You’re Alone. That was in 1980 and he was 24 at the time.
Today, he is 66 years old. His birthday is July 9, 1956. He was born in Concord, California. His parents got divorced when he was just 4 years old. He and two of his siblings remained with their father, while one other sibling stayed with their mother.
One amazing thing about actors is they can often look much different than their age. They are skilled at getting into character and some of that means they must look different. Some roles have Tom looking much older than he is at the time. Others he looks younger for.
How Much Does Tom Hanks Weigh?
Generally, Tom weighs around 175 pounds. He has weighed more and less than that, at times.
Remember that movie Cast Away he did back in 2000? Prior to that film, Tom weighed around 225 pounds. He had to drop a lot of weight to play that role. He lost more than 50 pounds very quickly to get to the 170-pound mark he needed to reach to look the part of the castaway in the movie.
Even before the Cast Away role, Tom was playing with his weight for other roles. In the early 1990s, he had to gain weight for the movie A League of Their Own. He gained 30 pounds to play the coach of the women’s baseball team featured in the film.
In an interview with David Letterman, Tom revealed that his extreme fluctuations in weight for some of his acting roles had led to a diagnosis of type II diabetes. His doctor told him his body couldn’t keep up with the severe changes in diet and weight, thus he developed the disease.
How Did Tom Hanks Start Acting?
We mentioned above that Tom moved to New York to pursue acting. He arrived there in 1979 and starred in his first film. He also landed roles in television shows early on and was cast in a Riverside Shakespeare Company production, as well.
Along the way, Tom had some guest appearances on shows such as Happy Days and Family Ties. But, there were people in the industry that had their eyes already set on Tom for the big screen.
A couple of Hollywood writers suggested to Ron Howard that he consider Tom to star in his new film Splash. Howard was going to give him a supporting role but wound up offering Tom the leading role. No one expected what happened next. The movie grossed a whopping $69M. It was a box office hit.
The years that followed were full of roles that built Tom’s career but not at a quick pace. It wasn’t until 1988, when Tom starred in Big, that he was truly established as a real Hollywood movie star. This was the movie that got Tom his first Academy-Award nomination.
How Many Movies Has Tom Hanks Been In?
It’s hard to say exactly how many movies Tom has been in. Some of them slip through the cracks. However, a close number is about 73.
Not all of them have been box office smashes. Though there are many that were. He’s also played a number of different types of roles. He’s played funny characters, dramatic characters, starred in serious roles, and even one opposite a volleyball co-star. He’s had a successful career and continues to entertain on the big screen today.
How Many Children Does Tom Hanks Have?
Tom has four children. His youngest son, Truman Hanks, starred along with Tom in one of his most recent films, A Man Called Otto. He played the younger version of his dad’s character, Otto.
Tom’s older two children were from his first marriage. He divorced their mother in 1987. Eventually, he would meet his current wife, Rita Wilson. She’s also an actress who Tom met on the set of Bosom Buddies in the late 1980s. Tom had a boy and a girl with his first wife and two boys with his second.
His son, Chet, has also had a little bit of screen time. He released a rap song and played some guest roles on the television show Empire, as well as, Shameless.
Final Thoughts
Celebrities can sort of become part of our lives. If you think about it, we spend a lot of time watching them on screens or reading about them. So, it makes sense that we’d want to know more about the people who keep us engaged in those ways.
Tom Hanks is an extremely talented actor that has starred in so many movies for more than 40 years. Not many of us can say we haven’t seen, and liked, at least one of his movies. Next time you watch something he’s in, know that you’re watching one of Hollywood’s greatest who’s still a pretty normal guy.
