Tom Hanks is well respected in the world of acting: he’s played roles as varied as a teenage boy in an adult body (“Big”); a slow witted but kind man who does fantastic things (“Forrest Gump”); and a pilot who saves his passengers by landing his plane on a river (“Sully”). And there are many more—he’s played a wide variety of characters over his decades-long career.
And yet in each of those roles, he brings his humanity, that part of him that we all recognize to be Tom Hanks. It’s hard to put your finger on what that is, but if we know a bit about him outside of his acting work, we may be able to see the real Tom Hanks.
Rumor has it that he once stopped what he was doing to help Girl Scouts sell their cookies on the streets of Los Altos. He also gave a New York City cabdriver tickets to his Broadway show, including a backstage visit afterwards. These examples show a humanity that shines through in every part Hanks plays.
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