&InputText=TOM HANKS (Jim Lovell), One of the worlds most admired and respected actors today, Tom Hanks is the recipient of the 2002 American Film Institute Life Achievement Award.  He also holds the distinction of being the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards.  In 1993, he was rewarded for his compelling performance as the AIDS-stricken lawyer in Philadelphia, and the following year he won the Oscar for his outstanding performance in Forrest Gump.  He also won Golden Globes for both of these performances.  Throughout the success of Forrest Gump (which has become the fourth largest grossing movie in history), Hanks has won a Golden Globe Award, a Peoples Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Chicago Film Critics Award, a National Association of Theatre Owners Male Star of the Year Award, and the Hollywood Womens Press Club Award.  In addition to the many honors he has received, he was named Man of the Year by Harvards Hasty Pudding Theatricals (the nations oldest undergraduate dramatic group), for his performance as astronaut Jim Lovell in Apollo 13.
	In 1996, Hanks made his feature film writing and directing debut with That Thing You Do!, which follows the meteoric rise to fame of a local rock band named The Wonders from Erie, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1964.  The films signature song, That Thing You Do!, not only reached the top 10 in many contemporary music charts, but was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Music (Original Song).  In addition to his other responsibilities, Hanks also appeared in the film.
	Born and raised in Oakland, California, Hanks first became interested in acting during high school.  He attended California State University in Sacramento, where he appeared in a production of The Cherry Orchard, and met director Vincent Dowling, the resident director of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland.  Dowling invited Hanks to intern with the company, where he made his professional debut, portraying Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew.  Hanks appeared in other Great Lakes productions, including Two Gentlemen of Verona, for which he received the Cleveland Critics Award for Best Actor.  From Cleveland, Hanks went on to New York, where he appeared in his first feature film, He Knows Youre Alone, and onstage in The Taming of the Shrew.
	After moving to Los Angeles where he performed in a production of The Dollmaker, Hanks got his first big break when he was cast as the lead in the ABC television comedy series Bosom Buddies.  This led to starring roles in Bachelor Party followed by Ron Howards Splash  a box office hit that started him on his path to becoming one of Hollywoods busiest and most sought-after actors.  Hanks many film credits include Volunteers, Nothing in Common and A League of Their Own.  In 1988, with his box office success established, Hanks found himself a critical success with highly acclaimed work in Punchline and Big  the latter for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and his first Golden Globe Award.  The same year, the Los Angeles Film Critics recognized the two performances by bestowing on him their coveted Best Actor Award.  In 1993, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his work in Sleepless in Seattle, starring opposite Meg Ryan, with whom he reunited in the equally successful Youve Got Mail in 1998.
	Constantly challenging himself, Hanks served as producer, along with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, for HBOs From the Earth to the Moon, an ambitious 12-hour dramatic film anthology that explored Americas Apollo space program.  Not only did Hanks personally help make this show a reality, he directed the first episode and wrote and appeared in the final episode.
	Hanks starred in Steven Spielbergs feature film Saving Private Ryan, which was released in July 1998.  Hanks played a soldier who went deep behind enemy lines to save a trapped private during the Allied invasion, for which he received an Oscar nomination.  He also starred, in 1999, in The Green Mile, written and directed by Frank Darabont and based on the six-part serialized novel by Stephen King.
	In 2000 Hanks starred in Cast Away for which he received another Oscar nomination.  Hanks played the sole survivor of a plane crash that lands on a deserted island in the film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by William Broyles, Jr.
	Also in 2000, Hanks served as executive producer (as well as having directed one of the episodes) for another epic HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, based on Stephen Ambroses book of the same title.  The miniseries aired in the spring of 2001 to wide-scale critical acclaim, leading to a Golden Globe win for the miniseries in 2002 and 19 Emmy Award nominations.  This series chronicled a group of paratroopers beginning with their training in Georgia, through their subsequent battles on D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and their eventual capture of Hitlers Eagles Nest.
	Most recently, Hanks received unanimous raves for his starring role in Road to Perdition, opposite Paul Newman and Jude Law, directed by Sam Mendes.  The film takes place in Chicago and the Midwest during the Depression era of the 1930s.  Hanks portrays Michael Sullivan, a hit man who sets out with his young son on a journey of revenge after members of his family are murdered.
	Hanks is currently filming Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio.  The film is based on the true-life exploits of international confidence man Frank Abagnale, Jr.  Hanks portrays Joe Shaye, an FBI agent who gained notoriety for having tracked down and captured Abagnale, who as a counterfeiter and imposter cashed $2.5 million worth of bad checks between 1964 and 1970.
	Hanks currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Rita Wilson, and their family.
