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One of the world's most admired and respected actors today, Tom Hanks also holds the distinction of being the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actor. In 1993, he was rewarded for his compelling performance as an 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. For Forrest Gump, Hanks won a Peoples Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Chicago Film Critics Award, a National Association of Theater Owners Male Star of the Year Award and the Hollywood Women's Press Club Award. In addition to the many honors Hanks has received, he was named Man of the Year by the nation's oldest undergraduate dramatic group, Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, for his performance as astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard's Apollo 13.

In 1996, Hanks made his feature film writing and directing debut with That Thing You Do!, which followed the meteoric rise to fame of a local rock band named The Wonders in the summer of 1964. The film's title song not only reached the top 10 in many contemporary music charts, but it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Hanks also appeared in the film in a supporting role.

Born and raised in Oakland, CA, Hanks first became interested in acting during high school. He attended California State University, 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 Gentleman 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 You're Alone, and onstage in The Taming of the Shrew.

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 and Ron Howard's Splash-a box-office hit that started him on his path to becoming one of Hollywood's busiest and most sought-after leading men. 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 acclaimed performances in Punchline and Big (for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination and his first Golden Globe Award). The same year, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized both performances, bestowing on Hanks its Best Actor Award.

Constantly challenging himself, Hanks served as executive producer for HBO's From the Earth to the Moon-an ambitious, 12-hour dramatic film anthology that explored the 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.

In 1998, Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg's war drama Saving Private Ryan, in which he played a soldier who went deep behind enemy lines to save a trapped private during the Allied invasion. He received another Oscar nomination for his work. The following year he starred in The Green Mile, which was written and directed by Frank Darabont and was based on the six-part serialized novel by Stephen King.

In 2000, Hanks starred in Cast Away, for which he received yet another Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the sole survivor of a plane crash who is marooned on a deserted island. Cast Away was directed by Robert Zemeckis, with a screenplay by William Broyles Jr.

In 2000, he served as executive producer for another epic HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, based on Stephen Ambrose's book. He also directed one of the episodes. The miniseries aired in spring 2001 to wide-scale critical acclaim, leading to a Golden Globe win for Best Miniseries in 2002.

In 2002, Hanks starred in the Depression-era drama Road to Perdition, opposite Paul Newman and Jude Law and under Sam Mendes' direction. It was followed by Spielberg's stylish caper Catch Me If You Can, in which he played opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. The film was based on the true-life exploits of international confidence man Frank Abagnale Jr.

Hanks teamed again with Spielberg in The Terminal, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, and followed it with the Coen brothers' dark comedy The Ladykillers, the story of an eccentric Southern professor who assembles a band of inept thieves to rob the Bandit Queen, a Mississippi riverboat casino.

In November 2004, Hanks starred in the film adaptation of the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. Hanks portrayed The Conductor of this beloved children's book, in a film that reunited him with Cast Away director Robert Zemeckis.

Hanks was recently seen playing Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code, the film adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel, which has broken box-office records around the world. The film is helmed by Ron Howard and also stars Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany, Ian McKellen and Jean Reno. He is currently in post-production on Charlie Wilson's War and The Great Buck Howard.

Hanks resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Rita Wilson, and their family.

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