

Tom Hanks
First Music Memory
- Tom Hanks' first music memory is of his dad's Burl Ives records, including "Froggy Went A-Courtin'" and "Streets of Laredo".
- He was three or four years old and remembers his older siblings playing the records.
Formative Music
- Hanks' first impactful music experience was hearing Ray Charles' "Hit the Road Jack" at five years old.
- He connected the song to his family's frequent moves and developed a fascination with radio music, especially Leslie Gore and The Tokens.
Beatles Discovery
- Hanks first heard The Beatles through his stepsisters when they arrived covered in Beatles merchandise, playing "Please Please Me".
- This was before their Ed Sullivan Show appearance, around January 1964.































Tom Hanks is one of the few actors who has succeeded enormously in just about every part of the silver and small screens: he’s written, directed, and produced; done summer stock theater, sitcoms, blockbuster movies, prestige TV, Broadway, and worked more than credibly in both drama and comedy. For his roles in movies like Big, Forrest Gump, Apollo 13, Cast Away, and Saving Private Ryan—that saw him paired with visionary directors like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Robert Zemeckis—Hanks is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation.
His films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing actors ever.
Hanks has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor five times and has received numerous other awards, including Golden Globe Awards, BAFTAs, and Emmy Awards.
He’s also written two books: 2018’s Uncommon Type, a book of short stories centered around typewriters, an item Hanks has long collected, and 2023’s The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, his first novel that finds him writing about the industry he’s worked in his entire adult life.
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