TOM HANKS (Woody) delivers another outstanding performance and pulls all the right strings as the voice and personality of a pull-string cowboy who finds his position as top toy in serious jeopardy. The acclaimed two-time Academy Award®-winner brought a wide range of emotions and expert comic timing to this latest role and discovered that the experience was one of his toughest and most rewarding.
"Doing the voice of Woody was much harder than I ever anticipated it would be," says Hanks. "For one thing, the pace is much faster than working on a regular film. With a live-action film, you do a scene and then you hang around for three hours while they get ready to do the next thing. On this film, there were no stand-ins. You have to essentially act full-bore 100%, standing there with your headphones on for three or four hours at a time."
Although Hanks' nemesis in the film is a spaceman action figure, the actor admits that his favorite childhood toy was a bend-able, posable astronaut from Mattel called Major Matt Mason. "He was made of rubber like Gumby and he had a space helmet," recalls Hanks. "If you played with him too much, the wire inside his arm would break and then he could no longer bend or pose that part of his limb. It was kind of frustrating."
One of today's most admired and respected actors, Hanks received the 1995 Academy Award® for his outstanding performance as "Forrest Gump," which has become the fourth biggest grossing movie of all time. He also received the 1994 Best Actor Oscar for his compelling performance as the AIDS stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in "Philadelphia." Hanks is the first actor in 50 years to have won back-to-back Oscars. Most recently, the actor won additional acclaim for his portrayal of astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard's blockbuster drama, "Apollo 13."
Among Hanks' other recent accomplishments, he was named "Man of the Year" by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the nation's oldest undergraduate dramatic group. Through the success of "Forrest Gump," he has also been honored with the Golden Globe Award, the People's Choice Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Chicago Film Critics Award, the National Association of Theater Owners "Male Star of the Year" award and the Hollywood Women's Press Club.
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 who was also 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 Gremio in "The Taming of the Shrew." He also appeared in other Great Lakes' productions including "Two Gentlemen From 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 on stage in "The Taming of the Shrew." He then moved to Los Angeles where he performed in a production of "The Dollmaker," and where his first big break came when he was cast as the lead in the ABC TV comedy series, "Bosom Buddies."
Hanks subsequently starred in "Bachelor Party" and Ron Howard's hit comedy for Touchstone Pictures, "Splash." The latter helped to establish him as one of Hollywood's top stars and led to leading roles in such films as "Volunteers," "Nothing in Common," "Turner & Hooch," "Joe Versus the Volcano," "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and "A League of Their Own."
In 1988, with his box office success firmly established, Hanks found himself a critical success with his highly-acclaimed work in "Punchline" and "Big" -- with the latter earning him his first Academy Award® nomination. In addition, the combination of the two resulted in his being named Best Actor by the Los Angeles Film Critics. In 1993, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his work in "Sleepless in Seattle," starring opposite Meg Ryan.
Hanks is currently making his feature directing debut with "That Thing You Do" for 20th Century Fox, having previously directed the "I'll Be Waiting" episode of the acclaimed Showtime cable series, "Fallen Angels." He resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Rita Wilson.
