This man named the trope Tom Hanks Syndrome for a reason.
Hanks worked in television (Bosom Buddies) and family-friendly comedies such as Splash and Big before achieving success as a dramatic actor portraying several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title role in Forrest Gump, Commander James A. Lovell in Apollo 13, Captain John H. Miller in Saving Private Ryan, Michael Sullivan in Road to Perdition, Sheriff Woody in Pixar's Toy Story, and Chuck Noland in Cast Away, as well as helping to produce Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
He also played Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Has hosted Saturday Night Live eight times (half as many times as Alec Baldwin, who as of September 2011, is SNL's most frequent host), and has made cameos on the show (including on the last episode of season 34 in which he played a moronic version of himself on "Celebrity Jeopardy"). Runs his own studio called Playtone, named after the music label in his self-produced That Thing You Do.
His more important films include:[]
- Splash (1984)
- Big (1988)
- Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
- The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)
- A League of Their Own (1992)
- Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
- Philadelphia (1993)
- Forrest Gump (1994)
- Apollo 13 (1995)
- Toy Story (1995)
- That Thing You Do (1996)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- You've Got Mail (1998)
- Toy Story 2 (1999)
- The Green Mile (1999)
- Cast Away (2000)
- Road to Perdition (2002)
- Catch Me If You Can (2002)
- The Terminal (2004)
- The Lady Killers (2004)
- The Polar Express (2004)
- The Da Vinci Code (2006)
- Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
- Angels and Demons (2009)
- Toy Story 3 (2010)
- Larry Crowne (2011)