Tom Hanks Popular Books
Tom Hanks Biography & Facts
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks' films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America. He has received numerous honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor both in 2016, as well as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020. Hanks made his breakthrough with leading roles in a series of comedy films which received positive media attention, such as Splash (1984), The Money Pit (1986), Big (1988), and A League of Their Own (1992). He won two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor for starring as a gay lawyer suffering from AIDS in Philadelphia (1993) and the title character in Forrest Gump (1994). Hanks collaborated with film director Steven Spielberg on five films: Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Terminal (2004), Bridge of Spies (2015), and The Post (2017), as well as the WW II miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), The Pacific (2010), and Masters of the Air (2024). With the former he launched his career as a director, producer, and screenwriter. He has also frequently collaborated with film directors Ron Howard, Nora Ephron, and Robert Zemeckis. Hanks' other films include the romantic comedies Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998); the dramas Apollo 13 (1995), The Green Mile (1999), Cast Away (2000), Road to Perdition (2002) and Cloud Atlas (2012); and the biographical dramas Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Captain Phillips (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Sully (2016), A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019), News of the World (2020) and Elvis (2022). He has also appeared as the title character in the Robert Langdon film series, and voiced Sheriff Woody in the Toy Story film series (1995–2019). Hanks directed the comedy That Thing You Do! (1996), followed by the romantic comedy Larry Crowne (2011), both of which he acted in. In 1998, Hanks launched his production company Playtone which has an exclusive television development deal with HBO. For his work on television, Hanks has also won seven Primetime Emmy Awards for his work as a producer of various limited series and television movies, including From the Earth to the Moon (1998), Band of Brothers (2001), John Adams (2008), The Pacific (2009), Game Change (2012), and Olive Kitteridge (2015). He made his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy (2013) earning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination. Early life and family Hanks was born in Concord, California, on July 9, 1956, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn (née Frager) and itinerant cook Amos "Bud" Hanks. His mother was from a Portuguese family; their surname was originally "Fraga". His father had English ancestry, and through his line, Hanks is a distant cousin of President Abraham Lincoln and children's host Fred Rogers, whom he played. His parents divorced in 1960. Their three oldest children, Sandra (later Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer), Larry (who became an entomology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim (who also became an actor and filmmaker), remained with their mother in Red Bluff, California. In his childhood, Hanks' family moved often; by the age of 10, he had lived in 10 different houses. While Hanks' family religious history was Catholic and Mormon, one journalist characterized Hanks' teenage self as being a "Bible-toting evangelical" for several years. In school, he was unpopular with students and teachers alike, later telling Rolling Stone magazine, "I was a geek, a spaz. I was horribly, painfully, terribly shy. At the same time, I was the guy who'd yell out funny captions during filmstrips. But I didn't get into trouble. I was always a real good kid and pretty responsible." Hanks acted in school plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California. Having grown up in the Bay Area, Hanks says that some of his first movie memories was seeing movies in the Alameda Theatre in Alameda, California. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, and transferred to California State University, Sacramento after two years. During a 2001 interview with sportscaster Bob Costas, Hanks was asked whether he would rather have an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy. He replied he would rather win a Heisman by playing halfback for the California Golden Bears. He told New York magazine in 1986, "Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant. I spent a lot of time going to plays. I wouldn't take dates with me. I'd just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, and then get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Ibsen, and all that." During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. At Dowling's suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival. His internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, and stage management, prompting Hanks to drop out of college. During the same time, Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the few times he played a villain. In 2010, Time magazine named Hanks one of the "Top 10 College Dropouts". Career 1980–1989 Early work, sitcom and comedy films In 1979, Hanks moved to New York City, where he made his film debut in the low-budget slasher film He Knows You're Alone (1980) and landed a starring role in the television movie Mazes and Monsters. Early that year, he was cast as the lead, Callimaco, in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Mandrake, directed by Daniel Southern. The following year, Hanks landed one of the lead roles, that of character Kip Wilson, on the ABC television pilot of Bosom Buddies. He and Peter Scolari played a pair of young advertising men forced to dress as women so they could live in an inexpensive all-female hotel. Hanks had previously partnered with Scolari on the 1970s game show Make Me Laugh. After landing the role, Hanks moved to Los Angeles. Bosom Buddies ran for two seasons, and, although the ratings were never strong, television critics gave the program high marks. "The first day I saw him on the set," co-producer Ian Praiser told Rolling Stone, "I thought, 'Too bad he won't be in television for long.' I knew he'd be a movie star in two years..... Discover the Tom Hanks popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Tom Hanks books.
Best Seller Tom Hanks Books of 2024
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The World According to Tom Hanks
Gavin EdwardsAn entertaining and insightful homage to Tom Hanks, America's favorite movie star, from the New York Times bestselling author of the cult sensation The Tao of Bill Murray. Niceness...
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Disciples
Douglas Waller“A fantastic book, one of the very finest accounts of wartime spookery” (The Wall Street Journal)a spellbinding adventure story of four secret OSS agents who would all later lead t...
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Waiting for Tom Hanks
Kerry WinfreyA romcomobsessed romantic waiting for her perfect leading man learns that life doesn’t always go according to a script in this delightfully charming and funny novel.Annie Cassidy d...
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A Man Called Ove
Fredrik BackmanNow a major motion picture A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks!#1 New York Times bestsellermore than 3 million copies sold! Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeonthe kind of man who points a...
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Catch Me If You Can
Frank W. Abagnale & Stan ReddingThe uproarious, bestselling true story of the world's most soughtafter con man, immortalized by Leonardo DiCaprio in DreamWorks' feature film of the same name, from the a...
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Tom Hanks. Enigma
David Gardner & Mikołaj KluzaPIERWSZA W POLSCE BIOGRAFIA TOMA HANKSAUlubieniec milionów. Aktor, reżyser, producent filmowy, pisarz, dwukrotny zdobywca Oscara – Toma Hanksa chyba nikomu nie trzeba przedstawiać....
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Last Word
Mark Lane & Robert K. TanenbaumMark Lane tried the only U.S. court case in which the jurors concluded that the CIA plotted the murder of President Kennedy, but there was always a missing piece: How did the CIA c...
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The Mammoth Book of Air Disasters and Near Misses
Paul SimpsonAn incredible 30,000 flights – at least – arrive safely at their destinations every day. But a handful don’t, while some come terrifyingly close to crashing. When even the smallest...
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Reclaiming Parkland
James DiEugenio & Oliver StoneNew foreword by J.F.K. director Oliver StoneReclaiming Parkland details the failed attempt of Academy Awardwinning actor Tom Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman to make Vincent Buglio...
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Never Panic Early
Fred Haise & Bill MooreThe extraordinary autobiography of astronaut Fred Haise, one of only 24 men to fly to the moonIn the gripping Never Panic Early, Fred Haise, Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 13, offer...
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Masters of the Air
Donald L. MillerThe inspiration for the major Apple TV+ series, streaming now!The riveting history of the American Eighth Air Force in World War II and the young men who flew the bombers that help...
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Tin Cans and Greyhounds
Clint JohnsonFor men on destroyerclass warships during World War I and World War II, battles were waged “against overwhelming odds from which survival could not be expected.” Those were the wor...
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The Good Shepherd
C. S. ForesterNow a major motion picture Greyhound on AppleTV+, a WWII naval thriller of "high and glittering excitement" (New York Times) from the author of the legendary Hornblo...
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The Beartown Trilogy Ebook Collection
Fredrik BackmanRediscover this “lyrical look at how a community heals, how families recover, and how individuals grow” (The Washington Post) with the complete Beartown trilogy in one unputdownabl...
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Brothers in Battle, Best of Friends
William Guarnere, Edward Heffron & Robyn PostTom Hanks introduces the “remarkable” (Publishers Weekly) true story of two inseparable friends and soldiers portrayed in the HBO® miniseries Band of Brothers.Look for the Band of ...
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The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers
Amy HollingsworthCelebrate the release of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood starring Tom Hanks with an inside look at Mister Rogers' spiritual legacy.For more than 30 years, Fred Rogers...
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Forrest Gump
Winston GroomThe modern classic that inspired the beloved movie starring Tom Hanks. Six foot six, 242 pounds, and possessed of a scant IQ of 70, Forrest Gump is the lovable, surprisingly savvy ...
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Zombie, Ohio
Scott KenemoreWhen rural Ohio college professor Peter Mellor dies in an automobile accident during a zombie outbreak, he is reborn as a highly intelligent (yet somewhat amnesiac) member of the l...
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The Colonel
Alanna NashIn The Colonel, Alanna Nash, the author of Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, explores in depth the amazing story of Colonel Tom Parker, the man behind the legend and the m...
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Made In Scotland
Billy ConnollyTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Where do you come from? It's one of the most basic human questions of all. But there is another question, which might sound a wee bit similar but is act...
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Anxious People
Fredrik BackmanInstant #1 New York Times BestsellerA People Book of the Week, Book of the Month Club selection, and Best of Fall in Good Housekeeping, PopSugar, The Washington Post, New York Post...
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The Ball in the Air
Michael BambergerAfter a lifetime of writing about the professional sport, Michael Bamberger, “the poet laureate of golf” (GOLF magazine), delivers an exhilarating love letter to the amateur game a...
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The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
Tom Hanks & R. SikoryakNEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR From the legendary actor and bestselling author: a novel about the making of a starstudded, multimilliondollar superh...
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Us Against You
Fredrik BackmanThe #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown returns with an unforgettable novel “about peopleabout strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly...
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The Winners
Fredrik BackmanReturn to the closeknit, resilient community of Beartown with this “engrossing pageturner” (Woman’s World) about first loves, second chances, and last goodbyesfrom the #1 New York ...
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The Pentagon Papers
Neil Sheehan, Hedrick Smith, James L. Greenfield, E. W. Kenworthy & Fox Butterfield“The WikiLeaks of its day” (Time) is as relevant as ever to presentday American politics.“The most significant leaks of classified material in American history.” –The Washington Po...
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Unplayable
Robert LusetichThe definitive chronicle of the most stunning year in the legendary career of Tiger Woods, when the world’s greatest golfer returned to competitive play following major knee surger...
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Band of Brothers
Stephen E. AmbroseStephen E. Ambrose’s classic New York Times bestseller and inspiration for the acclaimed HBO series about Easy Company, the ordinary men who became the World War II’s most extraord...
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Tom Hanks on Life, Movies, and Hollywood
Toby WelchTom Hanks is one of the greatest American actors and filmmakers of our time. A cultural icon, he is recognized around the world. Most known for his comedic and dramatic roles, Hank...
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Uncommon Type
Tom HanksA collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that the legendary Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. “Reading Tom Hanks's Uncommon Type is like finding...
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Tom Seaver
Bill MaddenAn authoritative, “mustread” (Keith Hernandez) biography of Hall of Fame pitching legend Tom Seaver, still the greatest player ever to wear a Mets jersey, by a journalist who knew ...
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She Made Me Laugh
Richard M. Cohen“A very personal remembrance of Nora Ephron’s life and loves, and her ups and downs” (USA TODAY) by her longtime and dear friend Richard Cohen in a hilarious, blunt, raucous, and p...
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JFK Revisited
James DiEugenio & Oliver StoneBased on Oliver Stone's documentary, JFK Revisited, read the transcripts and interviews that will change the way you think about the John F. Kennedy assassination.JFK Revisite...
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Movie Nights with the Reagans
Mark WeinbergThe former special advisor and press secretary to President Ronald Reagan shares a “sentimental but often revealing…enjoyable walk down Memory Lane” (Kirkus Reviews)told through th...
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The Crash Detectives
Christine NegroniNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“Negroni is a talented aviation journalist who clearly understands the critically important part the human factor plays in aviation safety.” Capt...
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The JFK Assassination
James DiEugenio & Oliver StoneIn this updated and revised edition, James DiEugenio dissects the new Oscarnominated film, The Post, and how it disingenuously represents the Pentagon Papers saga, to the detriment...
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Agent 110
Scott Jeffrey MillerThe “lively and engrossing” (The Wall Street Journal) story of how OSS spymaster Allen Dulles built an underground network determined to take down Hitler and destroy the Third Reic...
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Falstaff
Harold BloomFrom Harold Bloom, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time comes “a timely reminder of the power and possibility of words [and] the last love letter to the shaping spi...
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The Green Mile
Stephen KingMasterfully told and as suspenseful as it is haunting, The Green Mile is Stephen King’s classic #1 New York Times bestselling dramatic serial novel and inspiration for the Oscarnom...
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No Crying in Baseball
Erin CarlsonNational Bestseller The inside story of how A League of Their Ownone of the most beloved baseball movies of all timedeveloped from an unheralded piece of American history into a pe...