Run, Tom Hanks, Run! Celebrate the Legendary Star’s Birthday By Reliving All of His Iconic Film Roles

From 1980 to 1982, Tom Hanks played Kip Wilson, one of two advertising guys who must dress up as women in order to live in a nice apartment building that is only meant for females on Bosom Buddies.

Mermaids are real…at least to Allen (Hanks). In this 1984 film, Allen is reunited with a mermaid named Madison (Daryl Hannah) who saved him from downing when he was young. He falls in love with her, without knowing exactly who or what she is.

After wishing “to be big,” Hanks’ young character becomes an adult overnight in the 1988 fantasy comedy. The film was the actor’s first big hit and led to his first Academy Award nomination.

As the police investigator of a small town in Northern California, Hanks’ character befriends a Dogue de Bordeaux after its owner is suddenly murdered and hilarity ensues.

Joe (Hanks) is a hypochondriac, who after learning he’s dying decides to accept an offer to throw himself into a volcano on a tropical island. The one thing he didn’t expect on his trip was to learn how to really live.

Hanks plays manager Jimmy Dugan, a former baseball star and current drunk, of the Rockford Peaches in this 1992 film that takes place during World War II. While the men of the country are off fighting, jobs are filled by the women left behind, including baseball teams, which leads to the first women’s baseball league, which made a big mark on the United States…even if Jimmy himself wasn’t a fan of women playing the sport to start. 

Sam Baldwin (Hank) is a grieving and caring widower trying to keep his eight-year-old son and himself a float in this rom-com. After his son calls into a radio talk-show, his love life becomes the talk of Seattle and with that brings about a romance that was made for the movies.

In 1993, Hanks starred in the drama as a homosexual AIDS patient with Denzel Washington, and soon after, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Run, Forrest, run! Hanks stars in this six-time Academy Award winning classic that details the life of an intellectually limited but endearing man from Alabama named Forrest Gump.

Hanks acts as Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell in the 1995 docudrama box-office success. The movie also stars Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise and Ed Harris.

You’ve got a friend in me! Hanks voices toy cowboy Woody in this animated buddy comedy, which now has three sequels and has become a childhood staple for Disney and Pixar fans.

Written and directed by Hanks, That Thing You Do! is about a Pennsylvania band who has a one-hit wonder in 1964 that takes them on a wild ride…with a lot of help from their manager Mr. White (Hanks).

As the lead of this graphic World War II film, Hanks’ acting helped catapult the movie into a resounding success. It won five Academy Awards for its portrayal of U.S. soldiers who go behind enemy lines in Europe to find Private Ryan (Matt Damon), who is the only sibling left in his family, after all of his brothers are killed in action.

Starring in his third rom-com with co-star Meg Ryan, the actor plays the part of Joe Fox, heir to a mega bookstore chain, who is the rival to Kathleen Kelly (Ryan), the owner of her mother’s small book shop in NYC. The two meet in an online chat room, without knowing who they are talking to, and fall for each other, which only complicates matters when their businesses continue to compete.

In 1999, the fantasy crime drama was released, with Hanks playing prison officer Paul Edgecomb. The movie focuses on the Death Row guards whose lives are affected when a black man accused of child rape and murder comes to their prison with a mysterious gift.

Hanks plays a marooned FedEx employee in this epic survival film, which grossed $429 million worldwide. While stranded on the island, he is left to survive on his own with only a volleyball named Wilson as his friend.

This biographical crime film, directed by Steven Spielberg, is based on the true life of a successful conman. Hanks co-stars with Leonardo DiCaprio, and the pair’s stellar acting helped lead the movie to the eleventh highest-grossing film of 2002.

The actor stars as the professor of religious iconography and symbology at Harvard University in the 2006 American mystery thriller based on the best-selling novel by Dan Brown.

The California native plays Texas congressman Charlie Wilson in this drama which tells the story about Wilson’s covert dealings in Afghanistan where he assisted rebels in their war with the Soviets. 

As lead actor, co-writer, producer and director of the romantic comedy, Hanks played a major role in catering this film to an older audience which also stars Julia Roberts and is about a middle-aged man who goes back to college to reinvent himself.

After his father dies in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Oskar (Thomas Horn), a nine-year-old who sees the world a little differently, searches all over New York City for the lock that matches a key he left behind. 

In 2013, Hanks took on the role of Richard Philips, a captain who was taken hostage by pirates in 2009, in this biographical thriller. 

Co-starring with Emma Thompson, the actor portrays Walt Disney in this 2013 period drama, which was praised as a true tribute to the Disney legend.

During the Cold War, American lawyer James B. Donovan (Hanks) is recruited to defend a Soviet spy in court in hopes of helping the CIA exchange the spy for an American spy who is being held overseas. As you might expect, it isn’t as black and white as it all may seem.

In 2016, Hanks portrayed real-life American pilot Chelsey Sullenberger, who in 2009 became an a hero after landing his damaged plane on the Hudson River, saving the passengers and crew. Along the way he was praised for his efforts, but at the same time his career and character were called into question as an investigation into the event transpired.

After Mae (Emma Watson) lands her dream job at a powerful tech company called the Circle, she quickly learns that their ability to track everyone’s actions and business is being used for a hidden agenda that could affect the lives of everyone on Earth. In the film, Hanks plays Bailey, the head of the company and mastermind behind the cameras that follow everyone.

Co-starring with Meryl Streep, Hanks acts as Ben Bradlee, the executive director of The Washington Post in this historical political thriller. The film follows what happened when the country’s first female newspaper publisher decided to reveal the truth behind a cover-up that spanned four different U.S. Presidents and culminated in the Pentagon Papers.