The Hollywood's Beloved Man
“I
love what I do for a living, it’s the greatest job in the world, but you have
to survive an awful lot of attention that you don’t truly deserve and you have
to live up to your professional responsibilities and I’m always trying to
balance that with what is really important.” –Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey
“Tom” Hanks, lahir pada tanggal 9 Juli 1956 di Concord, California, Amerika
Serikat, adalah seorang sineas Hollywood kawakan yang mendunia. Aktor yang juga
produser, penulis naskah dan sutradara ini telah dua kali menyabet penghargaan
tertinggi di kalangan insan perfilman dunia, yaitu Academy
Award, untuk kategori Best Actor. Ia mendapatkannya secara berturut-turut pada
tahun 1993 dan 1994 lewat film “Philadelphia ”
dan “Forrest Gump”. Kedua film ini pula lah yang melambungkan nama Hanks dan
membuatnya menjadi aktor yang paling diperhitungkan di Hollywood. Pria berusia
55 tahun ini dengan kemampuan aktingnya yang brilian, telah membintangi puluhan
judul film dan menyabet puluhan penghargaan di berbagai ajang bergengsi.
Termasuk sepuluh tahun yang lalu, pada tahun 2002, ia mendapatkan penghargaan
AFI Life Achievement Award dari American Film Institute.
Tom Hanks menunjukkan minat dan bakatnya sejak ia masih duduk di bangku sekolah. He acted in school plays, including “South Pacific”, while attending
Sebelum terkenal sebagai aktor watak, Tom Hanks memulai debut karirnya di dunia perfilman sebagai aktor komedi. 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” in 1980, and got a part in the television movie “Mazes and Monsters”. Early in 1979, he was cast in the lead role of Callimaco in the Riverside Shakespeare Company’s production of Niccolò Machiavelli’s “The Mandrake”. The next year, Hanks landed a lead role on the ABC television pilot of “Bosom Buddies”. Hanks then moved to
Sepanjang karirnya Tom Hanks
tidak selalu bergelimang kesuksesan. Layaknya manusia biasa yang meniti
jalannya, Hanks sempat memainkan beberapa peran yang tidak membawa kesuksesan
padanya. With “Nothing in Common” in 1986, Hanks began to establish the credentials of not only a comic actor but of
someone who could carry a serious role. After
a few more flops and a moderate success with “Dragnet”, he succeeded
with the film “Big” in 1988, both at the box office and within the industry. The film established Hanks as a major Hollywood
talent. It was followed later that year by “Punchline”. He then
suffered a pile of box-office failures, such
as “The ‘Burbs” in 1989, “Joe Versus the Volcano” in
1990, and “The Bonfire of the Vanities” in
1990. Only the 1989 movie “Turner & Hooch” brought
success for him during this time.
Berkat ketekunan dan usaha,
akhirnya kerja keras Tom Hanks membuahkan hasil. Tidak tanggung-tanggung, dua
piala Oscar diraihnya secara berturut-turut. Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up
baseball star turned manager in “A
League of Their Own” in 1992. He has admitted that his acting in earlier
roles was not great and that he has improved. This ‘modern era’ began in 1993 for
Hanks, first with “Sleepless in Seattle ”
and then with “Philadelphia ”.
The former was a blockbuster success
about a widower who finds true love over the airwaves. Richard Schickel of Time called his
performance ‘charming’, and most
critics agreed that Hanks’ portrayal
ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.
In “Philadelphia ”,
Hanks lost thirty-five pounds and thinned
his hair in order to appear sickly for his character. He won the 1993 Academy Award for
Best Actor for his role in “Philadelphia ”.
Tom Hanks followed “Philadelphia ”
with the 1994 summer hit “Forrest Gump”.
He won his second Best Actor Academy
Award for his role in “Forrest Gump”, becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning
consecutive Best Actor Oscars. Hanks next
role was in the 1995 movie “Apollo 13”. Critics generally applauded the film and the performances of the entire
cast, which included actors Kevin
Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and
Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned
nine Academy Award nominations, winning two. The same year, Hanks starred
in the animated blockbuster “Toy
Story” as the voice of the toy
Sheriff Woody.
Puas melanglang buana di depan layar, Tom Hanks menjajal kemampuan di belakang layar. Hanks turned to directing with his 1996 film “That Thing You Do!”. Hanks executive produced, co-wrote, and co-directed the HBO docudrama “From the Earth to the Moon”. The Emmy Award-winning project was, at 68 million USD, one of the most expensive ventures taken for television. Hanks’ next project was no less expensive. For “Saving Private Ryan” he teamed up with Steven Spielberg. It was labeled one of the finest war films ever made and earned Spielberg his second Academy Award for direction, and Hanks another Best Actor nomination. Later in 1998, Hanks re-teamed with his “Sleepless in
In 1999, Tom Hanks starred in
an adaptation of the Stephen King novel
“The Green Mile”. He also returned as the voice of Woody in “Toy Story 2”. The
following year he won a Golden Globe for
Best Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his role in “Cast Away”. In 2001, Hanks helped direct and produce the acclaimed HBO mini-series “Band of
Brothers”. He also appeared in the
September 11 television special America , “A Tribute to Heroes” and the documentary “Rescued from the Closet”. Next he teamed up with director Sam
Mendes for the adaptation of Max
Allan Collins’ and Richard Piers
Rayner’s graphic novel “Road to Perdition”. That same year, Hanks collaborated with director Spielberg again, starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the hit crime comedy “Catch
Me if You Can”. The same
year, Hanks and his wife Rita
Wilson produced the hit movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.
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Tom Hanks dalam film "Saving Private Ryan" |
In 2004, Tom Hanks appeared
in three films, “The Ladykillers”,
another Spielberg film, “The Terminal”, and “The Polar Express”. In August 2005, Hanks was voted in as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He next starred in the highly anticipated
film “The Da Vinci Code”, based on the bestselling novel by Dan
Brown. The film was released May 19,
2006 in the US and grossed over 750 million USD worldwide. He followed the
film with Ken Burns’ 2007 documentary
“The War”. In 2007, Hanks starred in
Mike Nichols’ film “Charlie Wilson’s War”. The film opened on December 21, 2007, and Hanks received a Golden Globe nomination.
Hanks’ next endeavor, released on May 15, 2009, was a film adaptation of “Angels & Demons”, based on the novel of the same name by Dan
Brown. April 11, 2007, announcement
revealed that Hanks would reprise his
role as Robert Langdon, and that he
would reportedly receive the highest salary ever for an actor.
Tom Hanks is producer of the Spike Jonze film
“Where the Wild Things Are”, based on the children’s book by Maurice
Sendak. In 2010, Hanks reprised his role as Sheriff Woody in the third film in the Toy Story franchise, “Toy Story 3”. In 2011,
he directed and starred opposite Julia
Roberts in the title role in the romantic
comedy “Larry Crowne”. Also in 2011, he starred in the drama film “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. Hanks is slated to play Walt Disney in
the film “Saving Mr. Banks”
co-starring Emma Thompson and directed by John Lee Hancock. Hanks will be the first actor to portray
Disney in film. The film is scheduled to be released in 2014.
At the age of 45, Tom Hanks became
the youngest ever recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life
Achievement Award on June 12, 2002. Hanks
is ranked the highest all time box office
star with over 3,639 billion USD total
box office gross, an average of
107 million USD per film. He has been involved with seventeen films
that grossed over 100 million USD at
the worldwide box office, the highest
grossing of which was 2010’s “Toy Story 3”. Saat ini, ayah dari
empat orang anak, sekaligus kakek dari seorang cucu ini aktif dalam berbagai
kegiatan sosial dan politik. Ia menunjukkan dukungan kepada Partai Demokrat dan
Barack Obama sewaktu pemilihan presiden Amerika Serikat tahun 2008 lalu. Selain
itu, Tom Hanks juga aktif mendukung berbagai program penelitian pendidikan,
seperti yang dijalankan oleh NASA. Ia juga menunjukkan dukungannya untuk
penghormatan dan pengembangan terhadap tentara Amerika Serikat. Selain
berprestasi, Tom Hanks juga memiliki jiwa sosial yang tinggi, maka tak heran
apabila ia pernah tercatat sebagai America’s
most beloved man pada tahun 2007 lalu. He’s
such a lovable man indeed.
“At
the end of the day it’s got to be a good movie, it’s got to be a funny movie,
and it's got to make people think, ‘Hey, I couldn't have spent my time any
better.’” –Tom Hanks
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