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 Skyline High School in Oakland, California. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, and after two years, transferred to California State University, Sacramento. During his years studying theater, he 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 years experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, and stage management, all of which caused Hanks to drop out of college. During the same time, he won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 theatrical stage drama performance as Proteus in Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, one of the few times he played a villain.

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 Los Angeles. In 1984, he got the lead role and a career boost from “Splash”, which went on to become a box office hit, grossing more than 69 million USD. He also had a sizable hit with the sex comedy “Bachelor Party” in the same year.

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 Seattle” co-star Meg Ryan for “You’ve Got Mail”.

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”.

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