Tom was born July 9th 1956. Hanks studied theater at Chabot college in Hayward California but after two years of that transferred to California State University in Sacramento.
Tom told the New York Times...
"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 Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams,Henrik Isben,and all that, and now look at me, acting is my job. I wouldn't have it any other way."
Hank met Vincet Dowling, head of the great Lakes Theater Festival on Cleveland, Ohio. Dowling's suggested to Tom to become an intern at the Festival, which stretched into a three-year experience that covered everything from lighting to set design to stage management. Such a commitment required that Hanks drop out of college, but with this under his belt, a future in acting was in the cards. Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the few times he played a villain.
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There was two movies in 1984 that gave him the boost he needed to become a star. Those two movies are Splash and Bachelor Party. In the movie Splash he was considered by Ron Howard the director to be the wise cracking brother which instead went to John Candy. Tom Hanks got the main role in Splash that turned out to be a pretty good idea considering it made over $69 million dollars that year in the box office.
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