Tom Hanks One of today's most admired and respected actors, Torn Hanks is the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back to back Best Actor Academy Awards. He received the 1994 Oscar for his outstanding performance as "Forrest Gump " which has become the fourth largest grossing movie in history, and continues to rise. In 1993, he was rewarded for his compelling performance as the AIDS stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in "Philadelphia" . He also won Golden Globe Awards for both of those performances. Through the success of "Forrest Gump", Hanks has been honored with the Golden Globe Award, the People ' s Choice Award, the Screen Actors Guild Award, the Chicago Film Critics Award, the National Association of Theater Owners "Male Star of the Year" award and he was awarded by the Hollywood Women's Press Club. For his performance as astronaut Jim Lovell in Ron Howard's "Apollo 13 " , Hanks was named "Man of the Year" by Harvard ' s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest undergraduate dramatic group in the United States. In 1997, Hanks successfully made his feature film writing and directing debut with "That Thing You Do", for Twentieth Century Fox, which follows the meteoric rise to fame of a local rock band named 'The Wonders from Erie, PA', in the summer of 1964. The film's signature song, "That Thing You Do!", not only reached Top 10 in many contemporary music charts, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Music ( Original Song). In addition to his other responsibilities, Hanks also appears in the film. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Hanks first became interested in acting during high school. He attended California State University in Sacramento where he appeared in a production of "The Cherry Orchard" and met director Vincent Dowling who was also the resident director of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland. Dowling invited Hanks to intern with the company, where he made his professional debut, portraying 'Grumio' in "The Taming of the Shrew". Hanks appeared in other Great Lakes productions, including "Two Gentlemen of Verona" for which he received the Cleveland Critics Award for Best Actor. From Cleveland, Hanks went on to New York where he appeared in his first film "He Flows You're Alone", and on stage in "The Taming of the Shrew " . After moving to Los Angeles, where he performed in a production of "The Dollmaker", Hanks got his first break when he was cast as the lead in the ABC television comedy series "Bosom Buddies". This led to starring roles in "Bachelor Party " and Ron Howard 's "Splash"-a box-office hit that started him on his path to become one of Hollywood's busiest and most sought-after actors. Hanks' many other film credits include: "Volunteers", "Nothing in Common " and "A League of Their Own". In 1988, with his box-office success established, Hanks found himself a critical success with his highly acclaimed work in "Punchline" and "Big"-the latter earning him his first Academy Award nomination and his first Golden Globe Award. That same year, the Los Angeles Film critics recognized the two performances by bestowing on him their coveted Best Actor Award. In 1993, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his work in "Sleepless in Seattle" starring opposite Meg Ryan. Constantly challenging himself, Hanks took part in the production of HBO's "From Earth To the Moon"-an ambitious 12-hour miniseries that explores America's Apollo Space Program. Not only did Hanks personally help make this show a reality, he served as Executive Producer, directed the first segment and wrote the final hour. Immediately following this, he started production on the Steven Spielberg feature film "Saving Private Ryan", for Paramount and DreamWorks SKG, hailed as the ultimate war movie. Hanks resides in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Rita Wilson, and their family.