Happy birthday, Tom Hanks. The two-time Academy Award winning actor celebrates his 67th birthday today. To honor him, I’ll be ranking my five favorite performances from the actor regarded as “America’s dad”.
Honorable Mention: Forrest Gump (1994), The Green Mile (1999), Big (1988)
5. Toy Story Franchise (1995, 1999, 2010, 2019)
With how monumental the Toy Story franchise was in my childhood, I’d be remised to keep these films out of my top five. Alongside Tim Allen, Tom Hanks created one of the most memorable animated characters in cinema history. Woody has been a household name for four decades and he’ll be reprising his role as Woody in Toy Story 5 in (possibly) 2024. It’s tough to judge how good a performance can be when it’s just voice work, but with how engrained Hanks has become with Woody in American pop culture, his work with the Toy Story franchise has to be on here.
4. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
While Saving Private Ryan is maybe Tom Hanks’ most remarkable film, it’s not his best performance. He’s really great in the film and conveys a toughness and emotion we’d never seen from Hanks, but I don’t really believe him in this role. He’s wildly miscast, but still makes it work. I think this role would have better fit an actor like Harrison Ford or Tim Robbins. Aside from all of that though, I return to my point that he is fantastic in Saving Private Ryan. He delivers his lines with brute toughness and thorough leadership.
Another great aspect of Hanks being in Saving Private Ryan is that it solidified a fruitful collaboration of Hanks and Spielberg. Hanks goes onto work with Spielberg four more times with Catch Me If You Can, The Post, Bridge of Spies, and The Terminal.
3. Road To Perdition (2002)
Even though I criticized Hanks for being a bit miscast in Saving Private Ryan in a serious and badass role, I think he’s great in a serious and badass role in Road To Perdition. While Steven Spielberg is a great director, Sam Mendes portrays Hanks as a badass better. His look alone fits Road To Perdition as Hanks looks like a 1920s-1930s era hitman. Despite him being a ruthless gangster, Hanks shows great character development as he’s able to transition from being menacing towards enemies to loving his son. Hanks’ character Michael Sullivan meets an unfortunate demise, but killed a lot of scumbags in his path while protecting his son.
2. Philadelphia (1993)
A lot of people would argue that Philadelphia is Hanks’ best performance and I’d understand that argument. He’s starred in an abundance of dramas over his career, but none more moving than Philadelphia. The way he’s able to portray a man with AIDS, who is fighting for his rights in society, was poignant on so many levels. One being that then films premise and his characters life is sad, but secondly that this was how people with AIDS were treated in this time frame. That’s a sad reality that Hanks was able to trap and make his own in Philadelphia.
Reading about Philadelphia, I found that the role of Andrew Beckett was originally offered to Daniel Day-Lewis, but he declined. Even though Day-Lewis is magical on the big screen, having Hanks in this role was the right call. He’s amazing in Philadelphia.
1. Catch Me If You Can (2002)
I love Catch Me If You Can. Every time I watch the Steven Spielberg film, I smile when I see Hanks interact with DiCaprio. The reason being that the two great actors look like they’re having fun. This is a fun movie where DiCaprio’s character is constantly working to outwit Hanks and it becomes one big cat and mouse chase. While I don’t love Hanks’ accent; “HE WENT TO SEE THE YANKEES“, he’s unreal in this film. Just having fun, while also being kind of a hard ass detective that realizes he’s smart, but not quite as smart as Frank Abagnale Jr., and that’s what continuously hinders his chase. This movie wouldn’t be the same without the charm that Hanks brings to the big screen. It’d frankly be forgettable.