On an ongoing basis to answer the mystifying question, Where do movie stars come from?, Media Mischief is looking at Hollywood’s top stars and pinpointing the films that got them noticed and the ones that took them to the next step toward Hollywood legend status.
Last month we started with Matt Damon and his path to stardom. With the May 15 release of Angels and Demons fast approaching, it only seemed appropriate to spotlight Tom Hanks.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Hits:
Sleepless in Seattle (1993) Philadelphia (1993) Forrest Gump (1994) Apollo 13 (1995) Toy Story (1995) Saving Private Ryan (1998) The Green Mile (1999) Toy Story 2 (1999) Cast Away (2000) Road to Perdition (2002) Catch Me if You Can (2002) The Da Vinci Code (2006), Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
Hanks hit all the right notes with Big
He’s movies modern day ‘everyman’ -- the guy we want to hang out with, readily cheer for, and always relate to. And with this likeable persona, Tom Hanks has risen to the top of Hollywood stardom.
Hanks first made his mark in comedies. He charmed us as the breezy Pep Streebeck loosening up Dan Akyroyd’s no-nonsense Joe Friday in Dragnet. As Jimmy Dugan, coach of the all-girls baseball team in A League of Their Own, we all howled when he lamented, “There’s no crying in baseball!” And when he was winning Meg Ryan’s heart in Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, Hanks was no doubt stealing a few female hearts of his steadily growing fan base.
The actor proved equally adept at drama. Whether as stranded astronaut Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan’s war weary Captain John Miller, or steadfast Fed Ex delivery man Chuck Noland fighting for survival in Cast Away, he moved the masses. And who could forget his performances in Forrest Gump and Philadelphia? It’s easy to see why they both won him an Academy Award for Best Actor.
For Hanks, the road to stardom started in 1984. By then, the actor had already carved out a respectable television career with guest roles in The Love Boat, Happy Days, Taxi and Family Ties. Audiences knew him best for his short-lived but memorable sitcom Bosom Buddies, a zany half hour that found him and co-star Peter Scolari playing freewheeling ad execs forced to dress in drag when the only accommodations available is an apartment in a “women only” building.
For his leap to the big screen, Hanks played to his strength -- comedy. Simultaneously, he hit theaters with two very different films, the raunchy R-rated Bachelor Party, and the sweet romantic fantasy Splash. Directed by Ron Howard, Splash had Hanks playing a lovelorn “average guy” who becomes romantically involved with a mermaid (Daryl Hannah). Thought the film was a hit, few thought much of his performance. Robert Ebert, in his Chicago Sun Times review, called Hanks “conventionally handsome and passably appealing.” He rated Hanks’ performance with a ho hum, “comes across as the standard young male lead.”
Few thought Hanks performance in Splash held water
Instead, most of the praise was lavished on John Candy’s scene-stealing performance as Hank’s boisterous brother. As Janet Maslin cited in her New York Times review, “As likeable a leading man as Mr. Hanks is, though, and as beguiling as Miss Hannah is in her Boticelliesque incarnation here, the film would not be nearly so successful without the bulldozing presence of John Candy, as the hero’s hilarious brother.”
Hanks made much more of an impression in Neal Isreal’s Bachelor Party. As flippant, wisecracking bus driver Rick Gassko, Hanks is a little too common for his blue-blooded future father-in-law. When his friends (lead by Adrian Zmed of T. J. Hooker fame) throw him a no-holds-barred bachelor party, highlighted by a sexual act involving a donkey, Gassko barely eludes the forces out to sabotage his wedding.
While Bachelor Party was dismissed as a lame comedy, the critics had mostly kind words for its star. “Main reason to see the pic is for Hanks’ performance,” wrote Variety’s James Greenberg. LA Weekly’s Michael Dare added, “What’s great about this film is Tom Hanks.” And Los Angeles Herald Film Critic Peter Rainer observed, “Hanks has a daffy bemusement that makes superciliousness seem hip.”
Though the two films launched Hanks on his big screen way, it would be four more years and take several mediocre efforts for him to reach stardom. That happened in 1988 when Penny Marshall tapped him to star in her film Big.
Tired of being picked on by the boys in his class and ignored by the girls, undersized 13-year-old Josh Baskin (David Moscow) makes a fateful wish that he could forgo the rest of childhood and move right to being an adult. Much to his surprise and horror, the next day he wakes up as a fully grown man -- played by Hanks.
Hanks excels at playing a kid in an adult body. The New York Times Janet Maslin raved, “Wide-eyed, excited and wonderfully guileless, Mr. Hanks is an absolute delight” and “Big features believable young teen-age mannerisms from the two real boys in its cast, and this only makes Mr. Hanks’ funny, flawless impression that much more adorable.”
Washington Post reviewer Hal Hinson also noted, “Hanks’ work here is astoundingly deft and light-fingered. His performance has an endearing, lost-innocent quality and, without indulging himself, he never lets us lose sight of the fact that we’re watching a kid.”
Big was big at the boxoffice, earning over $114 million during its domestic theatrical run. It also earned Hanks his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. And though he lost out to Dustin Hoffman in Rainman, there was no denying that this performance catapulted Hanks to stardom.
