3 Rom-coms with Meg Ryan
Hot dogs! Popcorn! Hanks sold concessions during A’s games at Oakland Coliseum as a teen. If you listened carefully to the crowd noise that played on ballpark speakers during this year’s fans-not-allowed baseball season, you might’ve heard Hanks: He contributed a recording of himself hawking peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs and other concessions.
Clackety-clack A huge fan of typewriters (especially manual ones), Hanks has purchased more than 250 from around the world and was spotlighted in the 2016 documentary film California Typewriter. His first book, Uncommon Type (2017), is a collection of 17 short stories—all incorporating typewriters. He developed an app in 2014 called the Hanx Writer, which simulates the sound and feel of antique typewriters.
Far out! He got to play Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell in Apollo 13 (1995)—pretty cool for a guy who says his favorite film of all time is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and who even has an asteroid officially named after him (12818 Tomhanks).
That time he gained 30 pounds A League of Their Own (1992) wouldn’t be the same without out-of-shape baseball manager-coach Jimmy Dugan. Hanks plumped up for the role with the help of an L.A. ice cream shop. He lost all that weight (and a little more) the following year for his Oscarwinning role in Philadelphia (1993) as a lawyer with AIDS.
Broadway bound In 2013, he debuted on Broadway in Lucky Guy and captured a Tony nomination in the play written by his friend and two-time director, the late Nora Ephron. It was Hanks’ first stage appearance since college, and he co-starred with his old TV Bosom Buddies castmate Peter Scolari.