Recently the trailer for A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood was released. Very similar to the real Mr. Rogers, Tom Hanks really seems to be the nicest guy in Hollywood. He always has a smile, always has time for his fans, and you have never heard a peep about a dark side the man has. With a career spanning nearly forty years, Hanks has had roles ranging from hilarious to dramatic. His versatility has been on display in some of the most iconic moments in movie history. The giant keyboard in Big, the globe-trotting adventures of Robert Langdon, and his movie romances with Meg Ryan, just to name a few.
His filmography has some of the greatest and most influential films of all time. What’s even more important is just how different of a role each character he plays is. He went from playing a gay, AIDS-stricken lawyer in Philadelphia to portraying a slow-learning barely educated man with a heart of gold in Forrest Gump and won back-to-back Best Actor honors for both roles! From going into the breach of war to deep space to a child's bedroom; if Tom Hanks is in it, you know you’re watching a spectacular movie. Any movie you watch with Tom Hanks is 99.9% gold, but here are Top 10 Tom Hanks Movies, According To IMDB.
Joe Versus The Volcano (1990)
Hanks’ decade-long romance with Meg Ryan began in earnest with 1990’s Joe Versus The Volcano. Here, Hanks’ penchant for silliness is on full display as he plays Joe, a hypochondriac who is told that he’s dying, but he might have a chance to live if he hurls himself into an active volcano.
It's one the roles that put Tom Hanks on the map and made him the everyman that we all know and love today. Without Joe Versus The Volcano, who knows where modern cinema might be today...
The Ladykillers (2004)
It was almost an unbelievable wrong in Hollywood that by 2004, Hanks had not yet worked with the Coen Brothers. One might think that their combined comedic and dramatic sensibilities would make for an epic collaboration.
The Ladykillers was the result. Hanks played Professor Goldwaithe, a southern gentleman with a penchant for Edgar Allen Poe. He’s looking for a room to rent and cellar for he and his pretend band to practice. In reality, they’re actually a group of thieves getting ready for a big heist.
Toy Story (1995)
Pixar’s first movie needed to be a runaway hit in order for the studio to continue. Toy Story exceeded all expectations and continues to do so to this day with each and every film. That is in no small part thanks to Tom Hanks.
As the voice of Woody, an old toy cowboy, Hanks injects a ton of heart and humor into a toy. Even though Woody’s just a toy, Hanks and the rest of the voice cast find a way to make you reach for the box of tissues.
The Terminal (2004)
The real-life story of Mehran Nasseri inspired this Steven Spielberg/ Tom Hanks tale of whimsy. In the dramedy, The Terminal, Hanks plays Viktor Novorski, a man traveling to New York at the same time his country is divided by civil war. Because of this, he cannot return home and his passport had been revoked, so he cannot set foot on U.S. soil.
As a man with no country, he starts living in the terminal at JFK Airport and begins to fall for a flight attendant, Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
Cast Away (2000)
The thought of watching one man trying to survive on an island of nearly two-and-a-half hours seems a lot less excruciating when Tom Hanks is playing that man. In 2000’s Cast Away, Hanks gives an Academy nominates, tour-de-force performance as Chuck Noland a FedEx employee called away on business in Malaysia. His airbus crashes into the Pacific Ocean, leaving him stranded on an uninhabited island.
It’s the movie that ruined the name Wilson forever and inspired the TV series, Lost. It’s also another movie cementing that Hanks can play any role he’s given.
A League Of Their Own (1992)
One of the greatest sports movies of all time, A League Of Their Own tells the story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the Rockford Peaches. The Peaches are coached by Jimmy Dugan, a former player turned alcoholic who treats the AAGPBL as a big joke.
But Dugan turns around his feeling on the league and helps guide them to the World Championship. Hanks, as he always does is able to infuse his humor and his heart into Jimmy Dugan and was able to make everyone care about a guy that might not have cared about himself.
The Green Mile (1999)
Steven King’s The Green Mile is similar in tone to The Shawshank Redemption but is far more magical. With Tom Hanks playing Paul Edgecomb, the film is also even more heartwarming. Edgecomb is a firm but fair prison guard, working on Death Row.
Related: Lost: 10 Best Episodes According To IMDb
He encounters the mammoth of a man, and equally mammoth of heart Jon Coffey, framed for a crime he tried to commit. Ultimately, The Green Mile is a folk tale of hope and magic in the darkest of places, which makes Hanks perfect for leading us down that mile.
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
With a catchy and swanky credits sequence, Steven Spielberg, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Tom Hanks immediately transport viewers back to the swinging sixties to tell the incredible story of a conman, Frank Abagnale (DiCaprio). Frank is being hunted and investigated by FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Hanks).
Hanratty is one part “keystone” cop, and one-part father figure to the young Frank as the pair gain mutual respect for one another as Carl turns out to be relentless in his pursuit.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The theater of war on film was raised tenfold by Steven Spielberg in the opening of Saving Private Ryan. Young men who have never been to war are waiting to fight for the fate of the world during World War II.
To lead them into war is Captain John Miller (Hanks). Miller and his battalion are tasked with making sure they find one man and get him home to his mother, who has already lost all of her other sons in this war.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Was there ever any doubt that Forrest Gump was number one? It’s Hanks at his finest in the most saccharine, Normal Rockwell version of Americana ever captured on celluloid. Forrest meets a young Elvis, fights in Vietnam, rescues his lieutenant, plays ping pong in the Olympics, meets several US presidents, runs across the county, and opens up a successful shrimping business.
All of that pales in comparison to his devotion to his lifelong friend and lifelong love, Jenny. “Sometimes, there just aren’t enough rocks.”