The dinner guest that left Tom Hanks starstruck: “Oh my God”
When you hear a famous actor, musician, or artist talking about their influences, there will be people who are the reason that they practice the craft they do in the first place. Most who work in a creative industry only do so because they have been particularly moved by others who work in the same industry.
Look at Ozzy Osbourne, though the ‘Prince of Darkness’ might be in his very own category of musician, because of his unique approach to sound, he only started singing in the first place because he was a fan of The Beatles. Questlove owes a great deal of his artistic career to Prince, who was a big inspiration, and Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t have started trying to write songs were it not for the stylings of Bob Dylan.
“I want people to get the same experience from listening to one of my records as I had when I listened to Highway 61 Revisited,” said Springsteen, explaining how much Dylan influenced his sonics, “The idea that something was revealed to them that was fundamentally true and essential, and gave you a view of your world, your country, your town, your neighbours, your family.”
These kinds of heroes are to be expected; however, then you have the other kind of hero, the one that all of your favourite actors and artists will have, but that you might not consider as much of one.
Given famous people quite often do something that seems superhuman, whether it’s delivering a stellar acting performance or playing on stage in front of thousands of people, we can often forget that they are, in fact, human. This means that while they have people they like within their craft, they also engage in other activities outside of their chosen field in the same way that we all have hobbies outside of work. As such, the people your favourite actor is left starstruck over might surprise you, and this was the case with Tom Hanks, as when he had dinner with one of his childhood heroes, he was left chatting away uncontrollably like the most obsessive of fans.
“I’m at a fabulous Manhattan restaurant, Rita’s with me, and her mom,” said Hanks, setting the scene, “Coco Pazzo is a great place and we’re sitting there, blah blah blah. A maître d comes over and says, ‘Excuse me, Mr Hanks, ‘Yes, yes’, [he says] ‘Mr DiMaggio is in for dinner tonight and he wondered if you might want to come by to make his acquaintance’.”
For those readers who may not be big baseball fans, Joe DiMaggio had an incredibly successful career playing for the New York Yankees, but prior to which, he played in a league near where Tom Hanks grew up; hence, safe to say, when the dinner invite found its way over to Hanks’s table, he was pretty excited about it.
“I think I knocked over the table and spilled wine on my wife and mother in law,” he said, “So I say, ‘Guys, guys, guys, I’m meeting Joe DiMaggio!’ and understand when you meet Joe DiMaggio, the only thing you can say is, ‘Oh my God, you are Joe DiMaggio’.”
So, how was the dinner? Well, they say don’t meet your heroes, but upon having a drink and a chinwag with his, Hanks was left completely in awe of his baseball legend. “Alright, so we sit and talk,” he recalled, “He couldn’t have been more lovely, he looked very dapper in the suit, he was always very well dressed”.
