Ranking all of Tom Hanks’ real-life movie portrayals
Playing a real-life figure is often viewed as the easiest and most straightforward result of awards season recognition, but even though Tom Hanks has two Academy Awards for ‘Best Actor’ to his name, neither of them came from a biographical drama.
However, outside of his back-to-back triumphs for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, Hanks has only ever been nominated once for portraying a real person. On the other hand, he’s netted four nods from the Golden Globes for inhabiting real people, as well as suffering the ignominy of winning a Golden Raspberry.
Of course, his turn as Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia was so indebted to the story of Geoffrey Bowers that the latter’s family sued the production for misrepresentation and Catch Me If You Can‘s dogged FBI agent Carl Hanratty was based upon Frank Abagnale’s pursuer Joseph Shea, but neither technically exists as a standard biopic.
Hanks did appear in seven episodes of the 16-part documentary Freedom: A History of the US, too, but his screentime as Abraham Lincoln, Charles E. Wood, Paul Revere, Daniel Boone, and Jacob Coxley was limited to brief re-enactment sequences, and thus don’t merit a full-blown performance.
Ranking Tom Hanks’ real-life portrayals:
11. Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis, Baz Luhrmann, 2022)
Baz Luhrmann‘s extravagant biopic Elvis may have been a certifiable smash hit that earned $288million at the global box office and landed eight nominations at the Academy Awards, but it would be an understatement to say Hanks’ turn as Colonel Tom Parker instantly became one of the most polarising of his career.
In addition to winning a Golden Raspberry for ‘Worst Supporting Actor’, Hanks was also awarded the prize for ‘Worst Screen Combo’, with “his latex-laden face (and ludicrous accent)” named as the other party. Suffice to say, as much as he tries to disappear into the role, his turn often comes across as something that would be more fitting as part of a comedy sketch than a prestige drama, even if isn’t quite bad enough to tank the entire film.
10. George Meade (1883, ‘Behind Us a Cliff,’ Sam Richardson, 2021)
Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe is one of the biggest and most popular franchises on television, with star Tim McGraw revealing to Entertainment Weekly that he called up his old buddy and asked if he’d be interested in making a brief guest appearance, with Hanks’ response being, “Tell me when to be there.”
In the second episode, ‘Behind Us a Cliff,’ McGraw’s James Dillard Dutton is reeling from the Confederacy’s loss at the Battle of Antietam in a flashback, where he’s comforted by Major General George Meade, who fought in many of the American Civil War’s pivotal battles.
Hanks isn’t in 1883 for long, but he still displays his signature gravitas during his world-weary exchanges with Dutton, while his wife Rita Wilson made a cameo in the exact same episode as a storekeeper.
9. Charlie Wilson (Charlie Wilson’s War, Mike Nichols, 2007)
The story of the titular congressman – who assisted the Afghan mujahideen in fighting against the Soviet Union during their conflict in the 1980s – seemed precision-engineered for a shot at Oscars glory, given Hanks’ presence and a script penned by Aaron Sorkin.
In the end, despite its entertaining and surprisingly humorous approach to hard-hitting real-world material, it was only co-star Phillip Seymour Hoffman who gained any real awards season traction, although Hanks shoulders his fair share of the dramatic burden with a typically assured and reliably solid performance, even if it’s nowhere near being listed among his best ever.
8. Walt Disney (Saving Mr. Banks, John Lee Hancock, 2013)
Tom Hanks and Walt Disney are icons of modern Americana, so combining the two to dramatise how Mary Poppins came together behind the scenes sounded like a match made in heaven. As a Disney production, though, the end result came under fire for sacrificing many elements of truth in the name of borderline hagiography, which diluted its dramatic heft significantly.
The actor is good as Disney without being blow-away brilliant, although he effortlessly captures the twinkle-eyed charm and showmanship that saw the ambitious entrepreneur take over the entire world of entertainment, shot through with a vein of confidence bordering on arrogance that disappointingly went largely unexplored in director John Lee Hancock’s crowd-pleaser.
7. James B. Donovan (Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg, 2015)
The combination of Steven Spielberg and Hanks has always guaranteed top-tier cinema, but once again, Hanks was overshadowed in a true-life drama by one of his co-stars, with Mark Rylance virtually sweeping the board at every major awards ceremony for his layered and nuanced portrayal of Rudolf Abel.
A period piece that roots itself in the tenuous politics of the time, Bridge of Spies also convinces as a nail-biting thriller despite the inevitable outcome of its narrative, such is Spielberg’s mastery of tone and pacing. Once again, Hanks is excellent at conveying the enormity of the task placed on the shoulders of his character, but the understated nature of his work was comfortably outshone by Rylance’s tour-de-force.
6. Mike McAlary (Lucky Guy, Nora Ephron, 2013)
Hanks’ Broadway debut often goes overlooked and unmentioned among his extensive back catalogue of bringing real people to life, but he nonetheless landed a Tony Award nomination for treading the boards as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mike McAlary.
Scripted by Nora Ephron, the story spans from 1985 to McAlary’s death in 1998 at the age of just 41, covering the period where he navigated the murky world of New York City tabloid newspapers, facing personal and professional obstacles that included accusations of falsifying stories and a near-fatal car accident. As a friend of McAlary’s, Hanks was never going to rock the boat on stage, but he nonetheless did justice to the part.
5. Ben Bradlee (The Post, Steven Spielberg, 2017)
Another collaboration between Spielberg and Hanks that focused on a pivotal moment in modern American history, Hanks commands the screen opposite fellow heavyweight Meryl Streep as Ben Bradlee, who oversees The Washington Post‘s attempts to publish the incendiary Pentagon Papers.
Jason Robards had previously won an Oscar for playing Bradlee in All the President’s Men, whereas Hanks didn’t even make the shortlist at the following year’s edition. That doesn’t mean it isn’t one of his more unheralded and underrated turns, though, with the actor deftly balancing bravura with introspection amidst the film’s biting commentary on the state of American politics in the 1970s.
4. Chelsey Sullenberger (Sully, Clint Eastwood, 2016)
A number of Clint Eastwood’s movies of the last decade have been described as “workmanlike” for better or worse, and while that’s a sentiment that inarguably applies to Sully as a whole, the true story at the centre is so remarkable that stylistic bells and whistles weren’t required at all.
The tale of US Airways Flight 1549 gained its place in modern American folklore as ‘The Miracle of the Hudson’, and while using Chelsey Sullenberger’s autobiography as the inspiration could have seen him presented as the most stoic and infallible of protagonists, Hanks does a stellar job in painting his characterisation with subtle shades of grey that balances Sullenberger’s humble nature with the grandstanding confidence in his skill as a pilot, a requirement to avoid what should have been certain disaster.
3. Jim Lovell (Apollo 13, Ron Howard, 1995)
Another Hanks biopic adapted from a book co-authored by the person he ended up playing on-screen, Apollo 13 could have easily been made as an intense ticking-clock thriller leaning on the desperate circumstances that powered its narrative to manufacture cheap tension.
Instead, director Ron Howard remains laser-focused on the four-man crew, with their interactions and an increasing sense of claustrophobia they felt encroaching upon them when the titular spacecraft let to an improvisational safety mission to play out both on the ground and orbiting the planet.
Very much an ensemble piece, Hanks still conspires to deliver the best performance of the bunch, sidestepping ‘aw shucks’ mawkishness in favour of a grounded, evocative, and honest turn that never loses sight of the experience it’s intended to convey at the merciful expense of avoiding cloying sentimentality.
2. Fred Rogers (A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, Marielle Heller, 2019)
If there was anybody who lived up to playing somebody renowned as one of the most wholesome people to have ever lived, then Hanks would be among the prime candidates. Sure enough, he does supreme justice to Fred Rogers in a drama that eschews the typical conventions of the biopic in favour of the closest thing to a character study that could be approximated.
The friendship between Rogers’ friendship with Matthew Rhys’ Tom Junod surrogate Lloyd Vogel provides an easy entry point into discovering what made the man tick, with any attempts at trying to discover whether or not the sweater-clan beacon of positivity ever let that mask slip proving futile. In lesser hands, it could have been a caricature-cum-impersonation, but Hanks is never anything less than eminently believable as the small screen icon who meant so much to so many people.
1. Richard Phillips (Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass, 2013)
Some crew members caught up in the incident may have disputed the way director Paul Greengrass told the story, but creative licence can often enhance any feature-length adaptation of a real-life event, and it remains a mystery as to why Hanks was shut out of that year’s Oscars race for ‘Best Actor’ as a result.
A showcase for the many sides of the actor’s on-screen arsenal – whether it’s family man, father figure, leader, victim, or anything in between – Hanks makes Richard Phillips feel like he’s being portrayed with the utmost authenticity while also letting his megawatt Hollywood star power shine through in the bigger, broader, more dramatically-inclined moments.
The final scene, in particular, when Phillips breaks down knowing his ordeal is finally behind him, puts the final unforgettable flourish on a movie that puts both its protagonist and the audience through a fully-realised and breathless emotional wringer.
