Robert Zemeckis
Zemeckis at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.
Born	Robert Lee Zemeckis (1951-05-14) May 14, 1951 (age 61) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Southern California
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Mary Ellen Trainor (1980–2000) Leslie Harter Zemeckis (2001–present)

Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1951) is a Lithuanian American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), though in the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare, including 1994's Forrest Gump,^[1] for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director.

His films are characterized by an interest in state-of-the-art special effects, including the early use of match moving in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and the pioneering performance capture techniques seen in The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007) and A Christmas Carol (2009). Though Zemeckis has often been pigeonholed as a director interested only in effects,^[2] his work has been defended by several critics, including David Thomson, who wrote that "No other contemporary director has used special effects to more dramatic and narrative purpose."^[3]

Early life[link]

Zemeckis was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Lithuanian American father and an Italian American mother, and grew up on the south side.^[4] He was raised in a working-class Roman Catholic family, and attended Fenger High School. Zemeckis has said that "the truth was that in my family there was no art. I mean, there was no music, there were no books, there was no theater....The only thing I had that was inspirational, was television—and it actually was."^[5] As a child, Zemeckis loved television and was fascinated by his parents' 8 mm film home movie camera. Starting off by filming family events like birthdays and holidays, Zemeckis gradually began producing narrative films with his friends that incorporated stop-motion work and other special effects.

Along with enjoying movies, Zemeckis remained an avid TV watcher. "You hear so much about the problems with television," he said, "but I think that it saved my life."^[5] Television gave Zemeckis his first glimpse of a world outside of his blue-collar upbringing;^[5] specifically, he learned of the existence of film schools on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After seeing Bonnie and Clyde with his father and being heavily influenced by it,^[2] Zemeckis decided that he wanted to go to film school.

His parents disapproved of the idea, Zemeckis later said, "But only in the sense that they were concerned....for my family and my friends and the world that I grew up in, this was the kind of dream that really was impossible. My parents would sit there and say, 'Don't you see where you come from? You can't be a movie director.' I guess maybe some of it I felt I had to do in spite of them, too."^[5]

USC education and early films[link]

Zemeckis applied only to University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, and got into the Film School on the strength of an essay and a music video based on a Beatles song. Not having heard from the university itself, Zemeckis called and was told he had been rejected because of his average grades. The director gave an "impassioned plea" to the official on the other line, promising to go to summer school and improve his studies, and eventually convinced the school to accept him.^[5] Arriving at USC that Fall, Zemeckis encountered a program that was, in his words, made up of "a bunch of hippies [and] considered an embarrassment by the university."^[5] The classes were difficult, with professors constantly stressing how hard the movie business was. Zemeckis remembered not being much fazed by this, citing the "healthy cynicism" that had been bred into him from his Chicago upbringing.^[5]

While at USC, Zemeckis developed a close friendship with the writer Bob Gale, who was also a student there. Gale later recalled, "The graduate students at USC had this veneer of intellectualism ... So Bob and I gravitated toward one another because we wanted to make Hollywood movies. We weren't interested in the French New Wave. We were interested in Clint Eastwood and James Bond and Walt Disney, because that's how we grew up."^[6] He graduated from USC in 1973.^[7]

As a result of winning a Student Academy Award at USC for his film, A Field of Honor, Zemeckis came to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg said, "He barged right past my secretary, and sat me down and showed me this student film ... and I thought it was spectacular, with police cars and a riot, all dubbed to Elmer Bernstein's score for The Great Escape."^[6] Spielberg became Zemeckis's mentor and executive produced his first two films, both of which Zemeckis co-wrote with Bob Gale. He later executive produced other Zemeckis films, including the Back to the Future trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

1978's I Wanna Hold Your Hand (starring Nancy Allen) and 1980's Used Cars (starring Kurt Russell) were well-received critically, with Pauline Kael going into particular rhapsody over the latter film, but both were commercially inert. (I Wanna Hold Your Hand was the first of several Zemeckis films to incorporate historical figures and celebrities into his movies; in the film, he used archival footage and doubles to simulate the presence of The Beatles.) After the failure of his first two films, and the Spielberg-directed 1941 in 1979 (for which Zemeckis and Gale had written the screenplay), the pair gained a reputation for writing "scripts that everyone thought were great [but] somehow didn't translate into movies people wanted to see."^[6]

[edit] Breakthrough films and Forrest Gump

As a result of his reputation within the industry, Zemeckis had trouble finding work in the early 1980s, though he and Gale kept busy. They wrote scripts for other directors, including Car Pool for Brian De Palma and Growing Up for Spielberg; neither ended up getting made. Another Zemeckis-Gale project, about a teenager who accidentally travels back in time to the 1950s, was turned down by every major studio.^[8] The director was jobless until Michael Douglas hired him in 1984 to film Romancing the Stone. A romantic adventure starring Douglas and Kathleen Turner, Romancing was expected to flop (to the point that, after viewing a rough cut of the film, the producers of the then-in-the-works Cocoon fired Zemeckis as director),^[8] but the film became a sleeper hit. While working on Romancing the Stone, Zemeckis met composer Alan Silvestri, who has scored all of his subsequent pictures.

Overseeing the filming of Contact in 1997.

After Romancing, the director suddenly had the clout to direct his time-traveling screenplay, which was titled Back to the Future. Starring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, and Christopher Lloyd, the 1985 film was wildly successful upon its release, and was followed by two sequels, released as Back to the Future Part II in 1989 and Back to the Future Part III in 1990. Before the Back to the Future sequels were released, Zemeckis collaborated with Disney and directed another film, the madcap 1940s-set mystery Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which painstakingly combined traditional animation and live action; its US$70 million budget made it one of the most expensive films made up to that point. The film was both a financial and critical success, and won four Academy Awards. In 1990, Zemeckis commented, when asked if he would want to make non-comedies, "I would like to be able to do everything. Just now, though, I’m too restless to do anything that’s not really zany."^[8]

In 1992, Zemeckis directed the black comedy Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis. Although his next film would have some comedic elements, it was Zemeckis's first with dramatic elements, and was also his biggest commercial and critical success to date, 1994's Forrest Gump. Starring Tom Hanks in the title role, and borrowing to some extent from Woody Allen's earlier Zelig, Forrest Gump tells the story of a man with a low I.Q., who unwittingly participates in some of the major events of the twentieth century, falls in love, and interacts with several major historical figures in the process. The film grossed $677 million worldwide and became the top grossing U.S. film of 1994; it won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Hanks as Best Actor, and Zemeckis as Best Director. In 1997, Zemeckis directed Contact, a long-gestating project based on Carl Sagan's 1985 novel of the same name. The film centers around Eleanor Arroway, a scientist played by Jodie Foster, who believes she has made contact with extraterrestrial beings.

Work in the 2000s and interest in digital filmmaking[link]

In 1999, Zemeckis donated $5 million towards the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts at USC, a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m²) center that houses production stages, an immense 60-system digital editing lab, and a 50-seat screening room. When the Center opened in March 2001, Zemeckis spoke in a panel about the future of film, alongside friends Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Of those (including Spielberg) who clung to celluloid and disparaged the idea of shooting digitally, Zemeckis said, "These guys are the same ones who have been saying that LPs sound better than CDs. You can argue that until you're blue in the face, but I don't know anyone who's still buying vinyl. Film, as we have traditionally thought of it, is going to be different. But the continuum is man's desire to tell stories around the campfire. The only thing that keeps changing is the campfire."^[9] The Robert Zemeckis Center currently hosts many film school classes, much of the Interactive Media Division, and Trojan Vision, USC's student television station, which has been voted the number one college television station in the country.

In 1996, Zemeckis had begun developing a project titled The Castaway with Tom Hanks and writer William Broyles, Jr.. The story, which was inspired by Robinson Crusoe, is about a man (Hanks) who becomes stranded on a desert island and undergoes a profound physical and spiritual change.^[10] While working on The Castaway, Zemeckis also became attached to a Hitchcockian thriller titled What Lies Beneath, the story of a married couple experiencing an extreme case of empty nest syndrome that was based on an idea by Steven Spielberg.^[11] Because Hanks's character needed to undergo a dramatic weight loss over the course of The Castaway (which was eventually retitled Cast Away), Zemeckis decided that the only way to retain the same crew while Hanks lost the weight was to shoot What Lies Beneath in between. He shot the first part of Cast Away in early 1999, and shot What Lies Beneath in fall 1999, completing work on Cast Away in early 2000.^[11] Zemeckis later quipped, when asked about shooting two films back-to-back, "I wouldn't recommend it to anyone."^[10] What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, was released in July 2000 to mixed reviews, but did well at the box office, grossing over $155 million domestically. Cast Away was released that December and grossed $233 million domestically; Hanks received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Chuck Noland.

In 2004, Zemeckis reteamed with Hanks and directed The Polar Express, based on the children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The Polar Express utilized the computer animation technique known as performance capture, whereby the movements of the actors are captured digitally and used as the basis for the animated characters. As the first major film to use performance capture, The Polar Express caused The New York Times to write that, "Whatever critics and audiences make of this movie, from a technical perspective it could mark a turning point in the gradual transition from an analog to a digital cinema."^[12]

In February 2007, Zemeckis and Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook announced plans for a new performance capture film company devoted to CG-created, 3-D movies.^[13] The company, ImageMovers Digital, created films using the performance capture technology, with Zemeckis directing most of the projects and Disney distributed and marketed the motion pictures worldwide. Zemeckis used the performance capture technology again in his film, Beowulf, which retells the Anglo-Saxon epic poem of the same name and stars Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, and Anthony Hopkins. Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer Neil Gaiman, who co-wrote the adaptation with Roger Avary, described the film as a "cheerfully violent and strange take on the Beowulf legend."^[14] The film was released on November 16, 2007, to mixed reviews.

In July 2007, Variety announced that Zemeckis had written a screenplay for A Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens' 1843 short story of the same name, with plans to use performance capture and release it under the aegis of ImageMovers Digital. Zemeckis wrote the script with Jim Carrey in mind, and Carrey agreed to play a multitude of roles in the film, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged, and old man, and the three ghosts who haunt Scrooge.^[15] The film began production in February 2008, and was released on November 6, 2009, again to mixed reviews.^[16] Actor Gary Oldman also appeared in the film.^[17]

In August 2008, Movies IGN revealed in an interview with Philippe Petit that Zemeckis is working with Petit to turn Petit's memoir To Reach the Clouds into a feature film.^[18] Robert Zemeckis was either seriously considered to, or attached to direct the 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Zemeckis is an avid supporter of 3-D Digital Cinema, and has stated that, starting with the 3-D presentations of Beowulf, all of his future films will be done in 3-D using digital motion capture. He has reportedly backed away from that statement and has said that the decision to use 3-D will be on a film-by-film basis.

On August 19, 2009, it was reported that Zemeckis and his company were in talks with Apple Corps ltd to remake the animated film Yellow Submarine in 3-D once again utilizing performance capture. However, on March 12, 2010, with Zemeckis' biggest Disney ally gone, former Chairman Dick Cook, and amid drastic cost-cutting by the new management team, Disney announced that it was ending its relationship with ImageMovers Digital.^[19]

Despite this, Zemeckis has expressed wishes to return to direct the long-awaited sequel to Disney's 1988 classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which will now remain a combination of 2-D animation and live-action. Peter S. Seaman and Jeffrey Price, the writers of the first film are now working on a new script.^[20]

On April 20, 2011, it was reported that Zemeckis would make his return to filmmaking with Flight, a drama for Paramount with Denzel Washington.^[21]

Personal life[link]

Zemeckis has said that, for a long time, he sacrificed his personal life in favor of a career. "I won an Academy Award when I was 44 years old," he explained, "but I paid for it with my 20s. That decade of my life from film school till 30 was nothing but work, nothing but absolute, driving work. I had no money. I had no life."^[5] In the early 1980s, Zemeckis married actress Mary Ellen Trainor, with whom he had a son, Alexander. He described the marriage as difficult to balance with filmmaking,^[5] and his relationship with Trainor eventually ended in divorce. In 2001, he married actress Leslie Harter and they have two children. According to cfidarren.com, Zemeckis is rated an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) Private Pilot.

Politics[link]

According to campaign donation records, Robert Zemeckis has frequently contributed to the political candidates affiliated with the Democratic Party, as well as PACs that support the interests of aircraft owners and pilots, family planning interests, and a group that advocates for Hollywood women.^[22]

Recurring collaborators[link]

Among the actors that have collaborated with Zemeckis on his films, other filmmakers, writers, and producers have also collaborated with Zemeckis in multiple instances. This includes Steven Spielberg, Bob Gale, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, Steve Starkey, Jack Rapke, Arthur Schmidt, Dean Cundey and Neil Canton. Also, music composer Alan Silvestri has been responsible for every film score for Zemeckis' films since Romancing the Stone.

Contact and What Lies Beneath aren't listed for a lack of collaborations.

Actor	I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)	Used Cars (1980)	Romancing the Stone (1984)	Back to the Future (1985)	Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)	Back to the Future Part II (1989)	Back to the Future Part III (1990)	Death Becomes Her (1992)	Forrest Gump (1994)	Cast Away (2000)	The Polar Express (2004)	Beowulf (2007)	A Christmas Carol (2009)
Eddie Deezen	N										N
Pat Buttram					N		N
Tom Hanks									N	N	N
Bob Hoskins					N								N
Christopher Lloyd				N	N	N	N
Robin Wright									N			N	N
Michael J. Fox				N		N	N
Crispin Glover				N								N
Kathleen Turner			N		N
Charles Fleischer					N	N					N
James Tolkan				N		N	N
Dub Taylor		N					N
Lea Thompson				N		N	N
Thomas F. Wilson				N		N	N
Marc McClure	N	N		N		N	N
Wendie Jo Sperber	N	N		N			N
Joe Flaherty		N				N
Daryl Sabara											N		N
Deborah Harmon		N		N
Mary Ellen Trainor			N			N		N	N
Leslie Zemeckis											N	N	N

Filmography[link]

Director filmography[link]

Other[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Zemeckis

• Robert Zemeckis at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Zemeckis at AllRovi
• Robert Zemeckis on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Robert Zemeckis in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Robert Zemeckis collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Robert Zemeckis at the Notable Names Database
• The Art of Robert Zemeckis - French PDF (40 Mo)
• The best movies of Robert Zemeckis

Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis in July 2009
Background information
Birth name	Hugh Anthony Cregg III
Also known as	Hughie Louis (stage name 1972-1976), Huey Louis (1977-1978), Huey Harp (1978)
Born	(1950-07-05) July 5, 1950 (age 61) New York, New York
Origin	San Francisco Bay Area
Genres	Rock, blue-eyed soul, doo-wop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, actor
Instruments	Harmonica, vocals
Years active	1971–present
Labels	Chrysalis, EMI America, Elektra, Jive, Capitol
Associated acts	Huey Lewis and the News, Clover, Thin Lizzy, Orleans, King Harvest
Website	http://www.hueylewis.com

Huey Lewis (Hugh Anthony Cregg III, born July 5, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, and actor.

Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs. The band is perhaps best known for their third album, Sports, and their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film Back to the Future. Lewis previously played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.

Early life[link]

Huey Lewis was born in New York City. His father, Hugh Anthony Cregg II, was an Irish American from Boston and his mother, Magda, was a Polish refugee.^[1][2]

Lewis was raised in Marin County, California, attending Strawberry Point Elementary School (where he skipped second grade) and Edna Maguire Junior High School in Mill Valley. When he was 13, his parents divorced and he attended and later graduated from the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, in 1967, where he achieved a perfect score of 800 on the math portion of the SAT.^[3] Lewis applied to and was accepted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In an interview with David Letterman,^[4] Lewis talked about hitchhiking across the country to New York and how he learned to play the harmonica while waiting for rides. He talked about hanging out at the airport for three days until he stowed away on a plane to Europe. In future interviews Lewis would reveal other encounters while traveling Europe. He claimed to sleeping rough at times. While visiting the Scottish city of Aberdeen with no money and nowhere to sleep Lewis claimed that the locals were very hospitable and would often offer him somewhere to stay. In Madrid, Spain, Lewis became an accomplished blues player and he hitchhiked around and supported himself by busking with his harmonica. He gave his first concerts in Madrid, earning enough money to buy a plane ticket back to the USA.

Upon his return Lewis entered Cornell University where he entered the engineering program. While there he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen who later played with Orleans and Eddie Tuleja of King Harvest. Initially an active student and a member of the fraternity Eta Lambda Nu, Lewis soon lost interest in college. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm and in December 1969, during his junior year, he dropped out of Cornell and moved back to the San Francisco area. His aim was to continue playing music though along the way he also tried other fields of work including landscaping, carpentry, wedding and event planning and natural foods. Lewis lives on a ranch near Stevensville, Montana.^[5][6]

Music career[link]

Huey Lewis at O'Hare International Airport.

In 1971 Lewis joined the Bay Area band Clover. Around this time he took the stage name "Hughie Louis", the spelling of which he would tinker with for some years after.

Other members of the band (at various points) were John McFee, Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, Sean Hopper, Mickey Shine and Marcus David. Lewis played harmonica and sang lead vocals on a few tunes. Clover's main rival band (which developed into a friendly rivalry) was Soundhole (Johnny Colla, Bryan Davis, Ben Miller, Mario Cipollina, and Bill Gibson were band members).

In 1976, after playing in the Bay Area with limited success, Clover went to Los Angeles. They had their "big break" in a club there when their act was caught by Nick Lowe who convinced Clover to travel to Britain with him. However, Clover arrived in Britain just as their folk-rock sound, known as pub rock in Britain, was being replaced by punk rock.

The two Clover albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange under the British Phonogram label were not successful. By this point the spelling of Cregg's stage name had changed to "Huey Louis"; it is under this spelling that he is billed on both of Clover's albums for Phonogram.

Clover—without Lewis—also backed Elvis Costello on his 1977 debut album My Aim is True.

In 1978 the band returned to California, McFee joined the Doobie Brothers, and Clover disbanded.

Under the name "Huey Harp" Huey Lewis played harmonica on Thin Lizzy's 1978 landmark album Live and Dangerous. That same year Lewis was playing at Uncle Charlie's, a club in Corte Madera, California, doing the 'Monday Night Live' spot along with future members of the News. After recording the song "Exo-Disco" (a disco version of the theme from the film Exodus) as Huey Lewis and the American Express, Huey landed a 'singles contract' from Phonogram Records and Bob Brown became his manager.

The band played a few gigs (including an opening for Van Morrison), before adding new guitarist Chris Hayes to the line-up. On Brown's advice they changed their name again to Huey Lewis and The News.

Lewis performing in 2006

After a failed self-titled debut in 1980 the band finally broke through to Top 40 success with the gold album Picture This (1982). It rose to No. 13 on the Albums chart thanks to the Mutt Lange-penned "Do You Believe in Love" (No. 7), the band's first hit.

The band's third LP, the No. 1 Sports (1983), is one of the best-selling pop releases of all time. It has sold ten million copies in the US alone.^[7] That well received album was followed by Fore! (1986), another No. 1 multi-platinum smash.

Lewis produced Nick Lowe's 1985 version of "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)", and later produced several songs (including one where he sang backup and played harmonica) on Bruce Hornsby & The Range's debut album, The Way It Is. Hornsby thanked him by writing the song "Jacob's Ladder", a No. 1 single from The News' next album.

Lewis and his bandmates performed on USA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single We Are the World, and spent the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s recording 14 Top-20 Billboard Hot 100 hits and releasing two more hit albums: Small World (1988) No. 11 and Hard at Play (1991) No. 27. Lewis also performed in the song "Once Upon a Time in New York City" for the 1988 Disney film, Oliver & Company.

By the time the band released the album of cover songs Four Chords & Several Years Ago (1994) No. 55, their chosen lower profile and lack of promotion from new label Elektra saw their Top 40 appeal dip.

Huey Lewis has sung with Umphrey's McGee at several shows beginning with the 2005 Jammys and is featured on two tracks of their album Safety In Numbers.

The band, now in self-proclaimed semi-retirement, still plays over 80 dates a year in the U.S., and an occasional European tour. The average fee for Huey Lewis and the News to play a private college-sized show is around $200,000.

Lewis performing in Nashville, TN. November 2008.

On February 13, 2007, Lewis was interviewed on the podcast series "Stuck in the 80s". During the interview he revealed that the band has written several new songs that they planned to record in 2008. He also stated that, given how much the industry has changed since their last album, he was unsure how they would sell the new material.^[8]

During a show at the California State Fair on August 21, 2007 Lewis was named Sacramento's "Musician of the Year" by the fair's General Manager and presented with a gold statue of the California state bear.

Lewis recorded a duet version of "Workin' for a Livin'" with Garth Brooks, which was included on Brooks' 3-disc set The Ultimate Hits, in late 2007.

On July 4, 2008, the eve of his 58th birthday, Huey Lewis and the News were the opening act for the annual A Capitol Fourth celebration on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. More than a half million people attended, and was broadcast live on PBS. The band performed "The Heart of Rock & Roll", "The Power of Love" and "Workin' for a Livin'".

On May 29, 2011, Huey Lewis played the annual Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois, along with Chicago-based progressive jam band Umphrey's Mcgee. They were billed as Huey Lewis and The Rumors. Together they played covers as well as songs from both their respective catalogs.^[9]

Ghostbusters lawsuit[link]

In 1985, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker, Jr. over similarities between Parker's theme for the 1984 movie Ghostbusters and Lewis's "I Want a New Drug". The case was settled out of court with both parties agreeing to keep the settlement secret. In 2001, Parker sued Lewis, alleging that in a "VH1 – Behind the Music" Episode, Lewis had discussed the settlement in violation of their nondisclosure agreement.^[10]

Recordings[link]

See Huey Lewis and the News discography for albums and singles by the band. Below are specific contributions by Huey Lewis as a solo artist.

Albums[link]

• Oliver & Company Soundtrack (1988)
• Come Together: America Salutes The Beatles (1995)
• Duets Soundtrack (2000) #102 US (#16 Billboard Top Soundtracks)

Singles[link]

The following table denotes singles that Lewis has charted with solo credits.

Filmography[link]

In the acting world, Lewis' debut was a cameo in the 1985 film Back to the Future—which featured several Huey Lewis and the News songs in the soundtrack. His character is one of the teachers auditioning acts for the high school talent show early in the film.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Huey Lewis at the Internet Movie Database
• Huey Lewis at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lewis, Huey (2010-11-05) (Video & transcript). (Interview). The Tavis Smiley Show. KCET. Los Angeles. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/archive/201011/20101105_lewis.html#video. Retrieved 2011-01-12. 

v t e Huey Lewis and the News Huey Lewis Johnny Colla Bill Gibson Sean Hopper John Pierce Stef Burns Marvin McFadden Rob Sudduth Chris Hayes Mario Cipollina Ron Stallings Studio albums Huey Lewis and the News Picture This Sports Fore! Small World Hard at Play Four Chords & Several Years Ago Plan B Soulsville Live albums Live at 25 Compilations The Heart of Rock & Roll – The Best of Huey Lewis and The News Time Flies... The Best Of Greatest Hits & Videos Singles "Do You Believe in Love" "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" "Workin' for a Livin'" "Heart and Soul" "I Want a New Drug" "The Heart of Rock & Roll" "If This Is It" "Walking on a Thin Line" "The Power of Love" "Back in Time" "Stuck with You" "Hip to Be Square" "Jacob's Ladder" "I Know What I Like" "Doing It All for My Baby" "Perfect World" "Give Me the Keys (And I'll Drive You Crazy)" "Couple Days Off" "It Hit Me Like a Hammer" "(She's) Some Kind of Wonderful" Related articles Discography Clover Back to the Future American Psycho Book:Huey Lewis and the News

Lea Thompson
Thompson in 2008
Born	Lea Kathleen Thompson (1961-05-31) May 31, 1961 (age 51) Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.
Occupation	Actress/Director
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Howard Deutch (1989-present)
Children	Madeline Deutch, Zoey Deutch

Lea Kathleen Thompson^[1] (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress and director. She is best known for her 1990s NBC situation comedy Caroline in the City and her portrayal of Lorraine Baines in the Back to the Future trilogy. As a staple in big budget/high profile blockbusters of the 1980s and '90s, other roles include Red Dawn, Howard the Duck, Jaws 3-D, Some Kind of Wonderful, The Beverly Hillbillies, and All the Right Moves.

Early life[link]

Thompson was born in Rochester, Minnesota, the daughter of Barbara Anne (née Barry), a singer and musician, and Clifford Elwin "Cliff" Thompson. She studied ballet as a girl and practiced three to four hours every day. She was dancing professionally by the age of 14.^[2] She won scholarships to several ballet schools, including the American Ballet Theatre, the San Francisco Ballet, and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Thompson danced in more than 45 ballets with the American Ballet Theatre. She also danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Minnesota Dance Theatre and the Ballet Repertory. Her brother Andrew also took ballet classes and went on to become a professional.

Thompson was told by ballet legend and then ABT artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov that she was "a beautiful dancer, but too stocky. Your legs are too short." Due to this (as well as some small nagging past injuries), she decided to give up dancing in favor of an acting career. She moved to New York at age 20 and performed in a number of Burger King advertisements in the 1980s along with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Elisabeth Shue, her eventual co-star in Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III.^[2]

Career[link]

Thompson's first significant film roles came in 1983, with Jaws 3-D and All the Right Moves (the latter opposite Tom Cruise). These were followed by Red Dawn (1984) and The Wild Life (1984). In a 2008 interview, she explained that she learned tactics and how to shoot and field strip Soviet weapons for the movie Red Dawn. Her most famous role was that of Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, the first released in 1985. Thompson's character is the mother of Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox.

In 1986, Thompson starred in SpaceCamp and Howard the Duck. For the latter film, she sang several songs on the soundtrack, in character, as musician Beverly Switzler, who was the lead vocalist for a band called Cherry Bomb. The recordings appeared on both the soundtrack album and on singles. Rounding out film appearances in the late 1980s, Thompson starred in Some Kind of Wonderful, Casual Sex?, Going Undercover and The Wizard of Loneliness. She also had a prominent role in the 1989 TV movie Nightbreaker, for which she was nominated for a CableACE Award. In the early 1990s, Thompson starred in Dennis the Menace (1993), The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and The Little Rascals (1994). She also appeared in several TV movies throughout the 90s, including The Substitute Wife (1994), The Unspoken Truth (1995) and The Right To Remain Silent (1996).

Thompson found moderate critical and popular success as the star of the NBC sitcom Caroline in the City, from 1995-1999. In 1996, Thompson received a People's Choice Award for "Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Series."^[3]

After a break from acting, Thompson went on to star in several Broadway plays. She later appeared in a TV series called For The People, which only lasted one season. Then came a TV movie, Stealing Christmas (2003), starring Tony Danza and Betty White. Thompson also appeared in several episodes of the dramedy series Ed and in a guest role for one episode in 2004 on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; she played a woman whose embryos were stolen.

In 2005, Thompson began a series of made-for-TV movies for the Hallmark Channel, in which she plays "Jane Doe," an ex-secret agent turned housewife, who helps the government solve mysteries. Thompson directed two films from the Jane Doe series - Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall and Jane Doe: Eye of the Beholder.

Thompson was a featured singer on Celebrity Duets and the second contestant eliminated in 2006.

In April 2007, another TV movie, A Life Interrupted, premiered on Lifetime Television. A rape survivor overcomes her debilitating fear by finding funding to process the enormous backlog of rape kits, so that other women will not have to suffer for years as she did.

Thompson guest-starred on the show Head Case in January 2008. She appeared in the TV movie Final Approach, which debuted in the U.S. on May 24, 2008.^[4] Her recent film credits include Exit Speed and Spy School. She recently starred in the television movie The Christmas Clause, which received good reviews and ratings. She stars in the new films Splinterheads and Prettyface, and recently filmed the movie Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer.

Currently, Thompson is starring in the ABC Family hit Switched at Birth about a family realizing their 16 year old daughter is not biologically theirs and was switched with another at the hospital.

Personal life[link]

Thompson has been married to film director Howard Deutch since 1989. They first met on the set of Some Kind of Wonderful.

Thompson and Deutch have two daughters, Madeline Erin and Zoey Francis, with whom she sang on stage in the Bye Bye Birdie production for the 16th annual Alzheimer's Association "A Night at Sardi's" in March 2008.^[5] Thompson has stated that her career break to raise her children has helped with her subsequent portrayal of soccer mom Cathy Davis/Jane Doe.

Thompson has four siblings, brothers Andrew (a professional ballet dancer) and Barry, and sisters Colleen Goodrich and Shannon Katona.

Partial credits[link]

Film[link]

• Jaws 3-D (1983) - Kelly Ann Bukowski
• All the Right Moves (1983) - Lisa Lietzke
• Red Dawn (1984) - Erica Mason
• The Wild Life (1984) - Anita
• Back to the Future (1985) - Lorraine Baines/McFly
• SpaceCamp (1986) - Kathryn Fairly
• Howard the Duck (1986) - Beverly Switzler
• Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) - Amanda Jones
• Going Undercover (1988)
• Casual Sex? (1988) - Stacey
• Back to the Future Part II (1989) - Lorraine Baines/McFly/Tannen
• Back to the Future Part III (1990) - Maggie McFly/Lorraine McFly
• Article 99 (1992) - Dr. Robin Van Dorn
• Dennis the Menace (1993) - Alice Mitchell
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) - Laura Jackson
• The Little Rascals (1994) - Ms. Roberts
• The Unknown Cyclist (1998) - Melissa Cavatelli
• Fish Don't Blink (2002) - Clara
• Haunted Lighthouse (Short) (2003) - Peg Van Legge
• Come Away Home (2005) - Carol
• 10 Tricks (2006) - Grace
• California Dreaming (2007) - Ginger Gainor
• Senior Skip Day (2008) - Cathleen Harris
• Spy School (2008) - Claire Miller
• Exit Speed (2008) - Maudie McMinn
• The Check (short) (2009) - Darla
• Balancing the Books (2009) - Rebecca
• Splinterheads (2009) - Susan Frost
• Rock Slyde (2009) - Master Bartologist
• PrettyFace (2010) - Mary Penny
• Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer (2010) - Laura
• Mayor Cupcake (2011) - Mary Maroni
• The Convincer (2011) - Jo Ann Prohaska
• J. Edgar (2011) - Lela Rogers

Television[link]

• Tales from the Crypt (TV series, one episode, 1989) "Only Sin Deep" - Sylvia Vane
• Montana (TV movie, 1990) - Peg Guthrie
• Stolen Babies (TV movie, 1993) - Annie Beales
• The Substitute Wife (TV movie, 1994) - Amy Hightower
• The Unspoken Truth (TV movie, 1995) - Brianne Hawkins
• Friends (TV series, one episode, 1995) "The One with the Baby on the Bus" - Caroline Duffy
• The Right To Remain Silent (TV movie, 1996) - Christine Paley
• A Will of Their Own (TV mini-series, 1998) - Amanda Steward
• Caroline in the City (TV series, 97 episodes, 1995–99) - Caroline Duffy
• For The People (TV series, 2002–03) - Chief Dep. Dist. Atty. Camille Paris
• Stealing Christmas (TV movie, 2003) - Sarah Gibson
• Ed (TV series, three episodes, 2004) - "Pressure Points," "Hidden Agendas," "Back in the Saddle" - Liz Stevens
• Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (TV series, one episode, 2004) "Birthright" - Michelle Osborne
• Jane Doe: Vanishing Act (TV movie, 2005) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Jane Doe: Now You See it, Now You Don't (TV movie, 2005) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Jane Doe: Til Death Do Us Part (TV movie, 2005) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Jane Doe: The Wrong Face (TV movie, 2005) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Jane Doe: Yes, I Remember It Well (TV movie, 2006) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall (TV movie, 2006) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Jane Doe: Ties That Bind (TV movie, 2007) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Jane Doe: How to Fire Your Boss (TV movie, 2007) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• A Life Interrupted (TV movie, 2007) - Debbie Smith
• Jane Doe: Eye of the Beholder (TV movie, 2008) - Cathy Davis/Jane Doe
• Final Approach (TV movie, 2008) - Alicia Bender
• The Christmas Clause (TV movie, 2008) - Sophie Kelly
• Greek (TV series) April (Cappie's Mom)
• "Private Practice: What Happens Next"
• Switched at Birth (TV series, 2011) - Kathryn Kennish
• "The Cabin" (TV movie, 2011)
• "Game of Your Life" (TV movie, 2011)

Theatre[link]

• I Love My Wife, Reprise Theatre
• Bus Stop, Pasadena Playhouse, Pasadena, CA, c. 1990
• Sally Bowles, Cabaret, Roundabout Theatre Company, Studio 54 Theatre, New York City, 2000
• The Vagina Monologues, Canon Theatre, Beverly Hills, CA, 2001
• They're Playing Our Song (musical; staged reading), L.A. Reprise!, Los Angeles, 2002
• Charlie Bacon's Family, John Drew Theater, East Hampton, NY; The Illusion, Los Angeles *Theatre Center, Los Angeles; LongTime Coming, Powerhouse Theatre; and The Trip Back Down, Actors Repertory Theatre.

Directing[link]

• Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall (2006) (TV)
• Jane Doe: Eye of the Beholder (2008) (TV)

Special Appearances[link]

• Lea Thompson - "Hottie or Nottie?" on Corvette Forum

Further reading[link]

• Papp, Adrienne (2007-02-01). "Lea Thompson: Still America's Sweetheart". Westside Today. http://www.adriennepapp.com/pdf/BMG_FEB_LeaTfull.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-19. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lea Thompson

• Lea Thompson at the Internet Movie Database
• Lea Thompson at AllRovi
• Lea Thompson at the Internet Broadway Database
• 2009 interview with Bullz-Eye.com

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Tom Hanks
Hanks at President Obama's 2009 inauguration.
Born	Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (1956-07-09) July 9, 1956 (age 55) Concord, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, producer, director, voice over artist, writer, speaker
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Samantha Lewes (m. 1978–1987; divorced) Rita Wilson (m. 1988–present)
Children	Colin, Elizabeth, Chester, Truman

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks is known for his roles in Philadelphia and as the title character in Forrest Gump, roles which won him two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor. Hanks is also known for his Oscar nominated roles in Big, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.

Hanks' other acting roles include Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, The Green Mile as Paul Edgecomb, Toy Story as Woody and Charlie Wilson's War as Charlie Wilson.

Early life[link]

Hanks was born in Concord, California. His father, Amos Mefford Hanks (born in Glenn County, California, on March 9, 1924 – died in Alameda, California, on January 31, 1992), was an itinerant cook.^[1] His mother, Janet Marylyn (née Frager; born in Alameda County, California, on January 18, 1932), was a hospital worker. Hanks' mother is of Portuguese ancestry, while two of his paternal great-grandparents immigrated from Britain.^[2][3] Hanks's parents divorced in 1960. The family's three oldest children, Sandra (now Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer)^{[citation needed]}, Larry (now Lawrence M. Hanks, PhD, an entomology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)^[4] and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, now an actor and film maker, remained with his mother in Red Bluff, California.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to having a family history of Catholicism and Mormonism, Hanks was a "Bible-toting evangelical teenager" for several years.^[5] In school, Hanks was unpopular with students and teachers alike, later telling Rolling Stone magazine: "I was a geek, a spaz. I was horribly, painfully, terribly shy. At the same time, I was the guy who'd yell out funny captions during filmstrips. But I didn't get into trouble. I was always a real good kid and pretty responsible." In 1965, Amos Hanks married Frances Wong, a San Francisco native of Chinese descent. Frances had three children, two of whom lived with Tom during his high school years. Hanks acted in school plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California.

Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, and after two years, transferred to California State University, Sacramento. Hanks told New York magazine in 1986: "Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant ...I spent a lot of time going to plays. I wouldn't take dates with me. I'd just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, and then get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Ibsen, and all that."^[6]

During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.^[1] At Dowling's suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the Festival. His internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting, set design, and stage management, all of which caused Hanks to drop out of college. During the same time, Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his 1978 performance as Proteus in Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the few times he played a villain.^[7]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

In 1979, Hanks moved to New York City, where he made his film debut in the low-budget slasher film He Knows You're Alone (1980)^[1] and got a part in the television movie Mazes and Monsters. Early in 1979, Hanks was cast in the lead role of Callimaco in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Mandrake, directed by Daniel Southern. This remains Hanks's only New York stage performance to date; as a high profile Off Off Broadway showcase, the production helped Tom land an agent, Joe Ohla with the J. Michael Bloom Agency. The next year, Hanks landed a lead role on the ABC television pilot of Bosom Buddies, playing the role of Kip Wilson. Hanks moved to Los Angeles, where he and Peter Scolari played a pair of young advertising men forced to dress as women so they could live in an inexpensive all-female hotel.^[1] Hanks had previously partnered with Scolari in the 1970s game show Make Me Laugh. Bosom Buddies ran for two seasons, and, although the ratings were never strong, television critics gave the program high marks. "The first day I saw him on the set," co-producer Ian Praiser told Rolling Stone, "I thought, 'Too bad he won't be in television for long.' I knew he'd be a movie star in two years." But if Praiser knew it, he was not able to convince Hanks. "The television show had come out of nowhere," best friend Tom Lizzio told Rolling Stone. "Then out of nowhere it got canceled. He figured he'd be back to pulling ropes and hanging lights in a theater."

Bosom Buddies and a guest appearance on a 1982 episode of Happy Days ("A Case of Revenge," where he played a disgruntled former classmate of The Fonz) prompted director Ron Howard to contact Hanks. Howard was working on Splash (1984), a romantic comedy fantasy about a mermaid who falls in love with a human. At first, Howard considered Hanks for the role of the main character's wisecracking brother, a role that eventually went to John Candy. Instead, Hanks got the lead role and a career boost from Splash, which went on to become a box office hit, grossing more than US$69 million. He also had a sizable hit with the sex comedy Bachelor Party, also in 1984.

In 1983–84, Hanks made three guest appearances on Family Ties as Elyse Keaton's alcoholic brother, Ned Donnelly.^[8][9]

Period of successes and failures[link]

Hanks at Governor's Ball party after 61st Academy Awards, March 29, 1989

Hanks and Rita Wilson at the 1989 Oscars

With Nothing in Common (1986) – about a young man alienated from his parents who must re-establish a relationship with his father, played by Jackie Gleason – Hanks began to establish the credentials of not only a comic actor but of someone who could carry a serious role. "It changed my desires about working in movies," Hanks told Rolling Stone. "Part of it was the nature of the material, what we were trying to say. But besides that, it focused on people's relationships. The story was about a guy and his father, unlike, say, The Money Pit, where the story is really about a guy and his house."^{[citation needed]}

After a few more flops and a moderate success with Dragnet, Hanks succeeded with the film Big (1988), both at the box office and within the industry.^[1] The film established Hanks as a major Hollywood talent. It was followed later that year by Punchline, in which he and Sally Field co-starred as struggling comedians. Hanks's character, Steven Gold, a failing medical student trying to break into stand-up, was somewhat edgy and complex. Hanks' portrayal of Gold offered a glimpse of the far more dramatic roles Hanks would master in films to come. Hanks then suffered a pile of box-office failures: The 'Burbs (1989), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990),^[1] as a greedy Wall Street type who gets enmeshed in a hit-and-run accident. Only the 1989 movie Turner & Hooch brought success for Hanks during this time. In a 1993 issue of Disney Adventures, Hanks said, "I saw Turner & Hooch the other day in the SAC store and couldn't help but be reminiscent. I cried like a baby." He did admit to making a couple of "bum tickers," however, and blamed his "...deductive reasoning and decision making skills."

Progression into dramatic roles[link]

Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball star turned manager in A League of Their Own (1992).^[1] Hanks has admitted that his acting in earlier roles was not great and that he has improved. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hanks noted his "modern era of moviemaking ... because enough self-discovery has gone on.... My work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top". This "modern era" began in 1993 for Hanks, first with Sleepless in Seattle and then with Philadelphia. The former was a blockbuster success about a widower who finds true love over the airwaves. Richard Schickel of TIME called his performance "charming," and most critics agreed that Hanks' portrayal ensured him a place among the premier romantic-comedy stars of his generation.^{[citation needed]}

In Philadelphia, he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination.^[1] Hanks lost thirty-five pounds and thinned his hair in order to appear sickly for the role. In a review for People, Leah Rozen stated "Above all, credit for Philadelphia's success belongs to Hanks, who makes sure that he plays a character, not a saint. He is flat-out terrific, giving a deeply felt, carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Philadelphia.^[1] During his acceptance speech he revealed that his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and former classmate John Gilkerson, two people with whom he was close, were gay.^[10]

Hanks on the film set of Forrest Gump in 1994

Hanks followed Philadelphia with the 1994 summer hit Forrest Gump. Of the film, Hanks has remarked: "When I read the script for Gump, I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can go to and feel ... some hope for their lot and their position in life... I got that from the movies a hundred million times when I was a kid. I still do." Hanks won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his role in Forrest Gump, becoming only the second actor to have accomplished the feat of winning consecutive Best Actor Oscars. (Spencer Tracy was the first, winning in 1937–38. Hanks and Tracy were the same age at the time they received their Academy Awards: 37 for the first and 38 for the second.)

Hanks' next role—astronaut and commander Jim Lovell, in the 1995 movie Apollo 13--reunited him with Ron Howard.^[1] Critics generally applauded the film and the performances of the entire cast, which included actors Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Kathleen Quinlan. The movie also earned nine Academy Award nominations, winning two. The same year, Hanks starred in the animated blockbuster Toy Story as the voice of the toy Sheriff Woody.

1996 – present: Directing, producing and acting[link]

Hanks turned to directing with his 1996 film That Thing You Do! about a 1960s pop group, also playing the role of a music producer. Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman went on to create Playtone, a record and film production company named for the record company in the film.

Hanks executive produced, co-wrote, and co-directed the HBO docudrama From the Earth to the Moon. The twelve-part series chronicles the space program from its inception, through the familiar flights of Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell, to the personal feelings surrounding the reality of moon landings. The Emmy Award-winning project was, at US$68 million, one of the most expensive ventures taken for television.

Hanks's next project was no less expensive. For Saving Private Ryan he teamed up with Steven Spielberg to make a film about a search through war-torn France after D-Day to bring back a soldier. It earned the praise and respect of the film community, critics, and the general public. It was labeled one of the finest war films ever made and earned Spielberg his second Academy Award for direction, and Hanks another Best Actor nomination. Later in 1998, Hanks re-teamed with his Sleepless in Seattle co-star Meg Ryan for You've Got Mail, a remake of 1940's The Shop Around the Corner.

In 1999, Hanks starred in an adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Green Mile. He also returned as the voice of Woody in Toy Story 2. The following year he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a marooned FedEx systems analyst in Robert Zemeckis's Cast Away. In 2001, Hanks helped direct and produce the acclaimed HBO mini-series Band of Brothers. He also appeared in the September 11 television special America: A Tribute to Heroes and the documentary Rescued From the Closet.

Next he teamed up with American Beauty director Sam Mendes for the adaptation of Max Allan Collins's and Richard Piers Rayner's graphic novel Road to Perdition, in which he played an anti-hero role as a hitman on the run with his son. That same year, Hanks collaborated with director Spielberg again, starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the hit crime comedy Catch Me if You Can, based on the true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr. The same year, Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson produced the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In August 2007, he along with co-producers Rita Wilson and Gary Goetzman, and writer and star Nia Vardalos, initiated a legal action against the production company Gold Circle Films for their share of profits from the movie.^[11][12][13] At the age of 45, he became the youngest ever recipient of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award on June 12, 2002.

In 2004, he appeared in three films: The Coen Brothers' The Ladykillers, another Spielberg film, The Terminal, and The Polar Express, a family film from Robert Zemeckis. In a USA Weekend interview, Hanks talked about how he chooses projects: "[Since] A League of Their Own, it can't be just another movie for me. It has to get me going somehow.... There has to be some all-encompassing desire or feeling about wanting to do that particular movie. I'd like to assume that I'm willing to go down any avenue in order to do it right". In August 2005, Hanks was voted in as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[14]

Hanks in 2008

Hanks next starred in the highly anticipated film The Da Vinci Code, based on the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. The film was released May 19, 2006 in the US and grossed over US$750 million worldwide. He followed the film with Ken Burns's 2007 documentary The War. For the documentary, Hanks did voice work, reading excerpts from World War II-era columns by Al McIntosh. In 2006, Hanks topped a 1,500-strong list of 'most trusted celebrities' compiled by Forbes magazine.^[15] Hanks next appeared in a cameo role as himself in The Simpsons Movie, in which he appeared in an advertisement claiming that the US government has lost its credibility and is hence buying some of his. He also made an appearance in the credits, expressing a desire to be left alone when he is out in public. Later in 2006, Hanks produced the British film Starter for Ten, a comedy based on working class students attempting to win University Challenge.^[16]

In 2007, Hanks starred in Mike Nichols's film Charlie Wilson's War (written by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin) in which he plays Democratic Texas Congressman Charles Wilson. The film opened on December 21, 2007, and Hanks received a Golden Globe nomination.

In 2008's The Great Buck Howard, Hanks played the on-screen father of a young man (Hanks' real-life son, Colin Hanks) who chooses to follow in the footsteps of a fading magician (John Malkovich). Tom Hanks's character was less than thrilled about his son's career decision.

Hanks's next endeavor, released on May 15, 2009, was a film adaptation of Angels & Demons, based on the novel of the same name by Dan Brown. Its April 11, 2007, announcement revealed that Hanks would reprise his role as Robert Langdon, and that he would reportedly receive the highest salary ever for an actor.^[17][18] The following day he made his 10th appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live, impersonating himself for the Celebrity Jeopardy sketch.

Hanks in April 2009

Hanks is producer of the Spike Jonze film Where The Wild Things Are, based on the children's book by Maurice Sendak.^[19]

In 2010, Hanks reprised his role as Sheriff Woody in the third film in the Toy Story franchise, Toy Story 3, after he, Tim Allen, and John Ratzenberger were invited to a movie theater to see a complete story reel of the movie.^[20]

In 2011, he directed and starred opposite Julia Roberts in the title role in the romantic comedy Larry Crowne.^[21] The movie has received generally bad reviews with only 35% of the 175 Rotten Tomatoes reviews giving it high ratings.^[22] Also in 2011, he starred in the drama film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Hanks is slated to play Walt Disney in the film Saving Mr. Banks co-starring Emma Thompson and directed by John Lee Hancock. Hanks will be the first actor to portray Disney in film. The film is scheduled to be released in 2014.^[23] He has also been cast in a film based on the Maersk Alabama hijacking as Captain Richard Phillips. The film will be written by Billy Ray, and produced by the team behind The Social Network.^[24]

Hanks is ranked the highest all time box office star with over $3.639 billion total box office gross, an average of $107 million per film.^[25] He has been involved with seventeen films that grossed over $100 million at the worldwide box office, the highest grossing of which was 2010's Toy Story 3.^[26]

Personal life[link]

Hanks was married to American actress Samantha Lewes^[27] (née Susan Jane Dillingham) from 1978 to 1987. The couple had two children, son Colin Hanks (also an actor) and daughter Elizabeth Ann.^[28][29]

In 1988, Hanks married actress Rita Wilson. The two first met on the set of Hanks's television show Bosom Buddies but later developed a romantic interest while working on the film Volunteers. They have two sons: Chester, or "Chet" (who has a small part as a student in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and released a rap single in 2011),^[30] and Truman.

Hanks became a grandfather when his son Colin and daughter-in-law Samantha gave birth to granddaughter Olivia Jane Hanks on February 1, 2011.^[31]

Regarding his religious views, Hanks has said, "I must say that when I go to church – and I do go to church – I ponder the mystery. I meditate on the 'why?' of 'Why people are as they are' and 'Why bad things happen to good people,' and 'Why good things happen to bad people'... The mystery is what I think it is, almost, the grand unifying theory of mankind."^[5]

Politics[link]

Hanks has made donations to many Democratic politicians and has been open about his support for same-sex marriage, environmental causes and alternative fuels. Hanks made public his presidential candidate choice in the 2008 election when he uploaded a video to his MySpace account in which he announced his endorsement of Barack Obama.^[32]

A proponent of environmentalism, Hanks is an investor in electric vehicles and owns both a Toyota RAV4 EV and the first production AC Propulsion eBox. Hanks was a lessee of an EV1 before it was recalled, as chronicled in the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?^[33][34] He is on the waiting list for an Aptera 2 Series.^[35]

Hanks was extremely outspoken about his opposition to Proposition 8, an amendment to the California constitution that defined marriage as a union only between a man and a woman. Hanks and others who were in opposition to the proposition raised over US$44 million in contrast to the supporters' $39 million,^[36] but Proposition 8 passed with 52% of the vote.^[37]

While premiering a TV series in January 2009, Hanks called supporters of Proposition 8 "un-American" and criticized the LDS (Mormon) church members, who were major proponents of the bill, for their views on marriage and their role in supporting the bill.^[38][39] About a week later, Hanks apologized for the remark, saying that nothing is more American than voting one's conscience.^[40]

Hanks narrated a video created by Obama for America, entitled The Road We've Traveled.^[41]

Other activities[link]

Hanks with Steven Spielberg (left) at the National World War II Memorial in March 2010

A supporter of NASA's manned space program, Hanks has said that he originally wanted to be an astronaut but "didn't have the math." Hanks is a member of the National Space Society, serving on the Board of Governors of the nonprofit educational space advocacy organization founded by Dr. Wernher Von Braun. He also produced the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon about the Apollo program to send astronauts to the moon. In addition, Hanks co-wrote and co-produced Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D, an IMAX film about the moon landings. Hanks also provided the voice over for the premiere of the show Passport to the Universe at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

In 2006, the Space Foundation awarded Hanks the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award.^[42] The award is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs.

In June 2006 Hanks was inducted as an honorary member of the United States Army Rangers Hall of Fame for his accurate portrayal of a Captain in the movie Saving Private Ryan; Hanks, who was unable to attend the induction ceremony, was the first actor to receive such an honor.^[43] In addition to his role in Saving Private Ryan, Hanks was cited for serving as the national spokesperson for the World War II Memorial Campaign, for being the honorary chairperson of the D-Day Museum Capital Campaign, and for his role in writing and helping to produce the Emmy Award-winning miniseries, Band of Brothers.^{[citation needed]}

Hanks is one of several celebrities who frequently participates in planned comedy bits on Conan O'Brien's talk shows, including Late Night, The Tonight Show, and Conan while a guest. On one visit, Hanks asked Conan to join his run for president on the "Bad Haircut Party" ticket, with confetti and balloons and a hand held sign with the slogan "You'd be stupid to vote for us". On another episode, O'Brien, noting that Hanks was missing Christmas on his promotional tour, brought the season to him, including a gift (the skeleton of Hooch), and a mass of snow burying them both. On yet another episode, Conan gave Hanks a painting he had commissioned reflecting two of his interests: Astronauts landing on the beach at Normandy. On March 10, 2008, Hanks was on hand at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to induct sixties band The Dave Clark Five.^[44] Asteroid 12818 Tomhanks is named for him.^[45]

Filmography[link]

Other accolades[link]

References[link]