The National Space Society (NSS) is an American international nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational and scientific organization specializing in space advocacy. It is a member of the Independent Charities of America and an annual participant in the Combined Federal Campaign.
The society's vision is: "People living and working in thriving
communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space
for the dramatic betterment of humanity."
The society has an elected volunteer Board of Directors and a Board of Governors.
The Board of Directors provides day-to-day operational oversight for
the organization, and the Board of Governors provide strategic oversight
and advisory to the Directors in the form of recommendations and
guidance with respect to the broad strategies, overall policies,
objectives, and goals of the Society. The Chairman of the Board of
Governors is Karlton Johnson, USAF-Retired.
In this capacity, he provides overall senior executive leadership to
enhance the effectiveness and performance of the Board of Governors in
support of the Society's goals, imparts advice and guidance to the Board
of Directors to enhance its conduct of business operations, and serves
as the primary spokesperson for the Board of Governors. The Chairman of
the Board of Directors is Kirby Ikin.
Karlton Johnson is currently the organization's Chief Executive Officer.
Serving the space community for nearly 50 years in its various
forms, the National Space Society has remained a conduit for education,
substantive dialogue, and impact player in the commercial and private
space sector communities. The organization garnered the "Five-Star Best
in America" award by the Independent Charities of America organization
in 2005.
In 2014, the National Space Society launched the Enterprise In Space program in order to ignite interest in space and science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) education.
In 2023, the National Space Society elected Isaac Arthur as President for a two-year term.
Ad Astra
The Society publishes a magazine Ad Astra, which appears quarterly in print and electronic form.
Locations and "sphere of operation" of current NSS chapters in the United States (image courtesy of NSS)
As listed in each quarterly issue of Ad Astra,
a large number of NSS chapters exist around the world. The chapters may
serve a local area such as a school, city or town, or have a topical or
special interest focus, such as a rocketry or astronomy club, or educational/communityoutreach
program. Chapters are the peripheral organs of the society by
organizing events, communicating with the public on the merits and
benefits of space exploration, and working to educate political leaders.
Location of current NSS chapters in Australia (image courtesy of NSS)
National Space Society of Australia
A strong contingent of chapters is located in Australia.
Prior to the NSI-L5 merger, the L5 Society had been developing chapters
around the world, and in Australia, three chapters had been
established. The 'Southern Cross L5 Society' was formed in 1979, with
groups in Sydney, Adelaide (in 1984) and Brisbane (in 1986). It was decided in late 1989 to create the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA) which could act as an umbrella organization
Similar efforts have taken hold in Brazil, Canada, and Mexico, as
well as European countries that have a strong aerospace presence. These
include France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Awards
The society administers a number of awards. These are typically presented during the annual International Space Development Conference that NSS hosts. These awards are in recognition of individual volunteer effort, awards for NSS chapter work, the "Space Pioneer" award, and two significant awards which are presented in alternate years.
Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Award
The Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Award
is given in even-numbered years (2004, 2006, etc.) to "honor those
individuals who have made significant, lifetime contributions to the
creation of a free spacefaring civilization."
The NSS Von Braun Award is given in odd-numbered years (1993, 1995, etc.)
"to recognize excellence in management of and leadership for a
space-related project where the project is significant and successful
and the manager has the loyalty of a strong team that he or she has
created." Awardees include:
The NSS-ISU scholarship, worth $10,000, to the International Space University was offered from 2005–2008. The 2005 recipient was Robert Guinness of St. Louis.
The Gerard K. O'Neill Space Settlement Contest,
an annual competition for students in grades 6 to 12 to design and
present a permanent space settlement in the form of a research paper,
essay, or artwork;
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor
and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one
of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is
regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks's films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America. He has received numerous honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor both in 2016, as well as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020.
Hanks was born in Concord, California, on July 9, 1956, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn (née Frager) and itinerant cook Amos "Bud" Hanks. His mother was from a Portuguese family; their surname was originally "Fraga". His father had English ancestry, and through his line, Hanks is a distant cousin of President Abraham Lincolnand children's host Fred Rogers, both of whom he would portray in film roles. His parents divorced in 1960.
Their three oldest children, Sandra (later Sandra Hanks Benoiton, a writer), Larry (who became an entomology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim (who also became an actor and filmmaker), remained with their mother in Red Bluff, California. In his childhood, Hanks' family moved often; by age ten, he had lived in ten different houses.
One journalist characterized Hanks' teenage self as being a "Bible-toting evangelical" for several years. In school, he 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." Hanks acted in school plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California.
Having grown up in the Bay Area, Hanks says that some of his first movie memories were seeing movies in the Alameda Theatre in Alameda, California. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, and transferred to California State University, Sacramento after two years. During a 2001 interview with sportscaster Bob Costas, Hanks was asked whether he would rather have an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy. He replied that he would rather win a Heisman by playing halfback for the California Golden Bears. He 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."
During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.
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, prompting 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. In 2010, Time magazine named Hanks one of the "Top 10 College Dropouts".
In 1979, Hanks moved to New York City, where he made his film debut in the low-budget slasher filmHe Knows You're Alone (1980) and landed a starring role in the television movie Mazes and Monsters. Early that year, he was cast as the lead, Callimaco, in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of Niccolò Machiavelli's The Mandrake, directed by Daniel Southern. The following year, Hanks landed one of the lead roles, that of character Kip Wilson, on the ABC television pilot of Bosom Buddies. 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. Hanks had previously partnered with Scolari on the 1970s game show Make Me Laugh. After landing the role, Hanks moved to Los Angeles. 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."
Hanks made a guest appearance on a 1982 episode of Happy Days ("A Case of Revenge", in which he played a disgruntled former classmate of Fonzie) where he met writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel who were also writing the film Splash (1984), a romantic comedy fantasy about a mermaid who falls in love with a human, to be directed by former Happy Days star Ron Howard. Ganz and Mandel suggested Howard consider Hanks for the film. 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 landed the lead role in Splash, which went on to become a surprise 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.
With Nothing in Common (1986)—a story of a young man alienated from his father (played by Jackie Gleason)—Hanks began to extend himself from comedic roles to dramatic roles. In an interview with Rolling Stone
magazine, Hanks commented on his experience: "It changed my desires
about working in movies. 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." In 1987, he had signed an agreement with The Walt Disney Studios where he had starred to a talent pool in an acting/producing pact. After a few more flops and a moderate success with the comedy Dragnet, Hanks' stature in the film industry rose.
The broad success of the fantasy comedy Big (1988) established Hanks as a major Hollywood talent, both as a box office draw and within the industry as an actor. For his performance in the film, Hanks earned his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Big was followed later that year by Punchline, in which he and Sally Field co-starred as struggling comedians.
Hanks climbed back to the top again with his portrayal of a washed-up baseball legend turned manager in A League of Their Own (1992). Hanks has said his acting in earlier roles was not great, but that he subsequently 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 radio 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.
In Philadelphia, he played a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his firm for discrimination. Hanks lost 35 pounds (16 kg) 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.
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.
Hanks followed Philadelphia with the 1994 hit Forrest Gump which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. Hanks 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 made his directing debut 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 after the record company in the film.
Hanks then executive produced, co-wrote, and co-directed the HBO docudrama From the Earth to the Moon. The 12-part series chronicled 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 $68 million (equivalent to $127 million in 2023), one
of the most expensive ventures undertaken for television.
In 1998, Hanks' 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 that year, 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 sequel to Toy Story.
2000–2009: Established star and expansion
In 2000, Hanks starred in Robert Zemeckis's Cast Away, for which he received a Golden Globe Award win for Best Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a marooned FedEx systems analyst. Famed critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times
wrote of Hanks' performance "Hanks proves here again what an effective
actor he is, never straining for an effect, always persuasive even in
this unlikely situation, winning our sympathy with his eyes and his body
language when there's no one else on the screen."
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 Zemeckis for which Hanks played multiple motion capture roles. In a USA Weekend interview, Hanks discussed 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.
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 U.S., 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. Hanks also produced the animated children's movie The Ant Bully in 2006.
Hanks next appeared in a cameo role as himself in The Simpsons Movie,
in which he appeared in an advertisement claiming that the U.S.
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 on University Challenge.
Hanks' 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. The following day he made his 10th appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live, impersonating himself for the Celebrity Jeopardy sketch. Hanks produced the Spike Jonze film Where The Wild Things Are, based on the children's book by Maurice Sendak in 2009.
2010–2019: Broadway debut and other roles
In 2010, Hanks reprised his voice role of Woody in 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. The film went on to become the first animated film to gross a worldwide total of over $1 billion as well as the highest-grossing animated film at the time. He was also executive producer of the miniseries The Pacific.
In 2014, Hanks' short story "Alan Bean Plus Four" was published in the October 27 issue of The New Yorker. Revolving around four friends who make a voyage to the moon, the short story is titled after the Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean. Slate
magazine's Katy Waldman found his first published short story
"mediocre", writing that "Hanks' shopworn ideas about technology might
have yet sung if they hadn't been wrapped in too-clever lit mag-ese". In an interview with The New Yorker,
Hanks said he has always been fascinated by space. He told the magazine
that he built plastic models of rockets when he was a child and watched
live broadcasts of space missions back in the 1960s.
In March 2015, Hanks appeared in the Carly Rae Jepsen music video for "I Really Like You", lip-syncing most of the song's lyrics as he goes through his daily routine. His next film was the Steven Spielberg-directed historical drama Bridge of Spies, in which he played lawyer James B. Donovan who negotiated for the release of pilot Francis Gary Powers by the Soviet Union in exchange for KGB spy Rudolf Abel. It was released in October 2015 to a positive reception. In April 2016, Hanks starred as Alan Clay in the comedy-drama A Hologram for the King, an adaptation of the 2012 novel of the same name. It is the second time he was directed by Tom Tykwer after Cloud Atlas in 2012.
On April 11, 2020, Hanks made his first television appearance since his COVID-19 diagnosis by hosting Saturday Night Live. Hanks delivered an opening monologue via his house but did not appear in any of the sketches. This is the first episode of SNL to debut after the show's hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it features different sketches filmed remotely from the cast members' homes. This is also a first in SNL history, for the show to be made up entirely of prerecorded content before airing, and the second to not be filmed at Studio 8H.
Hanks had two films released in 2020. In July 2020, Hanks starred in Greyhound, a war film which he also wrote the screenplay for. Initially set to be theatrically released in June 2020 by Sony Pictures, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, distribution rights to the film were bought by Apple TV+, where it was released in July 2020. Later that year, Hanks starred in the western drama film News of the World, re-teaming with director Paul Greengrass, which was released on December 23, 2020. Film critic David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter
praised Hanks' performance in his review writing, "Hanks has built a
career out of playing thoroughly decent men, so his casting here is
entirely to type. But the soulfulness and sorrow, the innate compassion
that ripple through his characterization make this an enormously
pleasurable performance to watch, with new depths of both kindness and
regret that keep revealing themselves."
In 2021, Hanks starred in the science fiction drama Finch, directed by Miguel Sapochnik, and released by Apple TV+. On March 2, 2022, Connor Ratliff appeared as a guest on Late Night With Seth Meyers, where he revealed that Hanks would at last be interviewed for the season three finale of Ratliff's podcast Dead Eyes. The conversation between Hanks and Ratliff took place 22 years after Ratliff was about to begin filming an episode of Band of Brothers,
when he was subsequently fired, allegedly because Hanks believed
Ratliff had "dead eyes". The 90 minute interview was hailed as a
momentous achievement in podcasting, a "rare show that gives you a
perfect conclusion", "surprisingly funny and empathetic", and an event Paul Scheer called "thrilling".
Hanks had three films released in 2022. He first starred as Tom Parker, the sole manager of Elvis Presley, in Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann. Shooting commenced in the beginning of 2020 in Queensland, Australia, and the film was released in June 2022. Hanks next film was portraying Geppetto in Walt Disney Studios'live-action adaptation of Pinocchio.
His involvement in the film, which was directed by his longtime
collaborator Zemeckis, was officially confirmed in December 2020, and released on September 8, 2022, by Disney+. Hanks' final film of the year was A Man Called Otto, an English-language remake of the Swedish film A Man Called Ove. It was released by Sony Pictures in December 2022.
HBO confirmed in January 2013 that it was developing a third World War II miniseries based on the book Masters of the Air by Donald L. Miller with Hanks and Spielberg to follow Band of Brothers and The Pacific. NME reported in March 2017 that production was progressing under the working title The Mighty Eighth.
On October 11, 2019, it was announced that the series would keep the
title from the book and that the miniseries would stream on Apple TV+ due to budget constraints at HBO. Masters of the Air was expected to cost $200 million with a duration of at least eight hours. The series premiered on January 26, 2024.
Upcoming projects
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2023)
Hanks is also appearing in In the Garden of Beasts, an adaptation of the 2011 non fiction book from director Joe Wright about American diplomat William Dodd. In February 2022, it was announced that Hanks will star in the feature adaptation of Here, a graphic novel by Richard McGuire, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
2016: French Legion of Honor, at the rank of Chevalier (Knight), for his presentation of World War II and support of World War II veterans, along with Tom Brokaw, retired NBC anchor, and Gordon H. Mueller, president and co-founder of the National WWII Museum, New Orleans.
Hanks married American actress Samantha Lewes (1952–2002) in 1978. They had one son, actor Colin (b. 1977), and one daughter, Elizabeth (b. 1982). Hanks and Lewes divorced in 1987.Lewes died in 2002 at the age of 49 from bone cancer.
In 1981, Hanks met actress Rita Wilson on the set of TV comedy Bosom Buddies (1980–1982). They were reunited in 1985 on the set of Volunteers. Wilson is of Greek and Bulgarian descent, and a member of the Greek Orthodox Church. Before marrying her, Hanks converted to her faith. Hanks and Wilson married in 1988 and have two sons. The older, Chet, released a rap song in 2011 and had recurring roles in Empire and Shameless. Their younger, Truman, was born in 1995, and portrayed the younger version of his father's character in A Man Called Otto (2022).[226] Hanks lives with his family in Los Angeles, California, and Ketchum, Idaho.
Hanks actively attends church. He 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 is, almost, the grand unifying theory of all mankind."
Despite being a fan of the Oakland Athletics and the Raiders
when they were based in Oakland, Hanks stated in April 2017 he would
boycott the NFL for two years after the Raiders filed for relocation to
Las Vegas.
In November 2019, shortly before the release of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, a drama film in which Hanks portrays Fred Rogers, he learned through Ancestry.com that he and Rogers were sixth cousins, both descendants of Johannes Meffert (1732–1795), who was born in Schöneck, Hesse, Germany (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) and emigrated to the United States in the 18th century, settling in Kentucky and changing his last name to Mefford.
Hanks is also a distant relative of the 16th US president, Abraham Lincoln. Hanks narrated the 2011 television program Killing Lincoln.
On December 27, 2019, the President of Greece, Prokopis Pavlopoulos,
signed an honorary naturalization order for Hanks and his family,
citing their "exceptional services to Greece", thus making him and his
immediate family Greek citizens.
Hanks, along with Wilson and their children, were conferred honorary
citizenship for their role in bringing global attention and appealing
for aid after a devastating wildfire that ripped through the seaside
village of Mati, near Athens, in July 2018, which killed more than 100
people. Greece's Interior Minister
Takis Theodorikakos said Hanks "showed real interest in the people who
suffered from the fire in Mati and promoted this issue in the global
media".
Hanks was outspoken about his opposition to the 2008 Proposition8, an amendment to the California constitution
that defined marriage as a union only between a man and a woman. Hanks
and others raised over US$44 million to campaign against the
proposition. While premiering a TV series in January 2009, Hanks called supporters of Proposition8 "un-American" and criticized LDS Church members, who were major proponents of the bill, for their views on marriage and role in supporting the bill.About a week later, he apologized for the remark, saying that nothing is more American than voting one's conscience.
Hanks serves as campaign chair of the Hidden Heroes Campaign of the Elizabeth Dole
Foundation. The stated mission of the campaign is to inspire a national
movement to more effectively support the military and veteran
caregivers.
In 2004, while touring the White House, Hanks learned that the press corps did not have a coffee pot, and shortly thereafter he donated an espresso machine.
He again donated new machines in 2010 and 2017. His 2017 donation was
accompanied by a note that read "To the White House Press Corps, Keep up
the good fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Especially for
the truth part."
In 2006, the Space Foundation awarded Hanks the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, 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. 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. On March 10, 2008, Hanks was on hand at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to induct The Dave Clark Five.
Hanks is a collector of manual typewriters and uses them almost daily. In August 2014, Hanks released Hanx Writer, an iOSapp meant to emulate the experience of using a typewriter; within days the free app reached number one on the App Store.
After contracting and recovering from a COVID-19 infection early in the pandemic, Hanks and his wife donated their blood antibodies for virus research.
Hanks is an ordained minister, and on March 24, 2022, CBS News reported that he had recently officiated a wedding in Pittsburgh.
Bibliography
Hanks wrote a collection of short stories inspired by his typewriter collection, Uncommon Type, which was published in 2017. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, his debut novel, was published in May 2023.
Hanks is often compared to James Stewart, and has also frequently been referred to as "America's Dad". In 2013, when he was starring in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy
on Broadway, he had crowds of 300 fans waiting for a glimpse of him
after every performance. This is the highest number of expectant fans
post-show of any Broadway performance.
Hanks is ranked as the fifth-highest all-time box office star in
North America, with a total gross of over $4.9 billion at the North
American box office, an average of $100.8 million per film. Worldwide, his films have grossed over $9.96 billion.
In 2003, Hanks was voted Number 3 in Channel 4's countdown of the 100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time, and he is number 22 on VH1's list of the "200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons of All Time". He was included on Forbes' list of the top ten most powerful celebrities in the world, in 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Hanks was interviewed five times on WHYY-FM by Terry Gross on the radio show Fresh Air in Philadelphia. Topics included two segments on his lead role in Captain Phillips,
a movie about the real life story of a ship's captain hijacked by
Somali pirates. Two interviews are about the 12 part miniseries From Earth to the Moon,
for which Hanks was executive producer and which was nominated for 17
Emmy Awards. The last interview segment comprises anecdotes shared by
Hanks about his acting career.
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