Rise to Fame
A guest spot on Happy Days in 1982, where he played a bumbling doctor, caught Ron Howard's eye and led directly to Splash two years later. Big turned him from a TV-comedy guy into someone the industry took seriously, earning him a first Oscar nomination at 32. Then two consecutive Best Actor Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, a feat only Spencer Tracy had pulled off before him. He turned down upfront pay on Forrest Gump and earned roughly $40 million in backend points. It's hard to argue with that math.
In the Spotlight
At 69, he's doing more, not less. Here (2024), the Zemeckis reunion with Forrest Gump co-star Robin Wright, used AI de-aging to play him across multiple decades in a single-location film. He's executive producing WWII miniseries, narrating nature documentaries, writing screenplays, and debuting as a playwright off-Broadway. The 'most trusted man in America' reputation (Reader's Digest, 2013) has held through four decades of no real scandal, which in Hollywood is either genuine character or extraordinary luck. Toy Story 5 is confirmed, because Woody never really retires.
Side Notes
His doctor had been warning him about blood sugar since he was 36. He ignored it. By 2013, a type 2 diabetes diagnosis ended that, and he's said he thought skipping burger buns would save him. The extreme weight cycling for roles didn't help: 30 lbs up for A League of Their Own, 55 lbs down for Cast Away. Off-screen: over 300 vintage typewriters, an asteroid named after him, and a family tree that runs back to Abraham Lincoln through the shared Hanks surname. He didn't arrange any of that, which somehow makes it more fitting.