Quote:
Originally Posted by TimBone
I guess I'm not as refined as Saccopoo. I love Tom Hanks.
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Tom Hanks made you care about the fate of a ****ing volleyball and had legitimate on-screen chemistry with a dog. He was able to turn a career as a successful comedic actor into maybe the most well-rounded American actor of his generation, and he did so without ever becoming a parody of himself, like Pacino and DeNiro did.
He lost thirty pounds playing a lawyer dying of AIDS in one of the first major Hollywood treatments of the disease, followed that up by playing a mentally impaired Southerner, then played an astronaut, and then a high-school English teacher turned Army Ranger, and did all believably. The only roles he had in between were voice work and a bit part in a film that he was mostly behind the camera for.
He's taken mostly safe roles since then and he's largely transitioned into more of a producer than actor, but he's an example of an artist that can have major public appeal and legitimate acting chops simultaneously.