With the up and coming release of Bridge of Spies I thought it would be a good idea to pick my seven favourite of Tom Hanks performances from over the years. It is actually a very difficult choice to pick the best of a double Oscar Winner, with another three nominations to his name. But that really does show the massive quality he has in his filmography. I have even had to leave out his incredible performance as Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks out of the list! Another really bad thing is that by putting this post together I have realised that I do not have many of his films reviewed on Let’s Go To The Movies even though I have seen a very high percentage of his films.

Forrest Gump

A remarkable performance and probably one of the first of his films I really remember. I think it’s a film I have grown to appreciate more as I have gotten older.
Philadelphia

Possibly his greatest ever role? Taking on and showing how awful the Aids virus really is and how other people reacted to it all.
Big

Pretending to be a teenager trapped inside a man’s body really did have so much charm (and fun see the above photo, who doesn’t want to do that?)
Castaway

Trapped on an island and only Wilson to keep him company.
The Terminal

I really do think this is such an underrated film, as Hanks’ performance is brilliant as the man who now has no country and trapped in the airport. Who else could make it such a heartwarming tale?
Road to Perdition

More than holds his own acting against and alongside the incredible Paul Newman. A tortured man who is only trying to be the best father he can be to his young son.
Catch Me If You Can

The FBI agent who was always one step behind DiCaprio but certainly a very good match.
What are your favourite performances from Hanks?
Great list! Saving Private Ryan and Toy Story (does that count?) are two of my favourite Tom Hanks films.
He’s literally on The Graham Norton Show now promoting Bridge of Spies. Brilliantly funny man! 🙂
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Yeah I’m watching it 🙂 was going to get this post out next week ahead of Bridge of Spies release. But pushed it to today with him being on it!
It was such a tough decision getting it down to 7 and I did have both of those on my original list!
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Haha 🙂 You did very well getting it down to 7!
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I’m sure I could easily have “7 More Brilliant Tom Hanks Performances” haha
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Great List, i might swap Catch me if you can with Captain Philips as i feel that if Frank was portrayed by a weaker actor the Hanks character wouldn’t have been as interesting.
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That’s a very good point! I thought Hanks nailed it in Captain Phillips, maybe I should have gone for a top 10 instead!
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I love his recent performance in Cloud Atlas. Philadelphia has to be his best performance and he really should have won Oscars for Cast away and Captain Phillips. Big was a face if mine as a kid and I love his early stuff like splash and Turner and Hooch. He has made films for all ages to enjoy.
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Your right about his range for ages. Oh Turner and Hooch is great. Don’t forget his rom-coms as well, love You’ve Got Mail (prefer to over sleepless in Seattle)
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I love sleepless in Seattle!
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*fave of
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I’m watching him right now on Graham Norton ha. So many great movies.
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He was amazing on the show wasn’t he! Such a nice guy 🙂
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Yeah. Love the Woody stuff especially.
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To pick just seven is really hard. I can’t argue with any of these. Of the ones you listed, Big is my absolute favourite. Who else could have pulled that off? Saving Private Ryan comes in a close second, but the guy really has an endless list of great performances!
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Yeah it really was so hard to take some of his films out of the list!
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I always go back to Cast Away. They amount of responsibility he has. The film completely rides on his ability to convey to us one man stranded on an island alone over several years. Its a remarkable performance.
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It sure is 🙂
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You could really just take any 7 performances. The Terminal is a surprise.
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I just really love that film and find it to be very underrated!
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The only performance that I would say has to be here, but isn’t is Captain Phillips. He was ridiculously good in that one. Short of Forrest Gump and Castaway, I’d be willing to replace any of these with that one. That said, I am a huge fan of Road to Perdition and live that it made the cut. Great work.
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Glad your a big fan of Road to Perdition as well. It was such a tough list to pick the films for, he’s such a good actor.
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Castaway is one of his best performances, but he truly is such a great actor that just about any of his movies could make the list. He was also amazing in Apollo 13
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I had Apollo 13 on the original list which had about 12 films on! Such a tough list.
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Completely agree! 😉
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Totally here for Forrest Gump, but I love him in Toy Story and Saving Private Ryan as well! Hell, all of his performances are worthy of recognition!
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Totally! I can’t really think of a bad performance, he may just be in a couple of bad films though. (Lady Killers comes to mind, but he was still great)
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