Esteemed Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 2002, was voted in as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005, and was listed in Forbes magazine as the most trusted celebrity in America in 2006.

Hanks' extensive filmography is only briefly highlighted here. His breakthrough performance was in Big (1988), for which he earned his first Oscar nomination and won the Golden Globe for Best Actor. He won his first Oscar for Best Actor in Philadelphia (1993) and his second Oscar a year later for Forrest Gump (1994), which also won the Oscar for Best Picture. Hanks received his fourth Oscar nomination for his performance in Saving Private Ryan (1998) and a fifth nomination for Cast Away (2000), for which he won a Golden Globe.

Hanks, who would have liked to have been an astronaut, portrayed astronaut Jim Lovell in the critically acclaimed film Apollo 13 (1995), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Hanks' fascination with space exploration led him to co-produce one of the largest television productions of all time: From the Earth to the Moon, a 12-part HBO mini-series that charted the birth and early growth of the space program. The series won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for best miniseries in 1998. Hanks is also the narrator, co-writer and co-producer of the IMAX film Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D (2005).

On April 27, 2000, Tom Hanks received the NASA Public Service Award for his commitment to increasing the public’s interest in space. Asteroid 12818 Tomhanks has been named for him.