If ever we, as a species, needed to prove the inherent worthiness of man to alien overlords, I think it’s pretty clear who we would show them: one Tom Hanks. The 67-year-old actor has been in Hollywood for decades, yet his charm hasn’t faded, and indeed, his essential niceness has turned into award-show joke fodder—and let’s not forget how Daddy Hanks took care of us all during quarantine.
It’s difficult to know how to appropriately appreciate Hanks, but we’re taking a stab at it with a roundup of his 15 most iconic and re-watchable film roles. If any of these are still on your watchlist, break out the popcorn and cozy blanket, because Hanks is guaranteed to soothe whatever ails you.
Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump, 1994
This may not be my favorite Tom Hanks movie (although I did spend a genuinely enthralling night watching it with Khmer subtitles in an Airbnb in Cambodia once), but the role is inarguably major, and seeing Hanks emerge as the secret architect of all of American history feels kind of right.
Woody in Toy Story, 1995
Hanks doesn’t appear in the flesh, obviously, but the fact that he voiced uber-sympathetic cowboy doll Woody has to explain at least 80% of my ongoing obsession with Pixar and Walt Disney’s Toy Story. It’s giving mid-’90s, in the best way.
Allen Bauer in Splash, 1984
I have to admit that this movie doesn’t entirely hold up (Daryl Hannah is, uh, a sort of childlike mermaid in it?), but it does feature Hanks at his youngest and cutest.
Col. Tom Parker in Elvis, 2022
Did the L.A. Times call this role a career-worst for Hanks? Yes, but at this point, I’m always going to be happy to see Hanks in a film, even if he’s playing Elvis Presley’s sleazy, exploitative manager.
Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood 2019
Hanks was nominated for best supporting actor at the Academy Awards for playing Mr. Rogers in this 2019 film, costarring Matthew Rhys. Talk about a perfect match of star and subject.
Viktor Navorski in The Terminal, 2004
My kingdom for Tom Hanks in a comedic role! (Or a comedy-drama, anyway.) Watching Hanks putter around JFK after being stranded in America for the length of an entire movie is truly just what the doctor ordered.
Otto in A Man Called Otto (2022)
In this adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, Hanks plays an absolute menace in the most lovable way, as only he can. You’re guaranteed to be a blubbering mess by the end.
Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code, 2006
Okay, this Ron Howard film is not really for me, but you simply must admit that Hanks acted his ass off in it.
Josh Baskin in Big, 1988
This one holds up a lot better than Splash, if you ask me, and watching Hanks as a young-boy-turned-adult-man who gets to experience all the 18-plus delights of New York City life is always entertaining.
Carl Hanratty in Catch Me If You Can, 2002
It’s difficult to root against Hanks in any film, and even in this one—in which he plays an FBI agent being continually outsmarted by trickster Frank Abagnale, a.k.a. Leonardo DiCaprio—you kind of end up loving him. What a mensch!
Joe Fox in You’ve Got Mail 1998
The third film to co-star Hanks and Meg Ryan (after 1990’s Joe Versus the Volcano and 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle), You’ve Got Mail very charmingly recalls a time when people used AOL. It’s a classic rivals-to-romance story, centered on the head of a bookstore chain and an independent bookshop owner, and we couldn’t love it more.
Sam Baldwin in Sleepless in Seattle 1993
Need we say more? Beyond Hanks’s deeply endearing performance as a widowed dad living on a houseboat, there is also: Meg Ryan’s hair, Ross Malinger as Hanks’s adorably mischievous son, and a tiny Gaby Hoffmann, plus turns from Rita Wilson, Rosie O’Donnell, and Bill Pullman. In other words, it’s perfect!
Captain John H. Miller in Saving Private Ryan, 1998
I’m not generally a “war epic” kind of girl, even when it’s a Steven Spielberg production, but Hanks is so captivating in this film about an Army squad searching for a lost paratrooper during the Battle of Normandy in World War II that he almost changed my mind.
Chuck Noland in Cast Away, 2000
There’s a reason Hanks nabbed an Oscar nomination for his performance in this survival drama; he carries the whole thing more or less on his own, with only a beach volleyball for company. Sad!
Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own, 1992
Is this scientifically Tom Hanks’s best role, or is A League of Their Own (directed by the late Penny Marshall) just one of my favorite movies? Both can be—and are—true, and honestly, if the joy of watching Hanks as a crabby, once-great coach yelling “There’s no crying in baseball!” at a bunch of female players ever wears off, just turn me over to the alien overlords as a sacrifice.
