Film Society’s 36th Gala Tribute
To Honor Tom Hanks
April 27, 2009
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center Black-Tie
Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks will be celebrated as the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 36th Gala Tribute honoree during a star-studded evening at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall, Monday, April 27, 2009. The black-tie event will feature remarks by many of Hanks’s friends and collaborators and film clips commemorating his lauded career, culminating in the presentation of the Gala Tribute award.
“There are so few actors who have been able to make the struggle and drama of being a good man compelling,” says Kent Jones, who will direct and produce the event with Jeanne R. Berney. “In that regard, Tom Hanks now stands alone. He’s had an exemplary career in movies, taking on genuinely challenging roles and expanding his creative reach into producing and directing. With his talent, his presence, his versatility, his sense of humor, he has set a very high standard for his fellow actors. We’re very proud that he’s going to be our next honoree.”
Hanks becomes just the third American-born male actor to be honored at the Film Society’s Gala Tribute this decade, following Al Pacino in 2000 and Dustin Hoffman in 2005. Begun in 1972 by bringing Charles Chaplin out of exile and back to the United States, the Gala Tribute — America’s longest-running annual career tribute and honors ceremony—celebrates actors and filmmakers who have defined the method by which movies are made and seen, and advanced the understanding of cinema as an art form. The roster of past Film Society honorees represents many of film history’s visionary talents, including Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Laurence Olivier, Federico Fellini, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton and, most recently, Meryl Streep.
Tom Hanks joins this illustrious list after spending much of the past two decades honing his impeccable skills in a series of acclaimed dramatic performances. He became the first actor in more than 50 years to win back-to-back Academy Awards—first as the assailed AIDS-stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia (1994) and then as a picaresque hero for America’s post-war generation in Robert Zemeckis’s Forrest Gump (1995). His roles in recent years have included the voice of cowboy doll Woody in the groundbreaking Pixar animated features Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999), survivor Chuck Nolan in Cast Away (2000), the several mystical heroes of The Polar Express (2004) and the title opportunistic senator in Mike Nichols’s Charlie Wilson’s War (2007).
Meanwhile, Hanks’s career has been distinguished by his frequent collaborations with two prominent American directors: Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg. The first partnership resulted from Hanks’s cameo appearance on Happy Days in 1982, which helped Hanks land his first starring film role in Howard’s Splash (1984). They have since worked together on Apollo 13 (1995), The Da Vinci Code (2006) and its forthcoming sequel Angels & Demons (2009), and as producers on the Emmy Award-winning television mini-series From the Earth to the Moon (1998).
Hanks and Spielberg have partnered as actor and director on three films — Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), and The Terminal”(2004) — though their collaboration dates back to Spielberg’s work as a producer on the Hanks-led comedies The Money Pit (1986) and Joe vs. the Volcano (1990). As producers, they have also worked together on projects including the celebrated World War II television mini-series Band of Brothers (2001) and a planned future series The Pacific, based on the war in the Pacific theater.
Born in 1956 and raised in Oakland, Calif., Hanks followed a high school interest in acting to Chabot College in Hayward, Calif., and California State University in Sacramento. He made his professional acting debut as Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, performing in the company for three seasons before moving to New York in 1978. His first major onscreen role came in 1980 on the ABC television comedy series Bosom Buddies.
By the end of the ’80s, Hanks had established himself as one of the country’s most sought-after leading men. His stellar decade was marked by roles in a succession of popular comedies including Bachelor Party (1984), Dragnet (1987), Punchline (1988), Big (1988)—for which Hanks earned a Golden Globe and his first Oscar nomination — and Turner & Hooch (1989). Hanks branched out in the ’90s as a romantic lead alongside Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998); in comic roles in a broader range of genres, including the period baseball film A League of Their Own (1992), as well as Toy Story; and as writer/director of the rock and roll fable That Thing You Do! (1996). In 2002, the American Film Institute acknowledged Hanks’s contributions to the movies with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He remains the youngest man to receive the honor.
Hanks is married to actress Rita Wilson. The couple has worked together on several projects, including Bosom Buddies,< the comedy Volunteers (1985) and as producers of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) and Mamma Mia! (2008).
Proceeds from the Gala Tribute will support the Film Society’s annual programs including the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, Film Comment magazine as well as year-round programming at the Walter Reade Theater.
Ticket information will be available online in January 2009.
