Tom Hanks has turned in beloved performances in dramas and comedies, often playing affable good guys and average joes that become heroes. The likeable characters he has played and his talent for bringing them to life with passion and poise has made Hanks a huge movie star. As the actor, director, producer, and writer celebrates his 70th birthday, we are taking a look at some of the many highlights from his career.

Born on July 9, 1956, in Concord California, he started acting in school plays like South Pacific when he was in high school. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, then California State University, Sacramento. He spent a few years working at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, where he learned most of the aspects of theater productions.

In 1979, he moved to New York City to pursue his acting career, starting with the slasher movie, He Knows You’re Alone, and a stage production of The Mandrake. The next year Hanks landed a role in the Bosom Buddies sitcom, then his star began to rise with his roles in Splash and Bachelor Party in 1984. He was in The Money Pit, played a 13-year-old in a man’s body in Big (earning his first Academy Award nomination), was a nosy neighbor in The ‘Burbs, and was in Turner & Hooch and Joe Versus the Volcano.

Hanks played baseball coach Jimmy Dugan in A League of Their Own, then starred opposite Meg Ryan in the romantic charmer, Sleepless in Seattle. In Philadelphia he played a gay lawyer with AIDS in one of the first movies to address HIV/AIDS and homophobia. A year later, he starred in Forrest Gump as the titular character who led an extraordinary life. Hanks won back to back Oscars for the movies.

He played Astronaut Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, then he voiced Woody the cowboy in Toy Story (the first of five animated films), directed and starred in That Thing You Do, and got his fourth Oscar nod for Saving Private Ryan. Hanks reteamed with Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail, was in The Green Mile, spent most of his screen time alone in Cast Away (getting his fifth Academy Award nomination), then he created, co-wrote, and co-directed the Band of Brothers miniseries.

Hanks was in Road to Perdition based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner, starred opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, was in The Terminal, and voiced the Conductor in The Polar Express. He played Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno (based on the novels by Dan Brown), was in Charlie Wilson’s War with Julia Roberts, and narrated The Pacific miniseries.

Starting in the 2010s, Hanks played several real life figures including merchant mariner Richard Phillips in Captain Phillips, Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, pilot Chesley Sullenberger in Sully, journalist and editor Ben Bradlee in The Post, and Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, earning his sixth Oscar nomination. He was also in Bridge of Spies, Greyhound, Elvis, A Man Called Otto, and recently narrated the World War II with Tom Hanks TV series.

In addition to his Oscar wins and nominations, Hanks is an 18-time Emmy nominee, received the AFI Life Achievement Award and a Kennedy Center Honor. In 2016, Hanks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama and in 2020 the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.