![\"He](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/He-Knows-Youre-Alone-Tom-Hanks-1980-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer \/ United Artists<\/p>\n
Sat 20 June 2026 18:06, UK <\/p>\n
Tom Hanks<\/a> is as widely adored as ice cream. The man is not only everyone\u2019s favourite typewriter fanatic but also one of the most celebrated movie stars of all time.<\/p>\n He\u2019s won two Oscars, but clearly Awards have never been at the forefront of his thinking, picking up roles like Woody in Toy Story along the way.<\/p>\n In a career spanning over 40 years, he has made us feel guilty about abandoning old toys, caused a few greying of hairs thanks to Captain Phillips, and in a particular career high, he appeared alongside Justin Bieber in the music video for Carly Rae Jepsen\u2019s \u2018I Really Like You\u2019. He\u2019s even put one of his cherished typewriters to work and published a collection of short stories, Uncommon Type, as well.<\/p>\n Hanks is, indeed, a legend of the silver screen, making his debut back in 1980 with the terrible horror flick He Knows You\u2019re Alone<\/a>. He was more spooked than anyone by this shady picture, swiftly making it his first and only foray into the horror genre to date. Rising to popularity throughout the 1980s thanks to such small-screen hits as Bosom Buddies and Family Ties, as the decade drew to a close, Hanks\u2019 profile steadily swelled with 1988\u2019s Big and 1989\u2019s The Burbs, making him an industry favourite. <\/p>\n Receiving an Oscar nomination for his leading role in the comedy Big was just the beginning for Hanks, too, with the following decade dripping with Hollywood adoration, receiving two Academy Awards for his respective performances in Jonathan Demme\u2019s Philadelphia and Robert Zemeckis\u2019 Forrest Gump. If this double Oscar victory hadn\u2019t convinced audiences, by the end of the 1990s, the world was smitten with the star of Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan and Green Mile, a trio of timeless cinematic classics.\u00a0<\/p>\n A unique star who possessed a combination of talent, quirkiness and adoration made Hanks the perfect guest for the equally revered Desert Island Discs. On the BBC Radio 4 programme, he joined the likes of Sir David Attenborough and Marlene Dietrich in the rarefied realm of the esteemed show\u2019s most beloved names. <\/p>\n Desert Island Discs has been a cornerstone of British broadcasting since its inception in 1942, when it was created by the playwright, novelist and radio producer Roy Plomley, OBE. The premise is simple, in fact, it\u2019s one we\u2019ve all thought about ourselves even if you\u2019ve never been aware of the show: if you were cast away (no Hanks pun intended) to a desert island and you could only have eight songs will you, one luxury and one book (bearing in mind that for some reason the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible already come complimentary on this island for some reason), then what would they be? In 2016, Hanks answered as best as anyone could, and it was typically stirring emotional fare.\u00a0<\/p>\n During the interview, Tom Hanks was moved to tears when discussing the watershed cinematic moment that he had while watching the title sequence of Stanley Kubrick\u2019s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey <\/a>backed by the iconic orchestral overture of Strauss\u2019s \u2018Also Sprach Zarathustra\u2019. Hank\u2019s childhood was nomadic and unsettled, and the cinema offered a chance for spiritual stability.\u00a0<\/p>\n He told the show\u2019s incomparably sincere interviewer, Kirsty Young, \u201cThis was the \u2018wow\u2019 moment of my life going from a kid trying to figure out what\u2019s interesting in this life to young man yearning to be an artist\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cI started asking myself: \u2018How do I find the vocabulary for what\u2019s rattling around in my head?\u2019. Not long after I started going to the American Conservatory theatre by myself to see plays I had no idea even existed\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Young later asked him what those feelings in his head were, Hanks was moved to tears. \u201cWhat have you done to me?\u201d he proclaimed in a comedic jibe towards an apologetic Young. \u201cNo, it\u2019s all right, because I put too much thought into this list. What it was, it was the vocabulary of loneliness,\u201d he replied after composing himself. It is the rare sort of moment that only an institution like Desert Island Discs can bring about. <\/p>\n Suddenly, Hanks was back at that moment when \u2018Also Sprach Zarathustra\u2019 first presented a new horizon, and he went from a shy boy to a born performer. At age 14, the soon-to-be legendary actor would write a very frank and very forward letter to Oscar award-winning director George Roy Hill, proclaiming himself to be a star in the making. \u201cMy looks are not stunning,\u201d penned the teen, \u201cI am not built like a Greek God, and I can\u2019t even grow a moustache, but I figure if people will pay to see certain films \u2026 they will pay to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n He began flunking algebra and, instead, hunting for vinyl by bands who dug Strauss. He started\u00a0reading about Stanley Kubrick<\/a>. He picked up culture magazines. He sought odd jobs to fund his theatre tickets. He changed his life. Art and music (the great social mobilisers that governments now swiftly cut funds to) had changed his worldview, and he would adore them for that from then on, endeavouring to be a proud custodian of what they can offer (unless you\u2019re Connor Ratliff<\/a>).<\/p>\n Hanks delved into emotional territory once more as he discussed his choice of the Talking Heads masterpiece \u2018Once In a Lifetime\u2019. By the time that Hanks turned 21, he was married and a father, but by the age of 27, the actor was divorced. Then, one day, he met the actor Rita Wilson, and Hanks explains, \u201cYou end up meeting that other person that you\u2019re like, \u2018She gets it\u2019. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be lonely any more, that\u2019s how I felt when I met my wife\u201d. <\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Tom-Hanks-Actor-Young-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ TCM<\/p>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Tom-Hanks-Actor-Cannes-2023-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Universal Studios<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n