Birth of Tom Hanks in Concord, California

Tom Hanks was born in Concord, California, on July 9, 1956, to hospital worker Janet Marylyn (née Frager) and itinerant cook Amos 'Bud' Hanks. His mother was from a Portuguese family, and their surname was originally 'Fraga'. His father had English ancestry, and through his line, Hanks is a distant cousin of President Abraham Lincoln and children's host Fred Rogers. His parents divorced in 1960, and the three oldest children, Sandra, Larry, and Tom, went with their father, while the youngest, Jim, remained with their mother in Red Bluff, California. In his childhood, Hanks' family moved often; by age ten, he had lived in ten different houses. Although Hanks' family religious history was Catholic and Mormon, he converted to Greek Orthodox Christianity as an adult, after his marriage to Rita Wilson. One journalist characterized Hanks' teenage self as being a 'Bible-toting evangelical' for several years. In school, he was unpopular with students and teachers alike, later telling Rolling Stone magazine, 'I was a geek, a spaz. I was horribly, painfully, terribly shy. At the same time, I was the guy who'd yell out funny captions during filmstrips. But I didn't get into trouble. I was always a real good kid and pretty responsible.' Hanks acted in school plays, including South Pacific, while attending Skyline High School in Oakland, California. Having grown up in the Bay Area, Hanks says that some of his first movie memories were seeing movies in the Alameda Theatre. Hanks studied theater at Chabot College in Hayward, California, and transferred to California State University, Sacramento after two years. During a 2001 interview with sportscaster Bob Costas, Hanks was asked whether he would rather have an Oscar or a Heisman Trophy. He replied that he would rather win a Heisman by playing halfback for the California Golden Bears. He told New York magazine in 1986, 'Acting classes looked like the best place for a guy who liked to make a lot of noise and be rather flamboyant. I spent a lot of time going to plays. I wouldn't take dates with me. I'd just drive to a theater, buy myself a ticket, sit in the seat and read the program, and then get into the play completely. I spent a lot of time like that, seeing Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Ibsen, and all that.' During his years studying theater, Hanks met Vincent Dowling, head of the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. At Dowling's suggestion, Hanks became an intern at the festival. His internship stretched into a three-year experience that covered most aspects of theater production, including lighting.