After honing his comedic craft in various TV sitcoms from 1980 to 1982, Tom Hanks became a bona fide box office movie star in Ron Howard’s romantic comedy Splash. Ten years later, Hanks completely altered the perception of his talents from a funnyman to one of the finest dramatic actors by winning back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actor for the first time since Spencer Tracy in the late 1930s.
While most are aware of Hanks’ Oscar-winning turn in Forrest Gump, it’s his daring, career-changing performance in Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia that helped him break out of his comedic roles. Arguably a finer film and a more important performance than Forrest Gump, Philadelphia not only proved that Hanks could go toe-to-toe with the likes of Denzel Washington, but it also raised awareness about public prejudices surrounding the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s.
Tom Hanks’ Early Career Was Defined by Comedy
Tom Hanks made his screen debut in 1980, appearing in the slasher film He Knows You’re Alone and an episode of The Love Boat. After famously starring in the hit sitcom Bosom Buddies from 1980 to 1982, Hanks landed his breakout movie role in Ron Howard’s romantic comedy Splash, the 10th-highest-grossing movie of 1984.
With rave reviews to boot, the film put Hanks on the map as a bankable comedic actor who would spend the next decade starring in some of the funniest ’80s movies on record, including Bachelor Party, The Money Pit, Dragnet, Big, and The ‘Burbs. By 1992, Hanks flashed shades of dramatic work as the drunk baseball manager in A League of Their Own, one year before he completely shattered the perception of his acting chops by winning his first Oscar for Philadelphia.
Tom Hanks Rewrote His Career With His First Oscar Win for ‘Philadelphia’
Two years after the late, great Jonathan Demme won Best Director for The Silence of the Lambs, he cast Tom Hanks opposite Denzel Washington in Philadelphia. A taboo topic at the time, the film stars Hanks as Andrew Beckett, a lawyer discriminated against for contracting AIDS and secretly being fired as a result of being gay. Andrew enlists the help of personal injury litigator Joe Wilson (Washington) to sue his law firm for wrongful termination.
Arguably the most important film and best performance of his career, Hanks risked his reputation to play Beckett during a time when AIDS patients incurred a hateful stigma in society. Philadelphia was the first mainstream Hollywood movie to address the AIDS epidemic openly, paint homosexual characters in a sympathetic light, and push back on deeply insensitive homophobic prejudices. The film helped raise awareness about AIDS and showed the world that those with the syndrome are just as normal and human as anyone else.
For his towering performance opposite the equally sublime Washington, Hanks won Best Actor at the 66th Academy Awards. The following year, Hanks became only the second actor in history to win consecutive Best Actor Oscars, behind Spencer Tracy (1937-38). Ironically, the last actor to win back-to-back supporting Oscars was Jason Robards (1976-77), who also starred in Philadelphia.
Nowadays, Hanks is considered one of the finest actors of all time, earning three more Oscar nominations post-Forrest Gump. Turning 70 this July, when he looks back on his career, Hanks is bound to be incredibly proud of his performance in Philadelphia. Not just for the important message the movie boasts, but also for altering the trajectory of his legendary Hollywood career. In 2025, Philadelphia was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
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