AARP Hearing Center
There’s a reason Tom Hanks, 66, has earned the nickname “America’s Dad.” Over the years, the two-time Oscar winner has developed a reputation as the nicest guy in show business, and he’s built up a résumé of aww-inspiring roles, including fathers and coaches, underdogs and everymen, and even the man in the cardigan himself, Mr. Rogers. This month Hanks will take on yet another paternal role as Geppetto in Disney’s live-action remake of the 1940 animated classic Pinocchio. To get you in the mood, we’ve assembled a list of the actor’s 10 most heartwarming roles — not necessarily his best, mind you, simply the ones that made us all collectively go, “Aw, what a good guy!” (And check out how many hearts each movie merits out of five!)
Big (1988)
The premise: Hanks is at his boy-next-door best in this Penny Marshall–directed comedy, in which he plays Josh Baskin, a teenage boy who wishes on a fortune-teller machine named Zoltar to be “big” and then awakens the next morning as a grown man. He gets a job at a toy company, does a duet with executive Mr. MacMillan (Robert Loggia) on the FAO Schwarz Walking Piano, and develops an innocent crush on his coworker Susan (Elizabeth Perkins, 61). Hanks is so charming in the role that he scored a Golden Globe win, and Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times, “For any other full-grown actors who try their hands at fidgeting, squirming, throwing water balloons and wolfing down food in a huge variety of comically disgusting ways, this really is the performance to beat.”
How heartwarming?: ❤️❤️❤️
Watch it: Big, on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu
A League of Their Own (1992)
The premise: Sure, Rockford Peaches manager Jimmy Dugan has a rough exterior. Case in point: His instantly iconic “There’s no crying in baseball!” line, which he lobs at an emotional player. He also says of his team, “I don’t have ballplayers, I’ve got girls. Girls are what you sleep with after the game, not what you coach during the game.” But even though he wouldn’t want you to ever find out, the boozehound former major leaguer is a softie at heart whose bark is surely worse than his bite. His friendship with Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis, 66) and his disappointment when she decides to leave the sport behind is proof of the nice guy hiding under the tobacco-spitting, chauvinistic surface.
How heartwarming?: ❤️
Watch it: A League of Their Own, on Amazon Prime, Apple TV
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
The premise: In Nora Ephron’s rom-com remix of An Affair to Remember, Hanks plays architect Sam Baldwin, who recently lost his wife to cancer. The next Christmas Eve, his son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), calls in to a radio show to find his dad a new wife, and Sam reluctantly gets on the air to talk. When the host asks him what was so special about his wife, he says, “Well, how long is your program? Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together ... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home, only to no home I’d ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like magic.” He’s a great dad, a hopeless romantic and an ideal catch, and women across the country — including Baltimore Sun reporter Annie Reed (Meg Ryan, 60) — just wanted to give him a hug.
How heartwarming?: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Watch it: Sleepless in Seattle, on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, HBO Max
More on entertainment
Tom Hanks on Friendship
Star of the new Fred Rogers biopic talks about friends who changed his lifeThe Strange Love Story of Col. Tom Parker and Elvis Presley
Baz Luhrmann explains how Tom Hanks captures Presley's odd manager in ‘Elvis’The 10 Most Inspiring Filmmakers Over 50
These stars and directors are more creative than ever