30 Amazing Photos of Tom Hanks From 1994’s Movie ‘Forrest Gump’

In 1994 a certain film was born starring Tom Hanks that has stuck with audiences for decades. With pinches of romance, historical themes, controversy, and action, Forrest Gump has something for every avid movie watcher.

When Tom Hanks signed up to star in the movie he opted out of receiving a salary, and instead wanted a portion of the film’s earnings. It turned out to be a fantastic move on his part, seeing as the film made more than $677 million. It is estimated by some reports that he earned over $60 million in the end. Hank’s performance in the film also won him an Academy Award, making him the second actor to win the Best Actor Award two years in a row. He won the award the year before for his role in Philadelphia.

One of the many things that Forrest Gump finds he’s amazing at during the course of the movie is ping pong. He starts playing it to pass the time as he recovers in a veterans’ hospital and then goes on to become a world-class ping pong player. As it turns out, Tom Hanks didn’t actually master the art of ping pong. He just vigorously swung the paddle around and the ping pong balls were digitally added in post-production. With the perfectly placed sound effects and seamless motion blur, you’d never be able to tell, even by today’s impressive CGI standards.

When a movie is being filmed, many takes are often required to capture certain shots. This can become a problem when the scene in question requires the actors to do a lot of running, because it quickly tires them out. In Forrest Gump, the title character runs across America at one point. Since Tom Hanks would’ve been exhausted by filming so many running scenes in quick succession, his younger brother Jim Hanks stood in for him. Jim Hanks isn’t identical to his brother, so he couldn’t fill in for him in the closeups, but he looked enough like him that the audience couldn’t tell the difference in the wide shots.

Forrest Gump was released in the United States on July 6, 1994 and received acclaim for Zemeckis’s direction, performances, visual effects, music, and screenplay. The film won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. It received many award nominations, including Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.