Tom Hanks

📍Oakland, California, USA

“Tom Hanks was born in Concord, California, in July 1956, and after his parents divorced when he was five, he moved constantly with his father, Amos, an itinerant cook, and his siblings around the towns of Northern California. By the age of ten, he has said, he had lived with three mothers, gone to five grammar schools and lived in ten houses. In 1966 his father settled the family in Oakland, the busy port city across the bay from San Francisco, and Tom spent the rest of his childhood there, growing used to a new stepmother and new siblings. He was a shy, sometimes lonely boy who found comfort in his imagination. He loved space travel and the Apollo programme, followed the Oakland A's, and spent hours watching films and television. At Skyline High School, in the hills above Oakland, he found his place in the drama club, encouraged by his drama teacher, Rawley Farnsworth, and he discovered the joy of making people laugh on stage. He also went through a phase of evangelical Christianity with friends and worked as a bellboy at the Oakland Hilton. After graduating in 1974 he studied theatre at Chabot College in Hayward and then at California State University, Sacramento. He went on to become one of the most beloved actors in Hollywood, winning Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. In his 1994 Oscar speech he thanked Farnsworth, his old teacher from Skyline, and he has always spoken fondly of Oakland, where he finally found a home.”

Sources: kqed.org artsinoakland.org Wikipedia: Tom Hanks