Tom Hanks: My dad saw his father’s murder | Forward Progress

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0:45Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Hey, it's Graham. Our past in-depth guests have shared so many inspirational stories about overcoming adversity and tackling the darkest and most challenging times in their lives. We're sharing one of those moments in today's Thursday podcast in the hope that it provides a blueprint for any difficulties you might be facing. This week, Tom Hanks.

1:21I want to ask you about your dad. How aware were you of his dreams back when he was a young man, which I think was to go to college and then move to Australia as a writer? Well, my dad got a raw deal when he was a very young man because he happened to witness the murder of his father in a fight. He was eight or nine or ten years old, and a hired hand killed his father in the barn of the farm that they were growing up in Willows, California. He was one of four kids, and he was the only one there. And he was broken by that experience. He had to go and testify as a kid three times, you know, with the lawyers and the judge and the flag, and do you hereby solemnly swear?

2:22And it was a contentious fight. The man was acquitted by, you know, self-defense, because it was a fight. But his father was killed, and he witnessed that. How do you think that affected him? Oh, it ruined him. It robbed him of a carefree life. It robbed him of a sense of fairness in the world. It was a black mark of injustice and unfairness that landed squarely on his very young shoulders. It wasn't right. And he saw it. I don't know what his relationship with his dad was. He never spoke about it very much. His mother was a very religious woman, and he didn't buy the religion at all. And he was a black sheep of the family.

3:19But he was a black sheep of the family because of this thing that had happened. this tragedy, this scar that he ended up carrying around with him for a long time. I don't know if he ever communicated any kind of great joy that he got from anything that happened to his life until he married my stepmother. You asked about what he wanted to do. Yeah, my dad wanted to write. He had great artistic desires, but life didn't deal him the cards in order to go off and pursue it. Other things came along. Chevy is called the heartbeat of America for a reason. With SUVs made to move with your rhythm. The versatile Equinox tackles your entire day.

4:05The spacious Traverse fits your crew and your whole weekend. And tracks bring style with value you can count on. All infused with tech that has your back. So your drive always hits the right chord. Chevrolet. Together let's drive. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense?

4:42There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18+. how did your role in nothing in common impact your communication with your dad well that was a big deal because that was uh gary gary marshall uh that was a moment of faith from him in which he said look we're gonna do a we're gonna do a movie here and you know it's not just jokes this isn't just jokes we gotta see you we gotta see you and your father not get along and discover each other like that. My dad was alive then. And we were beginning to see each other a lot more. As a matter of fact, I think in the course of Nothing in Common, I got divorced from my older kid's mother and horribly painful time, fraught with emotion and bad feelings and

5:39the, you know, the failures that you go, you know, I have that, oh, I couldn't, I couldn't be a worse, couldn't be a worse father, and I couldn't be a worse human being, and I told my dad at some point, I said, look, dad, I'm doing this movie with Jackie Gleason, and he's playing a guy who's sick, and you were sick, you might, he's got diabetes, and you've got, you know, you got no kidneys, I just, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of you and me in this movie, I just want you to know that before you see it. And, you know, I think he appreciated it and that there was a place there. There was a place for common ground.

6:12And it turned out to be in a movie called Nothing in Common. To what extent did that cause you to have any conversations with him that up to that point you'd always been wanting to have? You know, I didn't burden my dad in that way. I didn't say, come on, dad, you know, what's the scoop? But what I did do was I listened for whatever would come out. The stories of him growing up, not so much about the loss of his dad, but growing up on a farm and the type of labor that he did. I think prior to nothing in common, When I got my first job as a professional actor and I was going to leave California and go to Ohio to work at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival as an equity actor, as a professional guy, I got together with my dad.

7:12I took him to the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, a place that I had gone to a million times by myself. And at intermission, I said, what do you think, Dad? He said, well, I think it's quite inventive, something else. I said, well, I'm going off to work as an actor in a repertory theater. And I don't think I'm coming back to L.A. Excuse me. I don't think I'm coming back to California after this. I'm going to go to wherever this is going to take me. But he couldn't quite fathom anybody in the Hanks family getting up on stage and saying, give me your, let me have your attention, please.

7:54This was not in his, that's not in his DNA. He wasn't, he didn't think it was stupid. He didn't say, oh, for crying out loud, get a real job. No, just the opposite. He kind of like said, well, I think that if that's what you want to do, then I think, I think that's what, then that's what you should do it. But the great thing of it was I was able to get established. You know, I got the TV shows on Busy Buddies. He got to see me every week. And then later on when I was able to get the films. And the first time when I was nominated for big in the Academy Award, he and my stepmom came down. We all went together.

8:34So he got to go to the broadcast. So he was able to take in, you know, this kind of like grander aspect of his kid making good enough headway in a realm that was completely alien. That's it for now. But if you're hungry for more in-depth interviews, head over to YouTube dot com slash Graham Bensinger. You can dive into our deep library, which includes more than 2000 clips spanning 12 plus years. Thanks again for listening. The wild world of college football continues Labor Day weekend. On Saturday, East Carolina looks to shock Alabama, and Baylor and Auburn battle it out in Atlanta in the Aflac kickoff game.

9:18Then, Clemson hits the road, looking to spoil Lane Kiffin's Death Valley debut. Sunday night, it's Louisville versus Ole Miss in Nashville in the inaugural Liberty Mutual Music City kickoff game. College football Labor Day weekend continues Saturday and Sunday on ABC and the ESPN app. This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files, and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports.

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