There’s a Tom Hanks meme that did the rounds in the wake of #MeToo’s viral upsurge in 2017. It places the words “Another actress has come forward” above the venerated actor’s smiling face. The punchline? “…accusing Tom Hanks of being nice.”

A more recent meme connects Hanks to his contemporary Keanu Reeves. This one’s a two-parter, with the first slide showing a sign for the “actors that nobody hates annual meeting.” I’m sure you can guess the punchline – it’s just Hanks and Reeves at the meeting.

The point is that Tom Hanks is one of the most loved men in showbiz. And in recent years the adoration has been directed at his public persona as much as, if not more than, his acting work. But Hanks couldn’t have become a meme-hero without giving us 35+ years of on-screen charm.

So are you a Tom Hanks film buff? Can you name his first starring role from 1984? And who was his female counterpart in that Ron Howard fantasy flick? Ok, that might be a tough one, but surely you’re familiar with Hanks’ ascent into a blockbuster leading man through the 1990s and 2000s?

Loads of Hanks’ films from this era have become lazy day go-to selections, which is interesting given the stylistic range of his work. Hanks delved into sports comedy-drama (A League of Their Own), magic realism (Forrest Gump) and epic war cinema (Saving Private Ryan).

He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Andrew Beckett in the AIDS drama Philadelphia. But he wasn’t averse to more conventional rom-coms, starring next to Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. And let’s not forget that Hanks gives voice to Woody in the Toy Story films.

Take our quiz to prove that your affection for Hanks goes deeper than the nice guy memes.

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Can you match the Tom Hanks line to its film?

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