Hanks to Receive AFI Life Achievement Award

Two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks, whose affable charm in comedies such as “Sleepless in Seattle” and riveting character studies in dramas such as “Saving Private Ryan” and “Forrest Gump” have made him a box-office powerhouse, on Thursday was named this year’s recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award.

At 45, Hanks is the youngest person selected for the honor by the AFI, whose list of past recipients reads like a veritable history of Hollywood from actors Bette Davis, James Cagney and Sidney Poitier to directors John Ford, Orson Welles and Steven Spielberg.

“Tom Hanks is American film’s Everyman for a new generation,” said Howard Stringer, chairman of the AFI board of trustees, which made the selection. The AFI compared Hanks to past recipients Henry Fonda and James Stewart.

The award is the highest honor Hollywood bestows for a career in film, and is given each year to the man or woman “whose talent has in a fundamental way advanced the film art” and whose “work has stood the test of time.”

Hanks will receive the institute’s 30th Life Achievement Award during a gala banquet June 12 in the new Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The tribute will be broadcast on the USA cable network June 23, followed by three encore performances later that month.

In making the announcement, AFI said it has forged a multiyear deal with Barry Diller’s USA Network to broadcast the life achievement show, which in recent years had been rotated among the major broadcast networks. While the AFI is hailing its new deal with USA, it also can be viewed as a step backward for the show itself because the USA Network reaches 80% of American homes that have television sets. By comparison, the Golden Globe Awards, which once struggled for viewers and credibility, became a ratings hit after moving from the TNT cable network to NBC a few years back.

Through films such as “Forrest Gump,” “Apollo 13” and most recently “Cast Away,” Hanks has reigned as one of the true box-office kings in Hollywood. The box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. notes that his 24 films have generated $2.26 billion and that he’s had 10 movies that have grossed at least $100 million each.

Nominated five times for the Academy Award, Hanks was the first since Spencer Tracy to receive back-to-back Oscars for best actor in “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump.”

Over the years, Hanks has branched out into directing, producing and writing. He not only starred in HBO’s Emmy-winning space series, “From the Earth to the Moon,” but directed one episode, wrote four others and served as executive producer.

More recently, he re-teamed with Spielberg (who directed him in “Saving Private Ryan”) to produce the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.”