Meet Tom Hanks’s 4 Kids – Colin, Elizabeth, Chet, and Truman

2 years ago

Tom Hanks is one of the most decorated and beloved actors of all time, and he’s also a husband, grandfather, and father of four. The two-time Oscar winner has played everyone from Walt Disney (“Saving Mr. Banks”) and Mister Rogers (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) to war heroes (“Saving Private Ryan” and “Forrest Gump”) and Woody the pull-string cowboy rag doll (the “Toy Story” series).

Tom had his oldest two children, Colin and Elizabeth Hanks, with his first wife, Samantha Lewes, whom he divorced in 1987 (she later died in 2002). He then married actor and singer Rita Wilson in 1988, and the two have two children, Chester “Chet” Hanks and Truman Hanks.

In 2020, Tom thanked his family in an emotional speech when he was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. “A man is blessed with a family sitting down front like that,” he said. “A wife who is fantastic in every way. Who has taught me what love is . . . Kids who are braver and wiser than their old man is. I can’t tell you how much your love means to me.” All four of the actor’s kids were also in attendance with him at the event.

Pretty much all of Tom’s kids have followed him into the entertainment industry in some way, but in December 2022, Tom waded into the nepotism debate to defend them. He told Reuters, “Look, this is a family business. This is what we’ve been doing forever. It’s what all of our kids grew up in. . . . If we were a plumbing supply business or if we ran the florist shop down the street, the whole family would be putting in time at some point, even if it was just inventory at the end of the year.”

Read ahead to learn what we know about Tom’s four children – and meet his three grandchildren.

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Colin Hanks

Tom’s oldest child is also his most famous. That’s because, like his dad, Colin Hanks, born Nov. 24, 1977, is an actor, producer, and director. Colin – whose mom is Tom’s first wife, Samantha Lewes – is known for starring in films such as “Orange County,” “King Kong,” “The House Bunny,” and the “Jumanji” series. His breakout role was in the TV series “Roswell” back in 1999. In 2014, his role as Officer Gus Grimly in the television series “Fargo” got him nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy award. More recently, he appeared in “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” “The Offer,” and “A Friend of the Family.” Colin has been married to his wife, Samantha Bryant, since 2010. They have two children.

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Elizabeth Hanks

Tom’s second child and only daughter, Elizabeth Hanks, was born on May 17, 1982. She’s a writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, and Time. According to her Twitter bio, she is working on a book to be released in 2023. And though she’s not an actor, per se, she does have a handful of professional credits on her IMBD profile. In 1994, she played “school bus girl” in “Forrest Gump;” in 1996, she is credited as playing the role of “bored girl in dress shop” in “That Thing You Do!” – which her dad directed. Her brother Colin also had a small role in the film.

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Chester "Chet" Hanks

Chet Hanks, born Aug. 4, 1990, is the son of Tom and his second wife, Rita Wilson. He is an actor and rapper. His TV appearances include roles on “Shameless,” “Empire,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and “Atlanta.” In 2022, he was a guest on the Showtime series “Ziwe.” Chet is also a dad to daughter Michaiah, who was born in 2016.

Lately, Chet has been going by Chet Hanx, and he also previously used the name Chet Haze. In recent years, there seems to be some tension between him and his parents, especially Tom.

Chet talked about being his dad’s son in a 2022 YouTube video. He recalled when the family went to the White House and met then-president George Bush (who knows something about having a famous dad), who asked Chet what it was like to have Tom as a father. “The answer I gave him then is the same answer I give people now and it’s, I said, ‘Well, Mr. President, there’s a lot of advantages, but sometimes it can be pretty weird,'” Chet recounted.

He added that despite the advantages, fame can be toxic. “My experience was even more complicated because, on top of fame already being toxic, I wasn’t even famous,” he said. “I was just the son of somebody famous, so I hadn’t even done anything to deserve any sort of recognition, and that created a lot of contempt.” Chet also said, “I didn’t have a strong male role model to tell me, ‘Bro, f*ck these people, they’re just jealous of you.'”

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Truman Hanks

The youngest of the Hanks clan, Truman Hanks, was born on Dec. 26, 1995, to Tom and Wilson. For years, Truman kept a much lower profile than his siblings, and he doesn’t have public-facing social media. He mostly spent time behind the camera, not in front of it. Truman has worked as a production assistant and cinematographer on movies including “Black Widow,” “West Side Story,” and “Charlie’s Angels.”

However, that changed for Truman in 2022 when he joined his dad in the movie “A Man Called Otto.” Truman plays the younger version of Tom’s character in the film. In January 2023, Hanks told Today about how it came about, saying, “Truman, who is either burdened or blessed by resembling myself at the same age as him, and Marc Forster, our fabulous director, just says, ‘You know what? It’s always so fake to get somebody else to come in and play you, ’cause they never look right. Could maybe Truman do this?'”

Truman also appeared in a small role in Tom’s 2020 movie “News of the World.”

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Tom Hanks's Grandkids

Tom has three grandkids, all of them girls. Through Colin, he has Olivia, born in 2011, and Charlotte, born in 2013. Meanwhile, Chet has one daughter, Michaiah, born in 2016. Chet shares his daughter with his ex Tiffany Miles.

Colin joked that Olivia and Charlotte don’t really care about their grandpa’s success in a 2021 interview with Us Weekly. “They’re aware of what he does for sure,” Colin said at the time. “It’s just the same way they’re aware of what their father does for a living, but they don’t have really much interest in it. . . I mean, I wasn’t on ‘Hannah Montana,’ so they don’t really have any interest in what I do.”

Unlike his dad, Colin added that he hopes the kids don’t go into the industry. “Hopefully, they don’t choose that,” he told the outlet. “I keep telling them they can do whatever they want. . . . I really am more interested in seeing what they choose to do and what they sort of gravitate toward. That’s always an important thing for parents to do.”