Elizabeth Ann Hanks is an actress and writer with bylines in popular publications such as Vanity Fair Magazine, Guardian, New York Times, and Time. She has also formerly served as an Associate News Editor at the Huffington Post.
Moreover, her stint in the entertainment industry has seen the writer act in movies, too. She has appeared in films such as Forrest Gump (1994) and That Thing You Do! (1996).
But out of many who recognize Elizabeth and follow her, her profession and work have very little to contribute to her popularity. That is because she has earned more fame and recognition for being the daughter of renowned Hollywood actor Tom Hanks, even though she never asked for it.
Her recognition as a celebrity daughter and parallelly earned fame has somehow made her own works unnoticed and unappreciated.
Elizabeth Ann Hanks’ Family
Elizabeth is the daughter of actor Tom Hanks. Tom gave birth to her with his first wife, the late Samantha Lewes, whom Tom had divorced in 1987.
Being the second child and only daughter of Tom, she has 3 siblings, all brothers altogether. Elizabeth’s blood sibling is her elder brother Colin Hanks, and her other two brothers, Chester “Chet” Hanks, and Truman Theodore Hanks, are her step-siblings, who were born from her father’s second marriage with Rita Hanks.
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Elizabeth Ann Hanks Parents’ Split
Elizabeth’s parents, Tom and Samantha had married in 1978 and together gave birth to a son Colin Hanks (born in 1977), and Elizabeth. However, their marriage came to an end in 1987 after the actor built closeness with his now-wife, Rita Hanks.
And despite separating from her for another relationship [which later turned into marriage], Tom went through some hard times post-separation, especially thinking about his children. Speaking with Graham Bensinger, he recalled that he felt bad about his relationship with his children, as he thought that his kids felt abandoned by him. “Horribly painful time,” Tom said.
“Fraught with emotion and bad feelings and you know, the failures that you go ‘I couldn’t be a worse father and I couldn’t be a worse human being.’ I remember all those feelings of as though I had cursed innocent beings with my own failings.”
Elizabeth Ann Hanks’s Mother Passed Away
If the separation of her parents wasn’t enough, Elizabeth also had to experience the passing away of her mother, Samantha, when she was only 20 years old.
In 2001, Samantha was diagnosed with bone cancer and afterward went through several treatments. Her ex-husband Tom even made arrangements to ensure that she was treated by the best bone-cancer specialists at UCLA and even paid their fees.
But the doctors determined that her cancer had spread to her lungs and her brain after several efforts.
Samantha passed away on March 12, 2002, in Sacramento, California, after about a year-long battle with cancer.
Elizabeth Ann Hanks Father Tom Married Rita Hanks
After separating from her mother, Samantha, Elizabeth’s father, Tom was quick to get hitched to his lover Rita Hanks. Tom and Rita tied the knot on April 30, 1988.
Together, the couple welcomed two children, Chet Hanks (born in 1990) and Truman Theodore (born in 1995).
After her mother’s passing away, Elizabeth and her elder brother Colin were adopted by Tom and Rita.
Father Has Fond Memories of Elizabeth’s Early Days
The celebrated actor had fond memories of Elizabeth when she was growing up. Speaking with The New York Times, Tom talked about his children with his first wife and how they saw him as an ordinary guy in his early 20s.
He said that his son Colin and his daughter Elizabeth were born when he was very young—to be precise, he was 21 years old when he became a father for the first time. Tom stated,
“My son [Colin] was born when I was very young. As well as my daughter,”
He further expressed that he always maintained a good understanding with his children [Colin and Elizabeth] because they remember him as a guy who struggled to make a living and pay rent.
“We have this gestalt understanding because [Colin and Elizabeth] remember when their dad was just a guy trying to, you know, make the rent.”
Tom even compared his other two children from his second wife Rita with his first two children, saying,
“My other kids, they were born after I had established a beachhead in every way. And so their lives were just different.”
Elizabeth Ann Hanks Personal Life
Elizabeth is rarely vocal about her love life in public which has hindered us from knowing whether she is married to husband, dating a boyfriend, or just living a single life.
The only instance she ever talked about relationships and her feelings was in one of her articles in The Guardian magazine in January 2015. The article was titled “It’s time to stop playing the Girl That Got Away in your ex-boyfriend’s fantasies.”
In the opinion piece, she wrote about the guys she had gone out with, along with her experiences with the notion of love and the kind of person one desire to date.
She said,
“We have all fallen in love with the idea of a person, rather than the reality. Funnelled through the dim haze of nostalgia, it is even more difficult to remember former lovers with clarity – the human instinct to tell ourselves stories is too innate and our desire for fantasy over reality is too strong. Now we have the chimeric glimmers of other people’s lives we get on social media – a glance at a living room on Instagram, a reference to a movie on Facebook. We patch together enough broken puzzle pieces and create the idea of a person that suits us.”
She further revealed that she held a good relationship with all her ex-boyfriends, and in one instance, she even attended the wedding of her first ex-boyfriend.
Elizabeth Ann Hanks Career
To date, Elizabeth has tried her hands at many careers, including acting in movies and TV shows, writing stories for magazines, and authoring books. And somehow, she has managed to receive acknowledgment for all her work.
That being said, she has been most active as a writer and lately working on her first novel for children titled ‘Piper Peregrine Vs. The Consortium For Better Thinking.’
Elizabeth Ann Hanks Movies and TV Shows
Speaking about her acting career, Elizabeth has made a few appearances in movies and TV shows, even though she never saw acting as her priority like her father and late mother. To further pinpoint things, she acted in the projects her father was involved in when she was a child.
According to IMDb, her first acting credit is in the 1996 movie Forrest Gump where she played a school bus girl. She denied the young Forrest to sit with him during Forrest’s first bus ride to school.
Similarly, she also played the role of “Bored Girl in Dress Shop” in the 1996 film That Thing You Do!
From the above-mentioned projects, Elizabeth’s father, Tom, won the Oscar for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” for portraying the title character in Forrest Gump. Similarly, the actor had written and directed That Thing You Do!
Apart from that, she has acting credits in projects such as Big City Greens (2019) and City Kitties: The Article (2019).
Stint as Writer
Elizabeth’s career majorly saw her work as a writer for her profession. She goes by the pen name EA Hanks, also her username on both her Twitter and Instagram accounts as a writer.
Likewise, she has written for magazines such as The Awl, Jezebel, The New York Times, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and Time Magazine.
Working on Her Book
A glimpse into Elizabeth’s Instagram feed will give you an idea of how obsessed she is with books. She is indeed an avid book reader and aspires to publish her own book or novel.
She is currently working on getting her debut novel published. She is supposedly working on a children’s book named “Piper Peregrine vs. The Consortium for Better Thinking,” and the Creative Author has revealed the working title. The publication date is unknown, however. Yet, according to her Twitter profile, her book is scheduled for release in 2023. The author also hints in her Instagram account that her book could come out in 2024. Her followers could wait for more updates on her social media accounts.
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Elizabeth Ann Hanks Net Worth
With her work, Elizabeth has earned a good amount of respect, love, and admiration from people. Besides those aspects, she also added decent bucks in her purse. But that being said, the writer is yet to disclose her net worth figures.
On the contrary, her father, Tom, owns a big purse, as he is one of the world’s richest actors. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he has a net worth of $400 million from his stint as an actor, director, writer, and producer.
Elizabeth Ann Hanks Bio: Age, Measurements, and Education
Elizabeth was born on May 17, 1982, in Los Angeles, California. Her nickname is Liz, and her birth date suggests her birth sign is Taurus.
While growing up, she studied at The Archer School for Girls, located in Brentwood, California. She graduated from there in June 2001. Later, she enrolled at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, for higher education.
Moreover, Elizabeth’s body measurements, including her height and weight, are unknown, as she or any outlet has not revealed the details so far. But her images evidently show that she is a tall woman with complementing body size.
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