Tom Hanks
The idea of cinematic nice guy Tom Hanks playing a Chicago Mob hit-man who goes on a Tommy gun-toting rampage after the death of his wife and a son might be disconcerting to some moviegoers. But not to Hanks, who pounced on the role. "I didn't view him as a bad guy," he says of his character in the new drama Road to Perdition. "I viewed him as a guy out for revenge and retribution, something we all yearn for every now and again."
Besides, Perdition allowed Hanks, 46, to team up with Paul Newman, whom he calls "a pleasure" to work with—and a heck of a cook. During the shoot, Newman, 77, whipped up corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day. "If you're going to work with Paul," Hanks says, "you're going to get a good meal out of him." Of course Hanks is just as keen to share meals with his own family—wife Rita Wilson, 45, and their sons Chester, 11, and Truman, 6—in their Pacific Palisades home. "I've missed a lot of stuff working really hard," says the two-time Oscar winner. "My kids are a better dollar value than cable TV. They are more entertaining and produce more laughs than the media does."
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