Here’s Why Tom Hanks Returned His Oscar Awards To The Academy (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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One of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors, Tom Hanks, made a surprising move with his two Academy Awards. Years after winning them, he sent them back to the Academy. But the reason wasn’t what most people would expect.
The Forrest Gump star didn’t return them out of protest or regret. Instead, his Oscars were falling apart. The golden statues he won for Philadelphia (1994) and Forrest Gump (1995) had started to corrode due to years of handling. The Academy had a solution, but it wasn’t one Hanks had anticipated.
Hanks is one of the few stars to get back-to-back Academy Awards. His performance in Philadelphia won him Best Actor in 1994, and he repeated the achievement in 1995 with Forrest Gump. We know that Forrest Gump, in particular, became a cultural phenomenon. Moreover, the actor’s performance is still widely hailed today.
After years of proudly displaying his Oscars, Hanks noticed a problem. The gold plating was wearing off. He later explained that human sweat and natural oils were to blame. “My Oscars are a little old,” Hanks said, as reported by Contact Music. “When you get one, the sweat in your hands have a certain level of acidity or some alkaline so when you grab them…that sweat and the chemicals in your body begin to immediately corrode the gold.”
Realizing the damage, he sent them back to the Academy for restoration. Hanks expected the Academy to polish up his Oscars and return them. Instead, they told him the trophies were in such bad shape that replacing them might be the best option. “I got the word back…they said they were in such bad shape, they would be happy to just give me replacements,” Hanks recalled.
But the actor wasn’t interested in getting new ones. His Oscars had history. They were the exact awards he received on those career-defining nights. “They got serial numbers on them,” he said, emphasizing their significance. Rather than accept replacements, Hanks asked the Academy to replace the original awards. And after all the trouble, he made one final decision—no one touches them again.
“Everybody comes to my house and goes, ‘Can I hold your Oscar?’” he said. “No, no, no, don’t hold my Oscars.” Tom Hanks’ decision makes sense. After all, if two decades of handling could wear them down once, he wasn’t about to let it happen again.
