Forrest Gump in its list of the "Best 100 Conservative Movies" of all time. Then, in 2009, the magazine ranked the film number four on its 25 Best Conservative Movies of the Last 25 Years list. "Tom Hanks plays the title character, an amiable dunce who is far too smart to embrace the lethal values of the 1960s. The love of his life, wonderfully played by Robin Wright Penn, chooses a different path; she becomes a drug-addled hippie, with disastrous results." James Burton, a communication arts professor at Salisbury University, argued that conservatives claimed "Forrest Gump" as their own due less to
Tom Hanks carefully nuanced performance that deserves an Oscar." Hanks won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in "Philadelphia". During his acceptance speech, he revealed that his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and former classmate John Gilkerson, two people with whom he was close, were gay. Hanks followed "Philadelphia" with the 1994 hit "Forrest Gump" which grossed a worldwide total of over $600 million at the box office. Hanks remarked: "When I read the script for "Gump", I saw it as one of those kind of grand, hopeful movies that the audience can go to and feel