Forrest Gump (character) childhood friend Jennifer Curran, who eventually becomes his wife. Tom Hanks portrayed the character in the film and earned an Academy Award for his performance, while Michael Conner Humphreys portrayed Forrest as a child. In 2008, Forrest Gump was named the 20th greatest movie character of all time by "Empire" magazine. Forrest was born near the small town of Greenbow, Alabama, on June 6, 1944. His father was absent during his life, and his mother said he was "on vacation". His mother named Forrest after their ancestor Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Scotch-Irish American and a noted Confederate general in the
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