Cast Of Forrest Gump Then And Now

Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) - THEN

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Many fans consider Forrest Gump to be Tom Hanks' best movie ever! By the time Hanks starred as Gump, he'd already proven his worth in 1984's "Splash" and 1992's "A League of Their Own" to name just two. Those iconic phrases such as "Run Forrest run" and "Life is like a box of chocolates ...." still live on in our memories today.

Tom Hanks - NOW

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Tom Hank, the beloved American icon, said that HIS COVID-19 diagnosis in 2020 actually changed the way that the public viewed the virus! In 2021, Hanks hosted the Celebrating America program for President Joe Biden's inauguration, just as he was gearing up for his next films. He portrayed Geppetto for Disney's live-action remake of "Pinocchio" and the  science fiction film "Bios." Most recently, he has penned his first novel.

Robin Wright (Jenny Curran) - THEN

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Robin Wright's acting career was still taking off when she played Forrest's lifelong friend and love interest, Jenny Curran in Forrest Gump. Seven years earlier she had starred in "The Princess Bride." While she is still remembered as Jenny, Robin has gone on to make many more movies and television shows.

Robin Wright - NOW

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During and following her "House of Cards" run,  Robin Wright also starred in the 2017 blockbuster "Blade Runner 2049" and 2020's "Wonder Woman 1984." In 2021 she starred and directed in "Land", about a woman living off the grid. She really has done so much since playing Jenny but still gets asked about it to this day!

Sally Field (Mrs Gump) - THEN

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Sally Field was already an accomplished actress by the time she took the role of Mrs Gump in Forrest Gump. She was doing television work back in the 1960s before transitioning to film roles by the 1970s. When she showed up as Mrs Gump, it was a scoop for the producers.

Sally Field - NOW

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After Forrest Gump, Sally Field returned to television roles with Emmy winning appearances on "ER" and starring as matriarch Nora Walker in "Brothers & Sisters". Field then starred as Aunt May in "The Amazing Spider-Man and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" in 2014. She was the title character in 2015's "Hello, My Name Is Doris."

Mykelti Williamson (Bubba) - THEN

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Benjamin Buford Blue, known as Bubba, played a pivotal role in the life of Forrest Gump. Actor Mykelti Williamson's portrayal of Bubba certainly gave us one of the most heart-wrenching, saddest deaths of the movie.  Forrest Gump was Williamson's first big screen roles

Mykelti Williamson - NOW

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Moving into the 2000s, Williamson started doing more television roles again, playing Lt Philip Gerard in the tv adaptation of "The Fugitive."  He reunited with Gary Sinise when playing Chief Brigham Sinclair on Sinise's series "CSI: NY"  and he has continued playing military and law enforcement roles on tv shows ever since.

Gary Sinise (Lieutenant Dan)- THEN

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After appearing mainly in television programs and tv movies, Gary Sinise was cast as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump. Once that movie came out, he was inundated with offers and was virtually everywhere. He shared the screen in 1995 with Tom Hanks in "Apollo 13."

Gary Sinise - NOW

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Gary Sinise was reunited with Tom Hanks for 1999's "The Green Mile".  Sinise found his niche in the television world, starring as Mac Taylor on "CSI: Miami" and leading "CSI: NY" in the exact same role from 2004-2013. Talented Gary is a director, producer and musician.

Sam Anderson (Mr Hancock) - THEN

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If you were watching Forrest Gump for the first time as a child, you probably didn't realize what was going on between Mrs. Gump and school principal Mr. Hancock that allowed Forrest Gump to go to public school! Sam Anderson made the portrayal believable in what could have been a tacky storyline.

Sam Anderson - NOW

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Sam Anderson has appeared in many movies since Forrest Gump, including 2011's "Water for Elephants" and 2016's "Ouija: Origin of Evil." However, he does love doing tv and played a blinder as Bernard Nadler in "Lost." More recently, he starred in the movie "Echoes of Violence."

Geoffrey Blake (Wesley) - THEN

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Geoffrey Blake played Wesley, Jenny's abusive boyfriend. Credit to the actor who seems to be able to take on any role with such ease. Though you may not realize it, you've very likely seen Blake in countless television shows and movies, before and after Forrest Gump.

Geoffrey Blake - NOW

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The year after Forrest Gump, Blake appeared with Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise once again in "Apollo 13" and made an appearance in the 2000 Hanks' film "Cast Away."  Geoffrey Blake was in "Charmed", "Grey's Anatomy" and portrayed Doc Meyer in the "High Castle" in 2015.

Haley Joel Osment (son of Forrest Gump) - THEN

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Hard to believe that Haley Joel Osment was only 6 years old when he played the son of Forrest Gump and Jenny Curran.  This was years before his iconic words "I see dead people" in "The Sixth Sense" and very haunting portrayal of David in "A.I. Artificial Intelligence."

Haley Joel Osment - NOW

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Osment stepped away from traditional acting about 20 years ago to attend college, something he said "was never really negotiable." During that time, his voice was used on video games, including Sora, the main character of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. He appeared on television shows before making an on-screen return in "The Spoils of Babylon", "Alpha House" and Silicon Valley.

Hannah Hall (Young Jenny) - THEN

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One of the truly iconic lines from Forrest Gump came from the young Jenny, when she called,  "Run, Forrest, run!"  This was the acting debut for Hanna Hall although you would hardly believe it!  After Forrest Gump, Hall held a few small roles but was then cast in "The Virgin Suicides" in 1999 and "Halloween" in 2007.

Hannah Hall - NOW

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Hall found a niche in the horror genre, starring in horror movies "Text" in 2008 and "Visible Scars" in 2012. While staying busy with acting, Hannah has also moved into directing. She served as an assistant director for 2 episodes of the tv show "There Will Be Brawl" in 2009 and 2010 and for 2 episodes of "Batgirl: Spoiled" in 2012 and 2013.

Michael Conner Humphreys (Young Forrest) - THEN

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Just like Hanna Hall (who played young Jenny), the role of young Forrest in Forrest Gump was an acting debut for Michael Conner Humphreys. However, unlike Hall, Humphreys returned to being just a regular kid after the movie. He later joined the military and served for four years.

Michael Conner Humphreys - NOW

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Michael Conner Humphreys explained that he has spent the past 25 years plus, trying to ignore that he was even in Forrest Gump and the past decade trying to ignore the fact that he was in the military. Humphreys did acknowledge that he had struggled upon returning from Iraq.

Afemo Omilami (Drill Sergeant)- THEN

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One of the places that Forrest Gump fits in well was in the military and his drill sergeant, lets him know almost right away that he's practically a genius when Forrest tells him that the sole purpose in the army is to do whatever he is told.  Afemo Omilami's role in Forrest Gump is small but a memorable one,

Afemo Omilami - NOW

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After Forrest Gump, Afemo Omilami had roles in several other films including 1994's "Gordy",  "Remember the Titans" in 2000 , 2003's "Cold Mountain" and "Madea's Family Reunion" in 2006. He is now most frequently seen on the small screen or minor roles in movies.

Siobhan Fallon Hogan (Dorothy Harris Bus Driver) - THEN

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While Forrest Gump's bus driver, Dorothy Harris, played by comedian and actress  Siobhan Fallon Hogan, is only viewed twice in the movie, she was definitely a scene stealer, both when she meets Forrest for the first time and many years later when she meets Forrest Jr.

Siobhan Fallon Hogan - NOW

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While her name may not be as famous as Tom Hanks or Robin Wright, Hogan has starred in a number of successful tv series' and movies since her role in Forrest Gump, including 1997's "Men in Black" and science fiction tv series "Wayward Pines".  She often does one woman shows and wrote the movie "Rushed" in which she also stars,

Peter Dobson (Young Elvis Presley) - THEN

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The character Young Elvis Presley was an American singer, musician and actor.  In the film, he stays in the Gump family's bed and breakfast facility. He can be seen playing the guitar with a half decent take on the real Elvis. He had previously worked on comedy roles.

Peter Dobson - NOW

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Peter Dobson starred in "Drowning Mona" in 2000 and played the title character in the CBS comedy "Johnny Bago." He was also the lead in the comedy drama "Cover Me." Since 2015, he has been in talks to make his debut as a director with the film "Exit 102: Asbury Park."

Elizabeth Hanks (Girl On The Bus) - THEN

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It must be nice when you can bring your child on to the movie set and even nicer when they can be given a cameo.  This was the case for Elizabeth Hanks and she was 11 years old when she played the girl on the bus.  She had always wanted to follow in her father's footsteps.

Elizabeth Hanks - NOW

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Elizabeth went to the Archer School of Girls in L.A., graduating in 2001. After studying literature at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, she enrolled at Vassar College in New York. Miss Hanks graduated from the arts school in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in English and literature.  She has since become an actress and director.

Brett Rice - (Football Coach) - THEN

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Brett Rice went with a friend to the theater building, waiting with him as he auditioned for a show. While he was there, the director asked him if he wanted to audition. He landed a role and from that moment on, he was in it for the long haul.  He appeared in many movies before he was the football coach in Forrest Gump.

Brett Rice - NOW

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Brett Rice has over 75 credits for TV and movies and at least as many credits for the stage. He has become a Councillor at Large with SAG so he can be more closely involved with the unusual politics and negotiations with producers in L.A. and New York. He recently starred as Tucker Baggett in the Netflix series "Longmire."

Things you didn't know about Forrest Gump: John Travolta was supposed to be the lead

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Can you imagine anyone else playing Forrest Gump other than Tom Hanks? No, we can't either! If you could, it probably wouldn't be Grease star John Travolta, either. But actor John Travolta was the original choice to play Forrest Gump, and not Tom Hanks. It wasn't even that John Travolta wanted the role, or auditioned for it either - the movie folks wanted Travolta right off the bat and reached out to him, but Travolta turned it down without even auditioning. Even then, Tom Hanks wasn't the next choice - Chevy Chase and Bill Murray were also considered.

The movie was originally a book

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Forrest Gump is such an iconic movie that it's difficult to think it might have been a book first. Tom Hanks's performance, voice and the world-trip visuals really make the story what it is, so it would be difficult to think of it as a book if you saw the movie first. It was originally a book released in 1986 by writer Winston Groom, who isn't a well known name outside of this novel that he's most famous for. As these things go, the book wasn't doing very well when it was only a book - but as soon as the movie adaption came out, that changed things!

But they didn't keep everything from the book in the movie

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As you can also expect with a book to movie adaption, there were a lot of things that were kept out of the movie version, or changed for the big screen. While the book's premise is very much adhered to in terms of following one man's journey through life and stumbling through historical events, it's some of those events that were chosen to be left out of the movie (which isn't surprising seeing as he did so many things!). Some of the things that Forrest did in the book that were left out of the movie include him going into space and professionally wrestling!

Tom Hanks had doubts about the accent

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One thing you think of first when someone mentions Forrest Gump is that iconic accent and some of the most famous lines from the movie. The way Tom Hanks pronounced his lines was iconic as the movie itself. So you might be surprised to learn the actor wasn't very sure of using that accent at first. In the book, Forrest does have a very thick, Southern accent because he's from Alabama. When first cast, Hanks wanted to take on the Southern accent but dial it down a notch - but the director wanted him to speak as thickly as the book described.

The movie's Oscar win was controversial

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When you watch this movie, and watch Tom Hanks's performance in it, it just has Oscar written all over it! Which is why it might be surprising to learn that, when the movie won an Oscar, it was actually met with controversy. While most would agree that it was an amazing movie worthy of the award, the controversy came from, not Tom Hanks's win, which was well deserved, but the movie itself. It was due to the film winning Best Picture - the biggest of the big - when it was up against some pretty successful movies like The Shawshank Redemption. Some thought maybe another movie should have won!

You're probably saying this famous movie line wrong

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Most of us who are fans of this movie probably quote it on a daily basis, but we might all actually be doing it wrong. Funny how the brain can recall strong Southern accents incorrectly! The most misquoted line from this movie is actually the film's most iconic line, and it's the one which Forrest Gump says while sat on the bus stop bench telling his story. Most of us would say "life is like a box of chocolates" or "mama always said life is like a box of chocolates", when the actual line is "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates".

The author wrote a book sequel after the movie's success

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As we mentioned, the original Forrest Gump book was a bit of a flop before the movie was made, and then the book started to sell A LOT of copies. So you can agree the author deciding to write a sequel after the success of the movie must definitely have been doing to making money - and we don't really blame him! The writer must have known that many people would happily buy a sequel, so you can't blame him for taking advantage of that. The sequel, Gump & Co, was released in 1995, a year after the movie, and follows Gump's life from the 80s.

The sequel movie was scrapped for a tragic reason

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With a sequel book also inevitably came the discussion of also making a sequel movie, and the option actually was on the table at one point, and went through many years of discussions. The sequel, to be based on the book Gump & Co, had a fully written script in 2001 by Eric Roth, who was the writer of the original Forrest Gump script from the first movie. Everything seemed to be set in motion to have a sequel filmed and was all good to go - until the tragic 9/11 disaster in New York. After this, people's minds were on other things, and the movie never got made.

Tom Hanks doesn't blink at all during the table tennis scene

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The movie has many great and memorable scenes, and one of these was of course the ping pong championship that Forrest Gump took part in, as though it was just a casual Tuesday. Forrest is given some very clear advice about how to do well in the game, and that was to "keep your eye on the ball". Forrest being Forrest takes this very literally, and Hanks had huge commitment to that fact, because when you watch the scene very closely, Hanks doesn't blink even once as he stares unnervingly at the ping pong ball!

There's a real life band in honor of Lieutenant Dan

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Lieutenant Dan was also one of the most memorable characters to come out of the movie, played by actor Gary Sinise. Not only did Sinise take his role very seriously, he also wanted to use the popularity and name of that role to do good in the world - through music. He started a band known as the Lt. Dan Band, and they aren't just there to play great music for fans of the movie - the band was started to raise money for war veterans. The band focuses on cover songs and plays a variety of shows to raise the money and awareness for this important cause.

Jenny's last name

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The one and only Jenny from the movie is exactly that: Jenny! While Forrest says her name so many times in the movie - in that very memorable Southern way - we actually never hear him say her surname once, which means most of us won't even know what it is. You might never have even thought about it before, watching the movie and never actually knowing what her full name is. Jenny starts to almost sound like a stage name! There's actually a way to find out her surname in the movie, but you have to watch very closely - it's written on her mail from the mailbox. It's Curran!

Haley Joel Osment was first seen in this movie

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When you think of Haley Joel Osment, naturally the first - or maybe only - movie you're going to think of is The Sixth Sense. Many people might think that this movie was the child actor's very first, breakthrough movie, but actually he was in a film before this - Forrest Gump. Depending on what order you watched this two movies, you might not have thought anything of the random kid in Forrest Gump, and you might not have recognized him as Forrest's son by the time you go to The Sixth Sense. But Gump was his film debut.

Dick Cavett was actually in the movie

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This movie really does the rounds in terms of famous people from history and historical events. Understandably, you can't just get all the real people to star in the movie, especially as some of them would be... you know, dead - but one person who was actually in the movie playing himself was talk show host Dick Cavett. The movie relied a lot on CGI to get the big names and faces up there, used from archival footage, but with Dick Cavett, what you got wasn't CGI at all, but the real deal! All he did was rely on makeup to make him look a little bit younger than he really was!

Robin Wright wasn't the first choice for Jenny

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Just as Tom Hanks wasn't the first choice for the title role of Forrest Gump, actress Robin Wright - perfect for Jenny - wasn't actually the first choice either. Some other top names in acting were first considered for the role, including Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman and Jodie Foster. The movie really let Wright's career shine, as she was nominated for more than one award for her role as Jenny, and then went on to star in classic movies like The Princess Bride. She still says that Forrest Gump was one of the most important experiences of her career!

Comedian Dave Chappelle turned down the role of Buba - and regretted it!

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Bubba Blue was one of those amazing characters that really made the movies, and you'd think anybody would be happy at the chance to star as him - or even just in the movie itself. But as nobody knew it would be a huge hit back then, people were more open to turning it down - which is exactly what controversial comedian Dave Chappelle did. He wasn't the only one to turn down the role, but he did express his regret later when he saw what a huge success it had been! Always the way. He later starred with Tom Hanks in You've Got Mail.

Tom Hanks's brother and daughter were involved in the movie

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It's a common thing to have your family included in the movies you're in as cameos when you're a big star, and the same goes for Tom Hanks! Hanks had not one, but two family connections in this movie, but if you don't know beforehand, you'd probably never know! The grumpy looking red-headed girl shown on the bus at the beginning is actually Tom Hank's daughter, and his real life brother also acted as a stand in for some of the scenes where Forrest is running - while Tom had other stunt doubles, it seemed it was only his brother that could do that iconic run!

Some of the special effects were actually done by a magician

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As we know, the film was awash with CGI due to the historical moments scenes, but a lot of the special effects weren't computer wizardry - they were real life wizardry! One of the biggest special effects was to make it look like actor Gary Sinise had no legs in his wheelchair, for his role as Lieutenant Dan. Real life magician Ricky Jay created the wheelchair that would hide Sinise's legs from view, with a hidden platform for the actor's legs. Apparently it was pretty uncomfortable, though, meaning they couldn't shoot scenes for too long!

"Vietnam" was actually South Carolina

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One of the famous historical locations in the movie was the setting of the Vietnam War, where we see Forrest fighting as a soldier. You might not have questioned that this was actually shot in Vietnam, but actually, the location was South Carolina! It was actually two islands that were just off the South Carolina coast - Hunting Island State Park and Fripp Park - that were used as the shooting locations, and while they originally came with palm trees, a few more palm trees were added to give the movie that more tropical look.

The bench wasn't really a bench

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The bench is not only one of the most famous locations in the movie, but in real life movie history. Everyone knows the Forrest Gump bench! But where actually is it in real life? Is it a real bench? While obviously the bench the actors were sitting on was a real bench, it wasn't an original bench in a park location. While there were benches to be used in the park where it was shot, none of the benches were in the position that the director wanted them to be - namely, where Forrest could sit by the sidewalk and wait for the bus - so they made a fiberglass stand in.

Definitely don't ask Tom Hanks to do the chocolate line

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When you're in an iconic movie such as this one and everyone knows who you are, it's inevitable you're going to be asked to say some movie lines in the accent by fans or by interviewers. Tom Hanks is a good sport, but there's one line in particular that he refuses to say - presumably because he got asked so many times it started to get a little annoying, and he didn't want to encourage that! It's the "life is like a box of chocolates" line, and Hanks explained it was similar to people asking De Niro to say "Are you talking to me?" from Taxi Driver. We probably wouldn't dare ask De Niro that anyway.