How can you not love Tom Hanks? Everything that the 59-year-old actor touches seems to turn to gold, and his humble, easygoing demeanor really makes him feel like "you could get a beer with him."
These delightful traits have not been missed by the public, according to a new poll. A survey done by Harris Poll shows that Hanks is America's favorite movie star—a finding that shouldn't be surprising to anyone who's followed the actor's career over the past three decades. It's the fifth time that he's topped the poll, and the recent success of Bridge of Spies (which was nominated for six Oscars) likely had something to do with it.
His appearance in a Carly Rae Jepsen video couldn't have hurt, either.
Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, John Wayne (what?) and Harrison Ford rounded out the country's five favorite movie stars. Women were criminally underrepresented in the poll's findings—Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Lawrence did come in at sixth and seventh, respectively, but that still doesn't exactly scream of gender equality.
Harris conducted the poll online between December 9 and 14 among more than 2,200 American adults. Though Hanks was found to be the most popular star nationwide, the regional and demographic breakdowns tell a completely different story. The West named him their favorite, but the South is obsessed with Johnny Depp, the Midwest pines for Denzel Washington and the East can't get enough of Harrison Ford.
What might have been the tipping point for Hanks's surge in the poll is his likability among the Baby Boomer generation. He was the favorite among that age group, and the third-favorite among respondents older than 70—who, not surprisingly, selected John Wayne as their favorite movie star. Wayne has been dead for close to 40 years.
