'I don't threaten any man's sense of virility, or any woman's sense of security or decorum," the 52-year-old actor once remarked. It's a characteristically modest statement from a man who is known for his nice-guy attributes, both onscreen and off. Hanks does not possess traditional leading man good looks but he has translated his inherent likeability into box office gold. There have been duds ? The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Terminal were two of his poorly received movies ? but these are small troughs in a career which includes Philadelphia, where his role as a gay lawyer won him his first Oscar. Forrest Gump, for which he earned his second Oscar, made almost €330m and is the 13th most successful movie ever, according to Variety. Hanks is bankable. Angels & Demons, due out this Friday, is the eagerly anticipated sequel to The Da Vinci Code, based on best-selling novels by Dan Brown. Both were directed by Ron Howard, who gave Hanks his first leading man role when he cast him in the Daryl Hannah mermaid flick Splash.

The Da Vinci Code was yet another moneymaker for Hanks, playing symbologist Robert Langdon. It grossed $750m globally, angered Catholics, but failed to impress the critics. Hanks, phlegmatic about this division of opinion, recalled its opening in Cannes: "The reception couldn't have been worse. Everyone slunk out of town with their heads between their shoulders. We called it 'The Bonfire of the Unsold Tickets'. Everything ended up in its proper perspective, which usually happens. The audience wins out. "

Clearly he was not deterred from reprising the role, although he insists that he's not motivated by money. "I mean, it's not like I need the job. I guess, if the truth be told, I didn't want to be at the mercy of the marketplace. I don't want to have to wait for the phone to ring to say, "You now get to create something". As an actor I am always waiting for my luck to run out," he said. "Now I'm very lucky that, as yet, that hasn't happened but I'm very aware that, any time now, the marketplace could say "That's it, we're done with you." Whatever he says, he's proved himself to be a shrewd operator, opting for a percentage of the box office takings instead of a salary for Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan, while his production company, Playtone, was responsible for hits such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding as well as Mamma Mia!

There were few early signs that the young Hanks would grow up to be a major Hollywood player. It was an unsettled childhood – he called it "fractured". His father Amos (a chef and distant relative of US president Abraham Lincoln), and his mother Janice, a hospital worker, divorced in 1960 and the family split up. The three eldest siblings ? Tom, brother Larry and sister Sandra ? went with their father while youngest brother Jim (also an actor and his body double on Forrest Gump) stayed with his mother. Both parents remarried; his new stepmother brought another five children to the family. This marriage only lasted two years and Amos Hanks would marry for a third time, to a woman with three daughters. At one point Tom and his brother were living by themselves in the basement of the family home.

Hanks says he was a teen geek who was painfully shy, conversely loud, but ultimately responsible, a "real good kid who was obsessed with the space programme and The Beatles". Deciding that acting classes looked like "the best place for a guy who liked to make a noise and be rather flamboyant" he studied for two years at Chabot College and transferred to California State University. When he landed an internship at the Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, he dropped out to spend three years learning about everything from lighting to set design. Moving to New York in 1979, his first big break was in a TV series called Bosom Buddies, which led to an appearance on Happy Days and to the attention of Howard. His progression to romantic lead was perfectly described by Nora Ephron, who directed him in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998) when she called him "the Jimmy Stewart for the times".

While still a struggling actor, Hanks married the actress Samantha Lewes with whom he had two children. After their divorce in 1987, he married the actress Rita Wilson, who he met on the set of Volunteers. They are said to have one of the strongest unions in Hollywood, untroubled by the kind of rumours and incidents that have plagued Mel Gibson. Yet the actor has never been too casual about any of his successes. "I got lucky" is the secret of his happy marriage and he's a self confessed worrier: "Some people go to bed at night thinking, 'That was a good day'. I am one of those who worries and asks, 'How did I screw up today?'" Perhaps he found reassurance in the words of Julia Roberts, who took the podium at a gala tribute to him last month and announced: "Everybody f**king likes you".

In an expletive-ridden and somewhat bizarre speech, she said Hanks had a true gift that wasn't just acting but he could "make you feel comfortable, make you feel like you have something interesting to contribute, make you feel like there's a reason you're on the planet."

Celebrity love-ins aside, his new film has attracted heavy criticisms from the Vatican,
as well as Catholics, and this has apparently baffled the actor, although he can hardly have forgotten the furore The Da Vinci Code caused. "There's no major theological discussion that goes on, other than science versus faith. There's no winner in that argument. I just solve the murder," he says. It's a very typical Hanks comment – almost too disingenuous to be true because this is one of the good guys, we're inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Curriculum Vitae

Born: Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, July 1956, California

Educated: Studied theatre at Chabot College, California before transferring to California State University

Career: Film debut in a slasher musical in 1979. First lead role in Splash (1984). Established as major Hollywood player with Big (1988) and has been Oscar-nominated
five times, winning Best Actor in 1993 and 1994.

Personal life: Married to Samantha Lewes (1978-1987) and had two children, Colin (also an actor) and Elizabeth. Married actress Rita Wilson in 1988. They have two children, Chester and Truman.

In the news: Rumoured that he will be paid between $29m and $49m for his latest film Angels & Demons