Highlights
- Filming Cast Away almost killed Tom Hanks due to a serious infection from a knee cut.
- Hanks was hospitalized for three days as the infection was eating its way through his leg.
- Hanks was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes years later.
Easily one of the most celebrated actors of all time, it has often seemed like Tom Hanks has led a near-perfect life. After all, Hanks has starred in a slew of beloved movies that made a fortune, he seems to adore his wife and kids, and he has amassed a truly impressive fortune.
Despite all the ways that Hanks is fortunate, however, he is a human being just like everyone else. Unfortunately, part of being human is an inherent frailty. In Hanks's case, his body once came close to giving out on him when he almost passed away due to an illness most fans don't know about.
Filming Cast Away Almost Killed Tom Hanks
When fans got the first chance to see footage of Tom Hanks from the movie Cast Away, most of them were blown away. After all, it was obvious that Hanks had lost a lot of weight and grown an amazing amount of hair for the role. However, what fans couldn't know from looking at Hanks is that the role almost killed him.
In the movie Cast Away, Hanks' character has to learn how to keep himself alive while living alone on an island in the middle of the ocean. As it turns out, it seems likely that Hanks wouldn't do well in that situation as simply filming in that kind of locale almost killed him.
How successful was Cast Away, according to The Numbers?
Production Budget: | $85,000,000 |
Domestic Box Office: | $233,632,142 |
International Box Office: | $193,598,374 |
Worldwide Box Office: | $427,230,516 |
In 2022, The Daily Express published an article about what happened to Hanks while filming Cast Away. As that article explained, a pair of seemingly insignificant events took place which put Hanks in serious peril.
"Cast Away was filmed on one of the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji, and just before wrapping up production on the island, Hanks cut his knee. He had to then film the scene where his character attempts to make fire, and in doing so, knelt down on the sand when some piece of organic matter entered the cut. The cut soon became infected, and by the time Hanks received medical treatment it had almost given him blood poisoning. What was then diagnosed as a staph infection was slowly eating its way through the actor's leg, with doctors warning he could have died from it."
Simply reading The Daily Express' description of what happened to Hanks is frightening enough. However, learning Hanks' own take on what he went through really drives home how scary this situation was at the time.
In 2009, Hanks described how he almost lost his life during an appearance on BBC's Radio 1. While Hanks didn't get into any kind of grisly details about what happened, his words are frightening for another reason.
What Hanks explained was that before he got his infected knee checked out, he thought it was no big deal. However, doctors later revealed to the actor how serious his infection actually was.
"[ Cast Away ] put me in the hospital. I was there for three days with something that, believe it or not, almost killed me. I got an infection from a cut, and it was eating its way through my leg. I didn't know it, I just thought I had a sore... I went to the doctor who took one look and said, 'I have to put you in the hospital because we have to get this infection out of you before it poisons your blood and you die'. We had to shut down for three weeks while my skin reformed."
For anyone who has had a cut that looked a bit off and ignored it, Hanks' story of what happened to him should be a wake-up call.
Tom Hanks Felt Like A "Total Idiot" After Being Diagnosed With Diabetes
When Tom Hanks got a serious knee infection, that was an acute health emergency he suffered. As it turns out, Hanks also suffers from another health problem that came on a lot more gradually and has had a much bigger impact on his life. In 2013, Hanks revealed that he'd been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Years later, Hanks spoke to Radio Times about reflecting on what led to his diabetes diagnosis. According to Hanks, he'd known for years before his diabetes diagnosis that he was in danger of developing the disease.
When and where was Tom Hanks born, according to Britannica?
- Tom Hanks was born on July 9, 1956
- Tom Hanks was born in Concord, California
- Tom Hanks is 67 years old as of January 2024
As Hanks explained, his doctors warned the actor he had high blood sugar when he was 36 years old. For context, Hanks turned 36 years old in 1992, which was the year his popular movie, A League of Their Own, was released.
What Does Elizabeth Ann Hanks Do For A Living And How Did She Avoid Becoming A Nepo Baby Despite Being Tom Hanks' Daughter?
Tom Hanks' daughter Elizabeth Ann Hanks lives a more private life than some of her family members...Upon learning that he had high blood sugar, Hanks says that he believed he would be okay if he only made relatively small lifestyle changes.
"I thought I could avoid it by removing the buns from my cheeseburgers. Well, it takes a little bit more than that... I'm part of the lazy American generation that has blindly kept dancing through the party and now finds ourselves with a malady."
Looking back on his own lifestyle choices after learning he had high blood sugar, Hanks now believes he made bad decisions.
"I was heavy. You've seen me in movies, you know what I looked like. I was a total idiot."
What are some of the other stars who have diabetes, according to Good Housekeeping?
- Halle Berry
- Salma Hayek
- Sharon Stone
- Patti LaBelle
- Nick Jonas
- George Lucas
- James Earl Jones
- Drew Carey
- Vanessa Williams
- Sonia Sotomayor
Since Hanks didn't work harder to stay healthy, things got worse. During the interview, Hanks described the moment he was told that he'd developed type 2 diabetes.
"I went to the doctor, and he said, 'You know those high blood sugar numbers you've been dealing with since you were 36? Well, you've graduated! You've got type 2 diabetes, young man.'"
