3. He Outed A Teacher During His Oscars Acceptance Speech
"I don't know if you'll remember me, but I'm an old student of yours. I've got a ticket to the Academy Awards, and if I win, I would like to use your name in regard to the content of Philadelphia" This is what Tom Hanks said to retired high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth over ten years ago the night before winning the Best Actor Award at the Oscars. His old teacher said that of course that would be fine. In accepting his Oscar (because obviously he was going to win it), a tearful Hanks saluted both Farnsworth and a classmate as "two of the finest gay Americans I have known." (The classmate, John Gilkerson, a San Francisco actor and puppeteer, died of AIDS in 1989.) Never an activist, Farnsworth was so moved by Hanks' Oscar speech that he has joined an organization of gay teachers.
I love Stephen King and music festivals; I eat my toast upside down; I daydream about getting married probably a bit too much; and I wish every day for a pet sausage dog puppy (who never materialises – sob).
