Tom Hanks’ brother Jim reveals the surprising role he played in Toy Story for decades
Topics: Toy Story, Tom Hanks, Film and TV, Celebrity
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney
Topics: Toy Story, Tom Hanks, Film and TV, Celebrity
Tom Hanks' brother took on a surprising role in one of the actor's most famous movies.
Hanks has once again reprised his role as Woody in the fifth Toy Story movie, with the latest release marking more than 30 years since he first took on the role back in 1995.
This time, Woody, Buzz, and the gang are presented with a new threat in the shape of Lily, a digital tablet who battles them for children's attention.
Hanks may have played the role for decades, but it turns out that he's not actually the only Hanks to feature in Toy Story.
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Jim Hanks, 65, is a dead ringer for his brother in more ways than one, not only looking a lot like him, but also sounding a lot like him.
And Jim also worked on Toy Story, and you might be surprised to learn about the role he took on.
You might imagine that he had taken on a smaller role, but in fact voice actor Jim sounds so similar to his brother that he actually took on the role of Woody when Tom wasn't available.
"Tom's schedule was crazy busy, so they reached out to me," he told The Daily Mail.
"I had been doing voiceover for a while, and I guess everybody knew that I sounded like him!"
This is the voiceover used in some of the toys that accompanied the movie's release.
"They brought me in, and I did the pull string toy classic lines, 'you're my favorite deputy' and all that, and I did it pretty well," he said.
In fact, Jim has voiced the lines for the Woody toys, as well as voiceover work at theme parks around the world.
Jim even stood in for his brother on the set of another big film as well - Forrest Gump.
"I was carted off to different locations to do the goofy run," he said.
"There was only one location where Tom was with me on set, and that was in Vermont. And that was only because there was one shot where he was running towards camera, you could see who he was. But all the other stuff when you can't see his face, it's me!"
Hanks is reprising Woody again in the fifth Toy Story movie, joining Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear from the very first film.
Meanwhile, Joan Cusack is set to return as Jessie after joining the cast in the second film in the series.
The fifth film will also see the voice of Mr Potato Head changing for the first time, with Don Rickles playing the character until his death, and archival recording making up the character's lines in Toy Story 4, and Jeff Bergman is set to take on the role for the new film.