The 'Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' actor was also nominated for his role as Mister Rogers.
Tom Hanks is one of the greats!
The 63-year-old actor got emotional as he accepted the coveted Cecil B. DeMille Award at Sunday night's 2020 Golden Globe Awards, presented to him by Charlize Theron, who thanked the actor for giving her one of her first roles and making the world "a better place."
"A man is blessed with a family sitting up front like that," Hanks said holding back tears during his acceptance speech. "A wife that is fantastic in every way and taught me what love is, five kids who are braver, stronger and wiser than their old man is, and a loving group of people who have put up with me being away months and months at a time."
"I can't tell you how much your loves means to me," he added.
The A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood actor went on to say that he's stolen something from everyone he's ever worked with.
"I have stolen from the likes of people who only have one name, like Meryl [Streep], Denzel [Washington], like Antonio [Banderas], like Julia [Roberts], like Sally Field, even though that is two names, that's one," he shared.
"And like Charlize, who is actually one of those one-word names," Hanks added as the camera panned over to the actress who reacted in disbelief.
Hanks went on to share a few rules he's learned over the years that actors should live by.
"A thousand years ago in 1977 when I was an intern at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, my first professional job, we all got yelled at by Dan Sullivan, the director. We had partied a little bit too much the night before. We were showing up for rehearsals, and he screamed at us," he shared. "Well, he did actually scream at us. He said, 'Hey, look. You guys, you guys, you actors, you know what your job is? You know what your job is? You have got to show up on time and you have to know the text and you have to have a head full of ideas. Otherwise I can’t do my job.'”
"That was the greatest lesson a young actor could possibly ever get," Hanks continued. "First of all, the head full of ideas, bring anything, try anything. They might not use it. If it stinks, they won’t use it. Am I right, Marty Scorsese? If it’s not good, boy, let’s see the outtakes from that movie, by the way."
"Knowing the text ‑‑ and it’s not just your lines. It’s the whole thing. It’s the red dot. It’s the theme of the movie. You’ve got to know it. You might not be right in the opinion that you bring to it, but you’ve got to come at it with some direction. And as Charlize might know, and some of the other people who’ve worked with us at the Play Tone galaxy of stars, showing up on time is one of the greatest, liberating acts you can give yourself in a movie."
The eight-time Globe winner looked dapper in a formal black tuxedo as he took to the stage to accept the honor. Past recipients of the award have included Jeff Bridges, Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, George Clooney and more.
ET caught up with Renée Zellweger on the red carpet ahead of the star-studded event, and she praised Hanks as a "class study" and "phenomenal actor."
"He's sort of like a class study of what to do in this business," Zellweger told ET's Kevin Frazier and guest co-host Sharon Osbourne. "He has so much class, he's so generous, he uses his platform for benevolence and he's a phenomenal actor, what else? He's handsome."
Hanks was also up for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Mister Rogers in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
"Certainly Walt Disney, Charlie Wilson, when I played Charlie Wilson, and a number of other real people," Hanks told ET of playing real-life characters last September. "I think Mr. Fred Rogers is the first person I've played that is not undergoing the great crisis of their business or their lives."
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