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Tom Hanks posts Forrest Gump reunion photo

Life is like a box of chocolates… Sometime, sooner or later, you’re all going to bump into each other again. Wait, what?

Can you believe it, Tom Hanks’ Oscar-winning film ‘Forrest Gump’ is 20 years old this summer?

Judging by a photo posted by Tom Hanks, the passage of time has been rather kind to three of its major characters.



The pic, posted by Hanks on his Twitter, shows the actor joined by Gary Sinise and Mykelti Williamson, all looking rather youthful.

Sinise, of course, played army vet Lieutenant Dan who loses both his legs during the course of the Vietnam war (spoilers), while Williamson played Benjamin Buford Blue, AKA Bubba, who lent his name to the shrimp company Bubba Gump, set up by Hanks’ Forrest after the war.


Sinise was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his part in the film, losing out to Martin Landau for ‘Ed Wood’.

He followed up ‘Forrest Gump’ with big roles in ‘Apollo 13’ and ‘The Green Mile’, both opposite Hanks again, but has since found more work in TV, appearing in all 197 episodes of ‘CSI: NY’ as Detective Mac Taylor.

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Sinise also plays bass guitar in the Lt. Dan Band, named after his ‘Gump’ character, mainly playing charity gigs for veterans and military bases.


Williamson, who took the role of Bubba after it was rejected by Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle, went on to play several minor roles in big films such as ‘Heat’, ‘Con Air’, and ‘Ali’ - in which he played wild-haired boxing promoter Don King.

Like Sinise, he has since found success on TV, also appearing in ‘CSI: NY’ in a recurring role, as well as season 8 of ’24’, and more recently in FX’s cowboy drama ‘Justified’.


It’s not sure where the ‘Gump’ trio were when the photo was taken, but it’s unlikely they were discussing the long-mooted follow up to ‘Forrest Gump’, ‘Gump & Co’ which was delayed and subsequently canned in 2001.

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The ill-fated movie was to be based on Winston Groom’s sequel to the original book, which would have had Forrest and his son looking to rebuild their lives after the Gump shrimp business failed. The book also has Gump crossing paths with Tom Hanks, acknowledging the movie version of his life.

It all sounds very meta, and frankly, a bit rubbish.