A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| Tom Hanks | Forrest Gump |
| Robin Wright | Jenny Curran |
| Gary Sinise | Lieutenant Dan Taylor |
| Sally Field | Mrs. Gump |
| Mykelti Williamson | Bubba Blue |
| Michael Conner Humphreys | Young Forrest Gump |
| Hanna Hall | Young Jenny Curran |
| Haley Joel Osment | Forrest Junior |
| Siobhan Fallon Hogan | School Bus Driver |
| Rebecca Williams | Nurse at Park Bench |
| Bob Penny | Crony |
| Harold G. Herthum | Doctor |
| George Kelly | Barber |
| John Randall | Crony |
| Sam Anderson | Principal Hancock |
| Margo Moorer | Louise |
| Ione M. Telech | Elderly Woman |
| Christine Seabrook | Elderly Woman's Daughter |
| John Worsham | Southern Gentleman / Landowner |
| Peter Dobson | Young Elvis Presley |
| Alexander Zemeckis | School Bus Boy |
| Logan Livingston Gomez | School Bus Boy |
| Ben Waddel | School Bus Boy |
| Elizabeth Hanks | School Bus Girl |
| Tyler Long | Red Headed Boy |
| Christopher Jones | Boy with Cross |
| Grady Bowman | Fat Boy |
| Kevin Mangan | Jenny's Father |
| Fay Genens | Jenny's Grandmother |
| Frank Geyer | Police Chief |
| Rob Landry | Red Headed Teen |
| Jason McGuire | Fat Teen |
| Pete Auster | Teen with Cross |
| Sonny Shroyer | College Football Coach |
| Brett Rice | High School Football Coach |
| Ed Davis | High School Football Coach |
| Daniel C. Striepeke | Recruiter |
| Bruce Lucvia | Kick Off Return Player |
| David Brisbin | Newscaster |
| Kirk Ward | Earl |
| Angela Lomas | Black Student |
| Timothy Record | Black Student |
| Deborah McTeer | Woman with Child on Park Bench |
| Mark Matheisen | Jenny's Date |
| Al Harrington | Local Anchor #1 |
| Jed Gillin | President John F. Kennedy (voice) |
| Bob Harks | University Dean |
| Don Fischer | Army Recruiter |
| Kenneth Bevington | Army Bus Driver |
| Michael Flannery | Bus Recruit |
| Gary Robinson | Bus Recruit |
| Marlena Smalls | Bubba's Mother |
| Kitty K. Green | Bubba's Great Grandmother |
| Afemo Omilami | Drill Sergeant |
| Matt Wallace | Barracks Recruit |
| Danté McCarthy | Topless Girl |
| Paulie DiCocco | Emcee |
| Mike Jolly | Club Patron |
| Michael Kemmerling | Club Patron |
| John Voldstad | Club Patron |
| Jeffrey Winner | Club Patron |
| Russ Wilson | Pick-up Truck Driver |
| Daniel J. Gillooly | Helicopter Gunman |
| Calvin Gadsden | Sargeant Sims |
| Aaron Izbicki | Dallas |
| Michael Burgess | Cleveland |
| Steven Griffith | Tex |
| Bill Roberson | Fat Man at Bench |
| Michael McFall | Army Hospital Male Nurse |
| Eric Underwood | Mail Call Soldier |
| Steve DeRelian | Wounded Soldier |
| Byron Minns | Wounded Soldier |
| Stephen Bridgewater | Hospital Officer |
| Bonnie Ann Burgess | Army Nurse |
| Scott Oliver | National Correspondent #1 |
| John William Galt | President Johnson (voice) |
| Hilary Chaplain | Hilary |
| Isabel Rose | Isabel |
| Jay Ross | Veteran at War Rally |
| Richard D'Alessandro | Abbie Hoffman |
| Dick Stilwell | Policeman at War Rally |
| Kevin Davis | Black Panther |
| Michael Jace | Black Panther |
| Geoffrey Blake | Wesley |
| Tim Perry | Hippie at Commune |
| Vanessa Roth | Hollywood Boulevard Girlfriend |
| Emily Carey | Hollywood Boulevard Girlfriend |
| Paul Raczkowski | Man in VW Bug |
| Valentine | Chinese Ping Pong Player |
| Dick Cavett | Dick Cavett |
| Joe Stefanelli | John Lennon (voice) |
| Tiffany Salerno | Carla |
| Marla Sucharetza | Lenore |
| Aloysius Gigl | Musician Boyfriend |
| Jack Bowden | National Correspondent #4 |
| Joe Alaskey | President Nixon (voice) |
| Lazarus Jackson | Discharge Officer |
| W. Benson Terry | Stanley Loomis |
| Matt Rebenkoff | Drugged Out Boyfriend |
| Peter Bannon | Local Correspondent #2 |
| Joe Washington | Local Anchor #2 |
| Nora Dunfee | Elderly Southern Woman |
| Natalie Hendrix Tate | Local Anchor #3 |
| Hallie D'Amore | Waitress in Cafe |
| Jim Hanks | Forrest Gump Running Double |
| Chiffonye Cobb | Hannibal Reporter |
| Juan Singleton | Hannibal Reporter |
| Bobby Richardson | Hannibal Reporter |
| Michael Mattison | Taxi Driver |
| Lenny Herb | Young Man Running |
| Charles Boswell | Aging Hippie |
| Timothy McNeil | Wild Eyed Man |
| Lonnie Hamilton | The Minister |
| Teresa Denton | Lieutenant Dan's Fiancée, Susan |
| Kurt Russell | Elvis Presley (voice) (uncredited) |
| Mary Ellen Trainor | Jenny's Babysitter (uncredited) |
| Robb Skyler | Nicholas Katzenbach (uncredited) |
| Michael J. Oliver | Red Headed Teen (uncredited) |
| Bryan Hanna | Football Coach (uncredited) |
| Greg Brown | Football Player (uncredited) |
| Brendan Shanahan | Football Player (uncredited) |
| Troy Christian | Cheerleader (uncredited) |
| Jacqueline Lovell | Football Fan (uncredited) |
| Zach Hanner | Barracks Recruit (uncredited) |
| Aaron Michael Lacey | National Guardsman (uncredited) |
| William Shipman | Black Panther (uncredited) |
| Zhuang Zedong | Self - Chinese Ping Pong Player (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Eric Alan Wendell | Student Protester (uncredited) |
| George Wallace | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| John-Michael Steele | Chancellor AL University (uncredited) |
| John Simmit | Higgins - Protestor on Stage (uncredited) |
| Michael Satterfield | Alabama U Student (uncredited) |
| Mark A. Rich | VA in Hospital (uncredited) |
| Ronald Reagan | Self - Assassination Attempt (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Elvis Presley | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Darrell O'Cook | Chorister (uncredited) |
| Richard Nixon | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Neal MacMillan | Student Protester (uncredited) |
| Beau Lotterman | Thompson (uncredited) |
| Andrew Lepper | Civil Rights Marcher (uncredited) |
| John Lennon | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Teddy Lane Jr. | Black Panther (uncredited) |
| Conor Kennelly | Black Panther (uncredited) |
| Robert F. Kennedy | Self - after 1968 California Primary (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| John F. Kennedy | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Jim Keller | Hippie at Commune (uncredited) |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | Self (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Russ Isles | Bus Scene (uncredited) |
| Jenny Inge Devaney | Hippie (uncredited) |
| Bob Hope | Self - in Vietnam (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| John Glenn Harding | Wounded Soldier (uncredited) |
| Jeanne Hanna | The Honeymooners (uncredited) |
| Ellsworth Hanna | The Honeymooners (uncredited) |
| Christopher James Hall | Governor (uncredited) |
| Leigh Goodoff | Drum Major (uncredited) |
| Michael Garvey | Reporter (uncredited) |
| Gerald Ford | Self - Assassination Attempt (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| James Ent | Alabama College Photographer #1 (uncredited) |
| Ryan Duncan | Student Protester (uncredited) |
| Jim Damron | CBS Correspondent Cooper (uncredited) |
| Darren W. Conrad | Alabama Football Player (uncredited) |
| John Connally | Self - with JFK in Dallas (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Dick Clark | Self - New Year's Eve (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Daniel Chamblin | Southern Landowner (uncredited) |
| Clint Calvert | Football Fan (uncredited) |
| Grand L. Bush | Black Panther Leader (uncredited) |
| Arthur Bremer | Self - Shooting George Wallace (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Jim Boeke | University of Alabama Assistant Football Coach (uncredited) |
| Keri-Anne Bilotta | Hippie (uncredited) |
| Marcus Batton | Get the Bikes Bully (uncredited) |
| Beth Aylward | Military Officer (uncredited) |
| Neil Armstrong | Self - Stepping onto the Moon (archive footage) (uncredited) |
| Markus Alexander | Vietnam Veteran (uncredited) |
| Todd Adamson | Bully on Bike (uncredited) |
| Rob Adams | College Quarterback (uncredited) |
| Joe Abby | Protestor on Stage (uncredited) |
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| llgolden | Best movie ever. |
| bluedevil667 | This is the best movie ever! |
| CinemaSerf | "Forrest" (Tom Hanks) isn't the sharpest tool in the box, but he has an heart of gold and an unparalleled sense of human decency. These laudable characteristics are the result of an upbringing by his mother (Sally Field) which has seen him grow from the bullied young boy from Alabama who discovers that he can run a little faster than your average bear, to a sort of national hero. We learn all this from him as he sits at a bus stop chatting to an initially disinterested nurse, and then to a collection of fellow travellers who learn of his drafting to Vietnam. That's where he meets "Lt. Dan" (Gary Sinese) and his new best friend "Bubba" (Mykelti Williamson) and where his innate sense of what's right saves lives and earns him the plaudits of a grateful nation (and gets his butt-ox on television too!). His army days taught him much, but nothing so useful as a skill at table tennis. Soon on the American ping-pong squad in China, he manages to get an endorsement that allows him to reunite with the hippified, now paraplegic and disillusioned "Lt. Dan" and make a mint shrimp fishing, before returning home to face some fairly predicable family trauma. All of this has been happening against a story of a longing for his one true love. "Jenny" (Robin Wright). They've been friends since childhood, but she has a wandering spirit and though his love was requited, it wasn't what he needed. Might there be a future for them, ever? Robert Zemeckis uses a chronology of events in the USA, starting in the 1950s, to create a template for the story of a man who lived through racial tension, war, bullying and emerged the stronger; the more honourable and despite his low IQ was quite capable of putting those more intellectual around him to shame. The photography that cleverly superimposes him into television broadcasts works entertainingly as he gazes bemusedly out onto a audience that is increasingly warming to him. I will admit, I struggled a bit with the running segment towards the end, but Hanks epitomises determination and integrity with Eric Roth's adaptation of the Groom novel allowing plenty of philosophical food for thought whilst having a laugh at scenarios both serious and ridiculous. Like life itself, this film is like a box of chocolates and though I didn't love them all, there were plenty to enjoy and reflect upon. |