Tom Hanks to receive Cecil B DeMille Award at Golden Globes

Veteran actor Tom Hanks will be honoured with the Cecil B deMille honour at the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced.

Chosen by the HFPA board members, the Cecil B deMille award is given annually to a talented individual who has made a lasting impact on the world of entertainment.

Hanks, an eight-time Golden Globe winner and 15-time nominee, will accept the award on January 5, 2020.

"The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is proud to bestow the 2020 Cecil B deMille Award to Tom Hanks. For more than three decades, he's captivated audiences with rich and playful characters that we've grown to love and admire.

"As compelling as he is on the silver screen, he's equally so behind the camera as a writer, producer, and director. We're honored to include Mr Hanks with such luminaries as Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Martin Scorsese, and Barbra Streisand to name a few," said HFPA President Lorenzo Soria said in a statement on the Golden Globes official website.

Hanks is both a critically-acclaimed actor and beloved star who has iconic films such as "Big", "Forrest Gump", "Saving Private Ryan", "Cast Away", among others to his credit.

He is one of the only two actors in history to win back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards -- he won his first Oscar in 1994 for his moving portrayal of AIDS-stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in "Philadelphia".

Hanks followed it up next year as he picked up another trophy for his memorable performance in the title role of "Forrest Gump". He also won the Golden Globe Award for both films, as well as a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for the latter.

He made his successful feature film writing and directing debut with 1996's "That Thing You Do!" in which he also starred. In 2011, he wrote, produced, directed and starred in "Larry Crowne", with Julia Roberts.

Hanks was most recently seen in the Oscar-nominated "The Post", which revolves around the role of The Washington Post in publishing the infamous Pentagon Papers about America's accountability in the Vietnam War.

His upcoming projects include the Fred Rodgers biopic, "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", WWII drama "Greyhound", which he also wrote, the post-apocalyptic "BIOS" and pre-Civil War drama "News of the World".