Oscar winning Tom Hanks related to 16th US prez Abraham Lincoln

Tom Hanks is related to one of America’s most famous presidents, Abraham Lincoln, it has been revealed. The Oscar-winning actor is the third cousin, four generations removed, of the assassinated leader through the president’s mother, Nancy Hanks.

Lincoln’s great-great-grand-father was John Hanks, who was also Tom’s great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Details of the genealogical link were revealed by Hanks, 56, as it was announced he will narrate a film called Killing Lincoln. “It’s odd to say the killing of Abraham Lincoln is an unknown story but it may as well be,” the Daily Express quoted him as saying

“The depth of the intrigue, the breadth of the conspiracy and the bare-naked exposure of human nature is so timeless, it’s a wonder how that seminal tragedy in our history could ever be explained in a few sentences: ‘Ford’s Theater...John Wilkes Booth, etc’.

Hanks has known since he was a child that he was related to Lincoln. He does not boast about his lineage but did once say: “I’m related to Abraham Lincoln and the members of my branch of the family are either cousins or in-laws or poor relations. “So when I was at school, guess which president I was always doing essays on,” he added.