Tom Hanks, an Oscar winner, claims to be related to former American President Abraham Lincoln.

Tom Hanks is a multi-award winning actor who was born in 1956. As a high school student, he pursued his nascent theater career and positioned himself in films, starring as the romantic interest in the film Splash.

Was Tom Hanks telling a family story when he played the narrator in National Geographic’s “Killing Lincoln”?

The National Geographic Channel show is a historical thriller that mixes CGI and rare historical archive footage.

According to the Daily Mail, Hanks is Lincoln’s third cousin, four generations removed, through the President’s mother Nancy Hanks.

Nancy lived with the Richard Berry Family as an orphan, where she met Thomas Lincoln. The couple married in Washington on June 12, 1806, and Abraham Lincoln was their second child.

Abraham married Mary Todd twenty-five years later. The couple had four children, but only one of them would grow up to be an adult.

“I`m related to Abraham Lincoln. His mother was called Nancy Hanks, 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 stated.

Billy Campbell plays Lincoln, Jesse Johnson plays his assassin John Wilkes Booth, and Geraldine Hughes plays Mary Todd Lincoln in “Killing Lincoln,” which is based on Bill O’Reilly’s novel.

Hanks, who is recognized as the ‘chronicler in chief’ of American history because of appearances in films like Saving Private Ryan and Apollo 11, was briefly considered for the main role in Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln.

Daniel

He later dropped out of contention, claiming that the actor who would play Lincoln had to be tall and admitted that he was not as tall as Daniel Day-Lewis.

Hanks is a direct descendant of the previous president, according to genealogists.

Hanks is married to Rita Wilson, a Hollywood actress. Tom met Rita in the early 1980s while starring in the ABC sitcom “Bosom Buddies.”

Tom was still married to Samantha Lewes, his college sweetheart, but they divorced in 1987.

Tom married Rita on April 30, 1988, and the couple is still going strong 32 years later.