Tom Hanks Fights Back Tears As He Mourns ‘Bosom Buddies’ Co-Star Peter Scolari After His Death

Tom Hanks has paid tribute to his former co-star Peter Scolari during a TV interview, 10 days after he sadly lost his battle with leukemia.

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Tom Hanks, 65, got emotional during an interview less than two weeks after his friend Peter Scolari passed away. The Oscar winner appeared on the November 2 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, and choked back tears as he talked about his former Bosom Buddies co-star. The pair appeared together on two seasons of the ABC show, from November 1980 to March 1982. “Peter has a lovely family, his wife Tracy has absolutely great kids and we lost him to the emperor of all maladies,” Tom said.

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“So, thanks for letting us show that,” he added, referencing a clip Jimmy Kimmel played, which showed their characters Kip Wilson and Henry Desmond going off to a cabin together. “[That was] a really fond show because it was just us for one half of the episode,” Tom explained, before opening up about his enduring friendship with his co-star, who died last month at the age of 66 after a battle with leukemia.

“Peter — God bless him, I’ll miss him every day — he had the body of a gymnast, I mean like a professional Cirque du Soleil gymnast. He could do, like, the iron triangle and stuff like that; he was a juggler,” Tom said. “I don’t know how many people truly do change your lives when you cross paths with them, but he and I met, we picked up the scripts, we started screwing around, and I actually thought, ‘Oh, this is it. This is how this works. This is like a hand inside a glove.’ ”

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“For two years at Paramount Studios, on unlucky stage 25, we cut it up,” he added. “… We were molecularly connected in a way that we started speaking the same language.” He also opened up about the process of auditioning for Bosom Buddies. “Peter walked onto the set saying, ”We have a guy who’s going to be the other bosom buddy, he’s already done two fabulous shows that have been canceled, and this we think could be the third’,” he added with a laugh.