- Colin Hanks has followed in his father, Tom Hanks’, footsteps as he is a working Hollywood actor
- The ‘King King’ star dated a bevy of beauties, including Busy Phillips, during his rise in the entertainment industry
- He’s been married to Samantha Bryant for over a decade, and they share two children
Colin Hanks has enjoyed an amazing Hollywood career and he’s about to tackle a new project about one of Tinseltown’s own: a John Candy documentary. The son of Tom Hanks is taking on the life of the late and great comedic actor who passed away too soon at the age of 43 in 1994. “I’m actually most excited about the ability to be able to talk to as many people that John worked with and was close with because everybody sort of feels the same, like there’s not really anybody who goes ‘That son of a b**ch,'” he said on Conan O’Brien’s podcast.
When he’s not immersing himself into his work, like a role in the limited series A Friend of the Family, Colin keeps busy with his home life. He and his wife Samantha Bryant have beeen making a nest now for over 10 years. Learn more about the woman, and the past women, who have stolen Colin’s heart, below.
Busy Philipps
Colin and comedic actress Busy Philipps dated in college in the late 90s at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “He was my college boyfriend!” Busy said on Live with Kelly. “We met when I was 18 and Colin was 19… We are very very close friends now — his wife and I are tight, he and my husband hang out. We go on vacation together.”
“We met 20 years ago!” she continued. “And we hang out a lot. And I do have moments where I think, ‘How cool that we knew each other at this formative moment together?’”
Colin echoed the sentiment when he showed up on the episode to surprise Busy. “We got our first televisions shows within the same week. We got our first movies within the same week,” he explained. “We were able to go through all the really special moments in a young actor’s lives together.”
Samantha Mathis
Before he wed his gorgeous wife, Colin was dating another Samantha: Samantha Mathis, the American actress famous for 1994’s Little Women and more recently, the TV show Billions. Colin and Samantha dated briefly from January to August in 2009.
Samantha Bryant
Colin met Samantha through mutual friends in the late 2000s, with the actor telling The New York Times that they had “the same group of friends and knew of each other, but never paid attention to it.” The couple got engaged in 2009 and then married a year later at the roof of the London Hotel in West Hollywood, where A-listers such as Reese Witherspoon and Alyssa Milano witnessed the vow exchange.
Samantha has worked behind the scenes in Hollywood, mostly as a production assistant on such projects as the film Zathura: A Space Adventure, and the television series, First Time Flippers and Grave Mysteries, according to her IMDB. She also had some bit acting roles.
However, her most important role is clearly that of a mother! Samantha and Colin welcomed their first child, daughter Olivia Jane, in 2011 and a second daughter, Charlotte, in 2013.
“It’s nice to be the king of the castle, but it’s nice to know that when the wife buys the feminist T-shirts, she also buys one for me too,” Colin said of fathering two girls to People in 2020. “I love being a father so much and they bring us such joy and entertainment on a daily basis that I just want to make them as happy as they can be and hopefully some good stuff.”
He added with laugh, “I know there’s going to be bad stuff, there’s nothing you can do about that, but I promise I’ll pay for the therapy.”