Tom Hanks Gives Emotional Cecil B. DeMille Award Acceptance Speech at 2020 Golden Globes

Few actors have amassed a career as lauded, memorable and vast as Tom Hanks — which is why we aren’t surprised that he received the prestigious Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2020 Golden Globes on Sunday, January 5.

The 63-year-old legend, who is nominated in the category of Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood earlier in the night, was introduced by Charlize Theron. As he took to the stage to give his acceptance speech, couldn’t help but give a kiss to the one person who supports him most: wife Rita Wilson.

“Most of the people in this room, I would pay to see them get their cars washed,” the Forrest Gump actor said before getting emotional discussing what his brood means to him and getting choked up in the process.

“A man is blessed with a family sitting down front like that,” he said, holding back tears. “A wife who is fantastic in every way, who has taught me what love is, five kids who are braver and stronger and wiser than their old man is and a loving group of people who have put away with me being away months and months at a time. I wouldn’t be standing here if they didn’t have to put up with that. I can’t tell you how much your love means to me.”

The Cecil B. DeMille Award was first presented at the 1952 Golden Globes when it was awarded to its namesake, director Cecil B. DeMille, and has been given out all but two years since. Awarded to 15 women and, as of this year, 52 men since its inception, the honor is bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and selected by the HFPA board of directors for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.”

“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is proud to bestow the 2020 Cecil B. DeMille Award to Tom Hanks,” Lorenzo Soria, the president of the HFPA, said in a statement in September 2019. “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 couldn’t be happier for Tom and we have a sneaking suspicion that wife Rita, also 63, is as proud as ever.