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Tom Hanks poses for photographers as he walks the red carpet at a screening for the movie “Captain Phillips” at the Newseum, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
When actor Tom Hanks sat down with David Letterman on Monday’s “Late Show,” he shared a surprising health announcement: a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes.
Hanks, whose new film “Captain Phillips” opens Oct.
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3217e64e503a18213f0f6a70670091d0.jpg
Tom Hanks poses for photographers as he walks the red carpet at a screening for the movie “Captain Phillips” at the Newseum, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
When actor Tom Hanks sat down with David Letterman on Monday’s “Late Show,” he shared a surprising health announcement: a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes.
Hanks, whose new film “Captain Phillips” opens Oct. 11, spent some time on Letterman’s sofa discussing his new movie. But first talk turned to the two-time Oscar winner’s recent weight loss. CBS reports:
“I went to the doctor and he said ‘You know those high blood sugar numbers you’ve been dealing with since you were 36? Well, you’ve graduated. You’ve got type 2 diabetes, young man,'” said Hanks.
The 57-year-old actor is known for taking on roles that require him to gain and lose weight. He packed on 30 pounds to play baseball coach Jimmy Dugan in 1992’s “A League of Their Own.”
Years later, he dropped from 225 pounds to 170 pounds for “Castaway,” a dramatic transformation to portray a man stranded on a deserted island.
CBS reportsthe condition might have been caused by those huge weight shifts for roles.
We’ll let the New York Dailytell what happened next:
The “Forrest Gump” star explained to Letterman that his doctor advised he should weigh as much as he weighed in high school in order to attain complete health.
“And I said to her, ‘Well I’m gonna have Type 2 diabetes,'” Hanks joked. “There was no way I was gonna weigh what I weighed in high school. … I was 96 pounds.”
The diabetes diagnosis is really sad. Less sad, but also something Hanks apparently got checked out: that mustache. Uplifting thought: it was something Tom could do something about.
Here’s an NPR story on Hank’s latest flick. And here’s some YouTube videos about the Mearsk highjacking. Are you going to see Captain Phillips when it arrives in Portland theaters?
— Kimberly A.C. Wilson