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Tom Hanks is related to Mister Rogers and everything makes sense in the world

Through genealogy service Ancestry, Access Hollywood discovered that Mister Rogers and Tom Hanks are actually distant cousins.

Tom Hanks is related to Mister Rogers and everything makes sense in the world

Forrest Gump star and everybody's favorite uncle Tom Hanks is playing none other than the lovable Mister Rogers, that is, Fred Rogers, in the upcoming movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. While there are definitely some obvious similarities in personality, it appears that there is more to their resemblance than meets the eye. Recently, Hanks discovered that he is actually related to the preschool television series legend. And honestly, does it even surprise us right now? Of course two of our favorite personalities would be related to each other. Hanks learned that he is, in fact, Mister Rogers' sixth cousin, PEOPLE Magazine reports.



 

Hanks found out when Access Hollywood did some research through Ancestry, a genealogy service that outlines a person's lineage and family tree via its user database of more than 20 billion public records. The media outlet surprised the Toy Story voice actor with the results at a recent screening of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood in New York City. Needless to say, Hanks had quite the shock. The actor's wife, Rita Wilson, stated upon hearing the news and analysis a diagram of his family tree, "No, impossible... You’re pulling our leg." Hanks, on the other hand, was quite impressed with the revelation and was ready to accept the connection almost immediately. "Listen," he said. "It all just comes together, you see."



 

Indeed it does. Hanks and his wife were not the only ones amazed by the revelation. Mister Rogers’ widow Joanne Rogers, too, was quite surprised. Nonetheless, she was rather happy to find out they were related. "That is just wonderful," she told Access Hollywood. "Now, that is amazing and Fred would have loved it. He loved family tree stuff." In addition to that, Mister Rogers was actually quite the fan of Hanks and his works, according to his wife. She said that the TV icon was a “huge fan” of the actor prior to his sad death in 2003.



 

Jennifer Utley, director of research at Ancestry, said of the familial relationship that her service established, "For more than 30 years, Ancestry has helped millions of people discover the story of what led to them, including the remarkable connection between Fred Rogers and Tom Hanks. It’s no surprise they are related as the similarities between the two are uncanny." If you catch A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, coming to theaters on November 22, you can see just how uncanny the resemblance is as well.



 

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