Tom Hanks is a distant relative of Mister Rogers
The actor plays Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which hits theaters Friday.
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No wonder Tom Hanks is such a believable Mister Rogers.
Tom Hanks has more linking him to Fred Rogers than just playing him in a movie. The actor this week learned he's related to the former children's TV star, whom he portrays in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, out Friday.
Hanks is Rogers' sixth cousin -- they share a great-great-great-great-great grandfather named Johannes Mefford, an Ancestry.com representative said. The genealogy site created Hanks' family tree using its database of more than 20 billion online historical records.
Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson learned about the connection during an Access Hollywood segment at the New York City screening for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood this week. "It all just comes together, you see," Hanks says after looking at the family tree.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a biopic focused on the real-life friendship between Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. Directed by Marielle Heller, it opens in the US on Friday.
