When you’re ready to pledge your love to another in marriage, you have a lot of leeway when it comes to the details. You’re free to work with any wedding supplier or vendor to make your dream nuptials a reality; however, in most states, your marriage ceremony must be performed by someone who is licensed to do so. Typically, judges, justices of the court, and religious ministers can marry a couple. The Universal Life Church offers an ordination to almost anyone, including some of the world’s most famous people, such as actor and filmmaker Tom Hanks.
A Man of the Elite Hollywood Cloth
When it comes to A-list Hollywood actors, you’d be hard-pressed to name someone more famous than Tom Hanks. He is one of the biggest and most recognizable film stars globally. Hanks’s filmography includes several award-winning dramas and comedies, and his films have grossed almost $10 billion at the global box office. Hanks is an award-winning actor with two Academy Awards out of six nominations, 12 Golden Globe awards, seven Emmys, and one Tony nomination, as well as special awards such as the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Kennedy Center Honor, among others.
A Movie Star Minister
Tom Hanks is an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church and has officiated more than one wedding. Perhaps his most famous client was actress Allison Williams of the television series “Girls.” Hanks officiated her 2014 wedding to Ricky Van Veen, co-founder of CollegeHumor, an entertainment website. The ceremony included other famous people, including Williams’s co-stars, rocker Bruce Springsteen, designer Diane Von Furstenberg, and Hanks’s wife, Rita Wilson, who is also an actress and a co-star of the bride.
In 2016, Tom Hanks photobombed a couple’s wedding day shoot while jogging in Central Park, New York. Shaking their hands, he congratulated the couple and posed for a few pictures with them. The starstruck couple invited him to their wedding reception, which he declined. Hanks informed them that he was an ordained minister and offered to marry them if their officiant didn’t show up.
Married by the Megastar
In the spring of 2022, while filming in the Pittsburgh area for upcoming movie “A Man Called Otto,” Hanks put on his minister hat once again. The film crew used local resident Krisna Posnik’s yard for catering. Posnik, who had been dating her boyfriend, Tyler, for years, wasn’t in a rush to marry. Posnik remembered hearing about Hanks’s encounter with the couple in Central Park and learned he was an ordained minister. Inspired to make things official, she wrote a letter to Hanks, who agreed to officiate her wedding.
Krisna and Tyler didn’t want to create a media storm and decided to keep Hanks’s involvement a surprise to their families. Hanks agreed to marry their couple in their unfinished home. As their minister, he offered up an anecdote about their engagement in Stonehenge, England. He also offered wisdom and advice based on his marriage of over 30 years to Rita Wilson. After the ceremony, Hanks toasted the couple with cider and gave them a big hug. The couple was so moved that they decided that upcoming anniversary celebrations will include watching one of Hanks’s many films.
You don’t have to be a global superstar to be kind to couples in need of a minister. Tom Hanks offered his services to strangers out of a sense of goodness and generosity. Perhaps you share a similar motivation to help couples, whether friends or strangers, solemnize their union. Becoming ordained through the ULC is one way to be of service to others, especially those looking for alternate paths to wedded bliss.