Sunday night at the Golden Globes, Tom Hanks received the Cecil B. deMille award, and in his speech was a little nugget that has C-U ties. He spoke about his first professional gig as an intern at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. After showing up late because of too much revelry, he and his fellow interns were yelled at by the director, Daniel Sullivan:
“He screamed at us,” said Hanks. “You know what your job is?” the director asked. “You have got to show up on time, and you have to know the text, and you have to have a head full of ideas. Otherwise I can’t do my job.”
Sullivan is a Tony Award winning (actually many award winning) director, and he is also a Swanlund Chair and Professor of Theatre at the University of Illinois. He worked with Hanks again in 2018, directing him in a production of Henry IV.
It’s not the first time C-U and Tom Hanks have existed in the same universe. You can read more about that here and here.
Here is the full speech: