In the film Apollo 13, Tom Hanks played the role of which astronaut?

In Ron Howard's acclaimed 1995 film, Tom Hanks portrayed the mission's commander, James "Jim" Lovell. The movie meticulously dramatizes the real-life 1970 lunar mission that suffered a catastrophic in-flight emergency, forcing the crew to abort their moon landing and focus on simple survival. Hanks led the on-screen crew, which also featured Kevin Bacon as Jack Swigert and Bill Paxton as Fred Haise, in a gripping depiction of the crisis.

The real Jim Lovell was one of NASA's most experienced astronauts, making him a natural choice to command what was intended to be the third moon landing. Before Apollo 13, he had already flown on Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and the historic Apollo 8 mission, which was the first to orbit the Moon. The film itself is based on the book *Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13*, which Lovell co-authored, providing a detailed, firsthand account of the events.

As a special nod to his involvement, the real Jim Lovell makes a cameo appearance near the end of the film. He plays the captain of the USS Iwo Jima, the naval ship that recovers the astronauts from the ocean. In a memorable scene, the actual commander gets to shake hands with the actor portraying him, welcoming his on-screen counterpart safely back to Earth.