Who Was Samantha Lewes, Tom Hanks’ First Wife?

Lauren Novak April 10, 2:28 pm

Tom Hanks Bossum Buddies with Samantha inset — Everett Collection; Inset: Screengrab

Tom Hanks has famously been married to Rita Wilson for decades — but did you know that he was married prior to their relationship, to first wife Samantha Lewes? Born Susan Dillingham (Samantha Lewes was a stage name), Lewes married Hanks in 1978; they had two children, Colin and Elizabeth (who now goes by E.A.), and divorced in 1987. Lewes was an actress, but only appeared in a handful of projects including an episode of Bosom Buddies called “Cahoots” with her then-husband; she died in 2002 from bone cancer at the age of 49. Now, Hanks and Lewes’ daughter E.A. Hanks is opening up about her late mother in a new memoir.

In The 10: A Memoir of Family And The Open Road, E.A. says that she believes her mother was struggling with bipolar disorder, though she was never formally diagnosed. She also spoke about the abuse she experienced while living with her mother after her parents split in the ’80s.

E.A. explained in the book, “Saying that my mother was mentally ill, that she was possibly ‘bipolar with episodes of extreme paranoia and delusion,’ makes sense of the nights sitting with her on a blanket in the driveway, my mother sobbing and convinced there were men inside the house, bugging the walls, waiting for us in our bedrooms.”

Eventually, she confided in her brother and father, and Hanks began to work on changing the terms of the former couples’ custody agreement. E.A. soon moved into his home with his second wife Wilson and their children Chet and Truman. But even after she had escaped the abuse, it still wasn’t easy.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 08: E.A. Hanks and Tom Hanks Discuss Her New Book "The 10: A Memoir Of Family And The Open Road" at 92NY on April 08, 2025 in New York City.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for ABA

She shared, “As a kid, I was more used to not seeing my father, who at the time was on a streak of blockbusters and Academy Awards. Being away from my mother, as scary and difficult as she could be, was always much harder.”

Her mother died when E.A. was just 19 years old; she took a six-month road trip to try to work through some of her tough family history, which inspired her book. E.A. said that her father has always supported her sharing her side of the story.