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Tom Hanks will become the third American-born male actor in the past decade to be honored at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual Gala Tribute in New York next April. The two-time Academy Award winner is praised by the event’s director Kent Jones for for being able “to make the struggle and drama of being a good man compelling.”

Hanks will follow in the footsteps of Al Pacino in 2000 and Dustin Hoffman in 2005 when he receives the tribute. The Gala Tribute dates back to 1972 when Charles Chaplin was brought back to the United States, and celebrates actors and filmmakers who have ”defined the method by which movies are made and seen, and advanced the understanding of cinema as an art form.”

Hanks, 52, won Oscars for playing the AIDS-stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in “Philadelphia” in 1994 and the hero of “Forrest Gump” in 1995. Recent roles include the voice of cowboy Woody in “Toy Story,” survivor Chuck Nolan in “Cast Away,” and the opportunistic senator in “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

Hanks is praised for making the good guy roles compelling — but can he play a baddie as well?