Michael Conner Humphreys is an American actor best known for playing young Forrest Gump in the 1994 film of the same name, a performance for which he was nominated for a Young Artist Award. Humphreys was born in the small town of Independence, Mississippi. In 1993, when he was eight years old, he attended an open casting call in Memphis, Tennessee for "a young Tom Hanks with light eyes and a quirky disposition." The casting team, particularly taken by his thick Southern accent, selected Humphreys to play the role of young Forrest Gump in the movie adaptation of Winston Groom's 1986 novel. As part of his preparation to play the character as an adult, Tom Hanks worked to emulate Humphreys's speech and mannerisms.
Tom Hanks patterned his Forrest Gump accent after Humphreys, who
actually talks that way.
Enlisted in the U.S. Army in November 2004 as an infantryman. Served in 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division in Anbar Province, Iraq. He was later assigned to 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas and discharged in 2008.
It was a good experience, and you saw a lot of bad things, a lot people got hurt over there. I just hope that we did some good. (Daily News interview about his deployment to Iraq)