In the 1993 romantic comedy Sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hanks plays widower Sam Baldwin.
Sam is a Chicago architect who moves to Seattle with his young son Jonah after his wife dies. Jonah calls a radio advice program on Christmas Eve, prompting Sam to discuss his grief on air and unexpectedly attracting the attention of Annie Reed.
The film reunited Hanks with director Nora Ephron and co-star Meg Ryan after their earlier collaboration in Joe Versus the Volcano. Their characters spend much of the story apart, with the romance developing through radio, letters and coincidence.
Hanks is sometimes remembered only for his later reunion with Ryan in You’ve Got Mail, but Sleepless in Seattle was their second film together. Sam Baldwin is not the same character as Hanks’s later bookstore owner Joe Fox.