Hollywood star Tom Hanks has acknowledged the two actors who helped him when he was getting started in the industry.

Hanks reminisced about friends George Maguire and Michael John McGann, two actors he met when he was just out at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland in 1978. The duo insisted that Hanks move to New York to get his career going, reports people.com.

"George and Michael John made the quick work of telling me: I would go to New York! Just as they had! New York City is where actors and artists go to test their talent and wherewithal!" Hanks wrote in an essay.

Hanks opened up about his early acting career -- and the two best friends who helped him out in the earliest days -- in the new cover story of AARP the Magazine.

He continued to talk about what their loyalty and friendship meant to him.

McGann helped Hanks co-sign his first lease, a fourth-floor walk-up in Hell's Kitchen. Maguire loaned him a winter coat when he didn't have one, as well as some furniture and an old portable black and white TV.

Hanks also talked about the three of them doing their taxes together during a snowstorm in the early '80s.

"When those two pros showed me how to file my return so I'd get a refund from the IRS for nearly $600, the first moment of solvency in my adult life, I thought I had won the lottery," he said.

He said the friends are still close to each other. "They were the kind of actor I wanted to be. And the kind of human being I hope to become."