Tom Hanks tries to reunite Fordham student with her ID after finding it in park

Tom Hanks has played heroes in several successful films and is lined up to star as Hudson River pilot Captain Sullenberger (Getty Images)

Tom Hanks cemented his place as one of Hollywood’s most upstanding actors when he went out of his way to make sure a university student who misplaced her ID wouldn’t have to fork out to replace it.

Fresh from officiating Alison William's wedding, the Forrest Gump actor carried out his next good deed on Tuesday by tweeting a picture of the Fordham University ID after finding it in Central Park, in New York, with an offer to send it back to its owner.

His 10.4 million followers rushed to praise him as the "nicest man ever", proving it doesn't take much to win that title.

The card belongs to Lauren Whitmore, a performance artist, who was running in the park when she lost it.

“I don’t have a Twitter, but one of my professors emailed me with a link to Twitter and said, ‘you’re famous,’ she told CBS2 on Tuesday.

“It was ironic, I was thinking about it, you know I was out for a run, Forrest — I don’t know.”

Hanks was full of gratitude when a New York resident found his credit card and returned it to him in March, writing on Twitter: “A guy named Tony found my credit card on the street in NYC and returned it! Tony! You make this city even greater! Thanx. HANX.”

Whitmore has already spent the $20 fee to replace her ID - but would be happy to meet with Hanks to get her now defunct card back.