Is Forrest Gump Based on a True Story? All About the Real-Life People Who Inspired the Tom Hanks Classic

1994’s Forrest Gump is an absolute classic, following the naive yet caring titular character as he unintentionally becomes part of history over and over again.

Tom Hanks played Forrest Gump and was joined in the cast by other talented stars like Sally Field, Robin Wright and even a very young Haley Joel Osment in his first role. Forrest Gump was a box office hit and won six awards at the 1995 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Hanks.

Many fans also wonder if Forrest Gump is based on a true story since it incorporates so many real events throughout history. The short answer, however, is no. But while, Hanks' Gump is not based on one real person, the story was inspired by a few real people and significant historical events.

The film was also adapted from the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The author dedicated the book to his two friends, George Radcliff and Jimbo Meador, and Meador is often believed to be the main inspiration for Gump. But Groom himself even admitted that there is no one singular muse for Gump, telling Garden & Gun in 2019, “There is no real Forrest Gump character that I know of, even though my friend Jimbo Meador gets accused of it all the time.”

So, what is the true story behind Forrest Gump? Read on to discover everyone and everything that helped inspire the iconic film.

George Radcliff helped inspire Forrest Gump and Bubba

Radcliff was one of Groom’s lifelong friends and one of the men to whom the novel Forrest Gump is dedicated. When Radcliff tells his story, it’s clear why.

One of the most endearing aspects of Forrest Gump is the way that Gump accidentally finds himself coming into contact with famous figures like Elvis, President Richard Nixon, President John F. Kennedy and more. In real life, Radcliff has a very similar story.

In 2015, Radcliff detailed many of his life memories to Mobile Bay magazine: He was childhood roommates with Willie Nelson and later played with his band; he hung out with John Wayne in Mexico after Wayne’s film crew mistakenly believed he was a big movie star; and even claimed to have beaten Paul McCartney in an arm-wrestling contest without even knowing who he was.

Radcliff's story also shares a striking similarity with the shrimp-loving Bubba, who has been memorialized by the seafood restaurant Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., which was named after the character.

After Radcliff’s adventurous and rambunctious youth, he decided to buy a boat and live a simpler life. “He bought this shrimp boat called the Baghdad,” Radcliff’s daughter Fontaine told Mobile Bay. “He thought it was awesome. Then he just wanted to shrimp around Mobile Bay all the time.”

Jimbo Meador also shares a lot of similarities with Forrest Gump and Bubba

Groom’s other good friend, Meador, is also given a dedication in the book, and just like Radcliff, he shares many similarities with Gump and Bubba. At one point in Forrest Gump, Gump decides to start running and eventually runs across the entire country, saying, “I just felt like running.”

Meador was an avid runner, even back in the '60s and '70s when running for fun wasn't the norm. “There weren’t many people doin’ it back in the ’70s,” he told Mobile Bay magazine in 2016. “Somebody saw you runnin’, they figured you’d done somethin’ wrong.” Meador also told the publication that back in his running days he had a giant beard, just like Gump had during his running phase in the film.

When Forrest Gump was turned into a movie, the film crew even hired Meador for the production, using him as the basis for Gump’s iconic speech pattern and accent. “Tom Hanks’ voice coach wanted to get down what she called the Point Clear accent,” Groom told Garden & Gun. “She called me, but I said I wasn’t the right person. I sent her to Jimbo, and she recorded him and used that to coach Hanks.”

Just like Radcliff (and Bubba from the film), Meador also has a love of being on the water and shrimping. In his Mobile Bay interview, he recalled quitting his high-paying job, telling his wife, “This ain’t me. I’m goin’ shrimpin’." He then spent 15 years working for Bon Secour Fisheries, which catches and raises seafood for distribution around the world.

Veteran Sammy L. Davis helped inspire Forrest Gump’s Vietnam scenes

One of the most memorable scenes in Forrest Gump is when Gump enlists in the military and serves in the Vietnam War. While there, his platoon is ambushed, and Gump single-handedly saves many of his fellow soldiers. After returning home, President Lyndon B. Johnson awards Gump the Medal of Honor.

In real life, the same situation happened to veteran Sammy L. Davis. After his platoon was attacked, Davis managed to rescue three of his fellow soldiers, despite being shot numerous times. He was later given the Medal of Honor by President Johnson, and the filmmakers used that ceremony footage in the film, superimposing Hanks’ face onto Davis’ head.

“I thought they put on Tom’s head,” Davis told CBS Indianapolis, “and my Mama said, ‘No, Sammy Lee, those are the knobs on the back of your head and she’s right, they just put on Tom’s face.”

The initial inspiration for Forrest Gump came from a story Groom’s dad told him

While living in the northeast, Groom returned to Alabama one winter to escape the cold. While there, he spent time with his father. One day at lunch, his dad told him a story from his childhood that eventually laid the groundwork for Forrest Gump.

“In his neighborhood, there was a boy who was what you would call slow-witted, and the kids in the neighborhood would tease him and chase him and throw sticks at him," Groom told Garden & Gun. "Then one day this truck arrived outside of the boy’s house, and out of it came this big piano. And within a few days, this beautiful piano music began wafting out of the windows. It turned out that this boy was some sort of musical genius.”

Groom was inspired by his father’s story and intrigued by the concept of savants. “I went home and started to make notes on that conversation,” he said, “thinking I might use it as a scene somewhere in a book. By late that evening, I had written the first chapter of Forrest Gump.”

Forrest Gump is full of actual events

While there might not be one overarching true story in Forrest Gump, the film and book are loaded with true events and real people, making them very much rooted in reality. From the Watergate scandal to the Vietnam War, the AIDS crisis, desegregation in the South, Hurricane Carmen and more, Forrest Gump is a journey through some of the most important historical moments of the 20th century.