Tom Hanks, 57-year-old screen legend, recently revealed on The Late Show with David Letterman that he has type 2 diabetes, and has been struggling with high blood sugar since he was 36-years-old.

Throughout Hanks' career, he's made a game of gaining and losing weight so that his girth was in sync with who his characters were. He's played a 225 pound baseball couch, and he's played a 170 pound ship-wrecked FedEx employee. His openness to weight gain and weight loss for his roles is a testament to his commitment as an artist.

Though, CBS News medical contributor, Dr. Holly Phillips has indicated that the fluctuations in weight may have played a role in his acquiring diabetes.

"He'll have to watch what he eats very closely, he'll need to exercise regularly but there's no reason he can't live a perfectly normal life," she said. "In dramatic weight gain and dramatic weight loss, the equilibrium of the body is just completely off. So that might predispose him to developing type 2 diabetes later."

Hanks told Letterman that his doctor prescribed that he lose weight and try to get down to the weight that he was at in high school, stating that he would be healthy and without type 2 diabetes. Hanks said that he responded saying that he would continue to have type 2 diabetes because he wouldn't be able to return to his high school weight. Letterman then asked Hanks how much he weighed in high school, and Hanks responded, "96 pounds."

Hanks is easily one of the biggest names in Hollywood, with several iconic roles in his artillery of stellar characters that he's portrayed. Big, Angels & Demons , Cast Away, A League of Their Own, Catch Me If You Can, Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, The Green Mile, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, You've Got Mail, Road to Perdition, and The Da Vinci Code feature some of his most memorable roles. And, these performances have earned him a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a People's Choice Award.