[2] The cat was initially known as "Jasper" during his debut in the short;[3] however, beginning with his next appearance in The Midnight Snack he was known as "Tom" or "Thomas".

He is usually mute and rarely heard speaking with the exception of a few cartoons (such as 1943's The Lonesome Mouse, 1944's The Zoot Cat, 1947's Part Time Pal, 1953's Puppy Tale and 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie).

[4] Hanna's recordings of Tom screaming were later used as a stock sound effect for other MGM cartoon characters, including a majority of Tex Avery's shorts.

Tom has variously been portrayed as a house cat doing his job, and a victim of Jerry's blackmail attempts, sometimes within the same short.

[5] In 1961 short Switchin' Kitten Tom has a membership card as belong to the "International Brotherhood of Cats".

When the character debuted in Puss Gets the Boot, voice actor Harry E. Lang provided the screeches and meows for Tom.

In 1961–1962, when Gene Deitch took over as director after the MGM cartoon studio shut down in 1957, he and Allen Swift did vocal effects for Tom throughout that time period.

In Tom & Jerry (2021 film), his voice was provided by Kaiji Tang and archived recordings of William Hanna.

On November 18, 2021, it was confirmed that Eric Bauza would be voicing the character in the 2022 fighting game, MultiVersus, which establishes Tom's original given name "Jasper" to be his middle name.

Tom and Jerry were planned to appear as a cameo in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral" from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.