Birth Name : Thomas Cruise Mapother IV |  |
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attended a Franciscan seminary school, hoping to one day become a priest. But after graduating from high school in Glen Ridge, N.J., Cruise set off for New York City to pursue an acting career. In 1983, at the age of 21, Cruise was simultaneously starring in three films: "Losin’ It", "All the Right Moves", and the wildly popular "Risky Business". With the blockbuster success of 1986’s "Top Gun" and his critically-acclaimed roles in "Rain Man" and "Born on the Fourth of July" (which earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor), Cruise quickly cemented his status as one of the biggest stars on the planet.
On Dec. 24, 1990, Cruise married rising star Nicole Kidman, touching off a widely-publicized ten-year relationship and a decade of extraordinary commercial success. During this period Cruise starred in five consecutive films that all grossed more than $100 million at the domestic box office: "A Few Good Men", "The Firm", "Interview with the Vampire", "Mission: Impossible", and "Jerry Maguire". The latter film earned him another Oscar nomination, as did his off-beat role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s extraordinary 1999 ensemble film, "Magnolia".
The Cruise-Kidman partnership ended in 2000, and the film rumored to have destroyed their marriage, Stanley Kubrick’s hauntingly beautiful final feature "Eyes Wide Shut", will likely be remembered as one of Cruise’s greatest performances. Ironically, it was also one of his few commercial failures. Kubrick’s long, slow-moving art film proved unpopular with audiences expecting a more conventional star vehicle.
The 21st century has been kind to Cruise as well. All of his films since "Eyes Wide Shut" have been sizable hits, and his two collaborations with renowned director Steven Spielberg, "Minority Report" and "War of the Worlds", were commercial and critical successes. His work in Michael Mann’s 2004 film "Collateral" was also some of his best. Cruise began dating Spanish star Penélope Cruz after his divorce in 2001, and they remained together for nearly three years. The pair became an item on the set of Cameron Crowe’s thriller "Vanilla Sky".
In 2005 he began a hotly publicized romance with actress Katie Holmes, and his alien invasion drama "War of the Worlds" became one of the biggest hits of the summer. The tabloids had a field day with Cruise and Holmes’s relationship, ultimately dubbing the pair ‘TomKat’ in the press. The two announced their engagement in June after Cruise’s romantic proposal in Paris.
With an exciting slate of new films (including "M:I-3" and a baby with Holmes on the way, Cruise continues to prove his talent, bankability, and his aptitude at staying in the public eye. The man with the world’s most famous grin is likely to be around for quite a while.
An actor whose name has become synonymous with all-American testosterone-driven entertainment, Tom Cruise spent the 1980s as one of Hollywood 's brightest-shining golden boys. With black hair, blue eyes, and unabashed cockiness, Cruise rode high on such hits as Top Gun and Rain Man. Although his popularity dimmed slightly in the early '90s.
Cruise had occasionally involved himself in politics - in 2000 he backed Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign - but now he'd become far more outspoken. The press campaign for War Of The Worlds often became very heated, with Cruise defending his belief in Scientology, aggressively attacking the absurdly common diagnosis of ADD and willy-nilly prescription of the likes of Ritalin, then rubbishing psychology, psychiatry and the use of anti-depressants (statements that drew him into a very public war of words with, among others, the actress Brooke Shields). Though some of his points were good, particularly on the subject of Ritalin, he would be quite badly shown up when reporters began to research some of his more outrageous claims about the history of psychiatry and drugs.
In TV interviews, Cruise was now coming across as defensive and sometimes angry, his famous ebullience and optimism seeming rather forced. Indeed, his image was taking over. Now he was a money-making monolith, an Operating Thetan on level 7 of Scientology's Bridge to Total Freedom, almost entirely removed from his audience. As if recognising this, he'd give some of his most revealing interviews yet, exploring his relationship with his father and mother, the lessons learned and the damage done. Behind the mystique of Scientology and Hollywood super-power, Cruise was still that bullied little boy, still seeking a better life for himself and his family. Of course, he was also still Ethan Hunt and, at last, 2006 would see the third installment of the Mission : Impossible series, with Cruise this time engaged in a battle of wills (and big guns) with sadistic international arms dealer Philip Seymour Hoffman, who threatens to kill Hunt in front of his girlfriend Michelle Monaghan. It was very different from the last time Cruise and Hoffman had starred together, beside Jason Robards' death-bed in Magnolia
Though away from the industry Cruise does like to scuba-dive and sky-dive and also pilots aircraft, including a Pitts Special S-2B stunt plane, mostly it's about work. Cruise resents being thought of as a beefcake actor or a pretty-boy maker of pulp entertainment. He did, after all, turn down Top Gun 2, despite a promised 500% wage rise, made Born On The Fourth Of July for scale (plus percentage) and took no upfront fee for The Last Samurai. He's tested himself against the best for so long, he's been involved in so many award-winning projects, he feels he deserves better. And he does.
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