Tom Cruise

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is an American actor, producer and pilot. One of the world’s highest-paid actors. He is known for his roles in iconic films such as Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia. He has also been nominated for four Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards.

3 July, 1962 Tom Cruise was born in Syracuse, New York, as Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. Tom is the only son of Mary Lee, she was a special education teacher, and tom’s father Thomas Cruise Mapother III was an electrical engineer. He has three sisters: Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass. He grew up in a Catholic family and attended a Franciscan seminary at the age of 14, intending to become a priest. However, he soon developed an interest in acting and dropped out of school at 18 to pursue his dream in New York. He made his film debut in Endless Love (1981), but his breakthrough came with the comedy Risky Business (1983), where he played a high school student who turns his parents’ house into a brothel. The film was a critical and commercial success and launched Cruise’s career as a leading man. In 1986, he starred in the action film Top Gun, playing a fighter pilot named Maverick. The film was a huge hit and cemented Cruise’s status as a superstar. He also met his first wife, actress Mimi Rogers, on the set of the film. They married in 1987 and divorced in 1990. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cruise proved his versatility as an actor by taking on different genres and roles. He go through critical acclaim for his performances in The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). For the latter, he won his first Golden Globe Award and received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1990, he married his second wife, actress Nicole Kidman, whom he met on the set of Days of Thunder (1990). They adopted two children: Isabella and Connor. They also starred together in several films, such as Far and Away (1992), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), and Moulin Rouge! (2001). They divorced in 2001 after 11 years of marriage.

In the mid-1990s, Cruise established himself as an action star with the Mission: Impossible franchise, based on the popular TV series. He played Ethan Hunt, a secret agent who performs daring missions around the world. He also served as a producer for the films, which have grossed over $3 billion worldwide. In 1996, he starred in Jerry Maguire, playing a sports agent who falls in love with his assistant. The film was a huge success and earned Cruise his second Golden Globe Award and his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He also delivered one of his most famous lines: “You had me at hello”.

Blockbuster movies of Tom Cruise.

In 1999, he starred in Magnolia, playing a motivational speaker with a troubled past. The film was praised by critics and audiences alike and earned Cruise his third Golden Globe Award and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2005, he married his third wife, actress Katie Holmes, whom he met in 2004. They had one daughter: Suri. They also starred together in the film Valkyrie (2008), where Cruise played a German officer who plots to assassinate Hitler. Tom and his wife got divorced in 2012 after six years of marriage. In the 2000s and 2010s, Cruise continued to star in blockbuster films such as Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), War of the Worlds (2005), Tropic Thunder (2008), Jack Reacher (2012), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), American Made (2017), and The Mummy (2017). He also reprised his role as Ethan Hunt in several Mission: Impossible sequels: Mission: Impossible II (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015).

In addition to acting and producing, Cruise is also known for his involvement in Scientology, a controversial religion that he joined in 1990 after being introduced by Mimi Rogers. He has been an outspoken advocate for the religion and has faced criticism for his views on psychiatry, medicine, and homosexuality. Cruise is also known for his passion for aviation and piloting. He owns several aircrafts, including a P-51 Mustang, a Gulfstream IV, and a helicopter. He often performs his own stunts in his films, such as hanging from a plane in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation or jumping from a building in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.Cruise is currently one of the highest-paid and most influential actors in Hollywood, with a net worth of over $500 million. He has received various honors and awards, including an Honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. He is also involved in several humanitarian and charitable causes, such as the Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition, the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, and the United Service Organizations.

In 2006, Premiere ranked Cruise as Hollywood’s most powerful actor, as Cruise came in at number 13 on the magazine’s 2006 Power List, being the highest ranked actor. The same year, Forbes magazine ranked him as the world’s most powerful celebrity. The founder of CinemaScore in 2016 cited Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio as the “two stars, it doesn’t matter how bad the film is, they can pull [the box office] up.”

October 10, 2006, was declared “Tom Cruise Day” in Japan; the Japan Memorial Day Association said that he was awarded with a special day because of “his love for and close association with Japan.”

While reviewing Days of Thunder, film critic Roger Ebert noted the similarities between several of Cruise’s 1980s films and nicknamed the formula the “Tom Cruise Picture”. Ebert listed nine key ingredients that make up the Tom Cruise Picture: the Cruise character, the mentor, the superior woman, the craft he must hone, the arena it takes place in, the arcana or knowledge he must learn, the trail or journey, the proto enemy, and the eventual enemy of the character. Some of Cruise’s later films like A Few Good Men and The Last Samurai can also be considered to be part of this formula.

[screenwriter] Aaron Sorkin interestingly takes the opposite approach of Top Gun, where Cruise also starred as the protagonist. In Top Gun, Cruise plays Mitchell who is a ‘hot shot’ military underachiever who makes mistakes because he is trying to outperform his late father. Where Maverick Mitchell needs to rein in the discipline, Daniel Kaffee needs to let it go, finally see what he can do.

Cruise is an aerobatic pilot, and was inducted as part of the Living Legends of Aviation in 2010, receiving the Aviation Inspiration and Patriotism Award from the Kiddie Hawk Air Academy. In addition to other aircraft, Cruise owns a P-51 Mustang.