Bio
Tom Cruise's knee injury may have changed the course of his life, leading him to become a Hollywood actor instead of a professional wrestler. Although it may have been an unforeseen obstacle, this event served as a major turning point in his life and ultimately helped him become one of the world's most well known and celebrated artists. With the majority of his movies grossing over $100 million at the box office and diligently getting so into his roles that he even impresses and outperforms other actors by doing his own stunts, Tom Cruise is a superstar.
Early Life/Education
Born July 3, 1962, Tom Cruise grew up as the third child and only son of Thomas Cruise Mapother III and Mary Lee Pfeiffer. He has three sisters named Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass Mapother. Due to his father's job as an electrical engineer, they moved around frequently and lived in different places, such as Ottawa, Louisville, Kentucky, and Wayne, New Jersey. Eventually, they settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, where Tom's mother remarried a man named Joseph South after her divorce from Tom's father.
After graduating in 1980, to give himself a more trendy public persona, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV changed his name to Tom Cruise. He put in a lot of effort as a table cleaner, butler, and bus boy to support himself.
He used some of his earnings to study drama at the esteemed Neighborhood Playhouse, where he was instructed by renowned acting teachers Phil Gushee and Sanford Meisner. As he developed his abilities, he started doing auditions for parts and eventually got one in the musical "Godspell."
Career
Tom Cruise's breakthrough role came in Risky Business, which garnered a lot of attention from people due to his performance and good looks. Prior to that, he had starred in the comedy film "Losin' It" in 1983.
Then, after delivering a standout performance in
All the Right Moves, he earned an unofficial place among the Brat Pack, a group of up-and-coming actors expected to dominate Hollywood in the early 1980s, as dubbed by the media. The original group consisted of Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy.
In 1984, Tom Cruise received his first Golden Globe Award nomination for his outstanding performance in a comedy or musical motion picture. Two years later, he gained immense popularity and success when he starred in Top Gun as Lt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, which became a box-office hit and made Tom Cruise a household name worldwide.
By carefully selecting only challenging projects, Tom Cruise has made a conscious effort to maintain his career in the film industry. His roles in The Color of Money, Rain Man, and Born on the Fourth of July demonstrate his dedication to more intricate and demanding characters.
Tom Cruise didn’t slow down either, next came co*cktail (1988), Days of Thunder (1990), and Far and Away (1992). Cruise then made a pivot in his career and did A Few Good Men (1992). This showed a different side of the actor, and the film went on to gain commercial success and garner praise from critics.
After The Firm (1993), Tom played the character of Lestat, a vampire, in the film adaptation of Anne Rice's best-selling novel Interview with the Vampire (1994). In 1996, Tom Cruise made his debut as a film producer with "Mission: Impossible," in which he also starred. He followed this up with a role in "Jerry Maguire" alongside Cuba Gooding Jr. and Renee Zellweger.
During the 2000s, Cruise appeared in several action-packed films.
He starred in Steven Spielberg's thrilling sci-fi movie Minority Report (2002), as well as The Last Samurai (2003), where he portrayed a dissatisfied American soldier who joined forces with a samurai society. Additionally, he played the role of an unyielding hitman in the gritty Los Angeles-based movie Collateral (2004).
Cruise starred in action thrillers Knight and Day (2010) and Jack Reacher (2012), playing a former army investigator. He reprised his role in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016). Cruise also appeared in Rock of Ages (2012), Obligation (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), The Mummy (2017), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).
Business Ventures
His success as an actor is not solely responsible for his wealth, as he has also produced multiple films. This sets him apart from other wealthy actors in the industry. In 1993, Cruise and Paula Wagner founded Cruise/Wagner Productions, which has since generated $3 billion globally through its films.
However, their exclusive deal with Paramount ended in 2006 after Tom's controversial comments regarding psychiatry and anti-depressants caused a stir within the industry.
Hedge funds and Dan Snyder, the founder of Washington Redskins, have been providing funding for the studio since then. United Artists recruited Paula and Tom in 2006 to revive the struggling studio. Even though Paula left UA in 2008, she and Tom still possess a 30% stake in the studio.
Personal Life
Tom Cruise has quite an extensive relationship timeline:
Cher, Mimi Rogers, and Nicole Kidman, who he married and adopted two children with. After they divorced, he dated Penelope Cruise and Nazanin Boniadi. Tom married Katie Holmes in 2005, they had a daughter, Suri. In 2012 they divorced. Tom Cruise hasn’t been too active in the dating market since then, however he has been rumored to have recently been dating Shakira.
Net Worth
Tom Cruise is worth $600 million, which shouldn’t be a surprise given the fact he has acted in roughly 55 movies and directs some of them too.
Activism
Tom Cruise is a well-known advocate for Scientology, but his philanthropic efforts extend far beyond that. He has been involved in numerous causes such as adoption, fostering, orphans, AIDS and HIV, children's issues, creative arts, diabetes, disaster relief, education, family/parent support, grief support, health initiatives, human rights advocacy, literacy programs, poverty reduction efforts, and anti-slavery and human trafficking campaigns.
Controversy
The biggest controversy surrounding Cruise is mainly due to Scientology. In 2005 for example, he criticized Brooke Shields, and basically anyone else, who used antidepressants. There has been a lot of other back and forth commentary due to his ‘religion’ as well.
Another alarming fact is that Tom Cruise admitted during a 1999 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, a story about a flying experience where he and his co-pilot ran out of oxygen while flying to Colorado. To avoid any danger, Cruise and his co-pilot turned off the oxygen supply for the plane's other passenger so that they could continue their flight safely. He laughed about it, but David Letterman was appalled.
