TOM CRUISE

Biography

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York. He was the only boy of four children. Since his father was an electrical engineer, he must have inherited his love for acting from his mother, who was a teacher. Cruise had a difficult upbringing. His family had to get by with little money after his parents divorced when he was 12.

Tom Cruise's acting career really began when he injured his knee in high school and was forced to quit the amateur wrestling team. He took on the role of Nathan Detroit in the high school production of Guys and Dolls. He was so infatuated with acting in high school that he dropped out during his senior year and went on to pursue his dream.

tom cruise in taps
Cruise arrived in Los Angeles in 1981 and met Paula Wagner, an agent at Creative Artists Agency. In his search for fame, Cruise attended drama classes and auditioned for various TV commercials in his youth. His efforts were unsuccessful, but they led to his landing a small role in the 1981movie Endless Love.

His first major role in Taps (1981) originally consisted of one line, but the director was so taken with Cruise's performance that he decided to offer him the third-biggest role in the movie. At first, Cruise was afraid of the challenge associated with such a role, but he later accepted it. His experience from his primitive roles in Endless Love and Taps landed him the starring role in Losin' It (1983).

tom cruise is top gun
That same year, Tom Cruise was cast in The Outsiders, a Francis Ford Coppola production. He starred alongside a talented, young cast that included hotshots such as Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe. This role became a stepping stone for the rest of Tom Cruise's career, especially for his role in Risky Business (1983).

While his popularity took a beating after he starred in bombs like All the Right Moves (1983) and Legend (1985), Cruise's career began to solidify during his signature hit of the 1980s, Top Gun (1986).

Another big success was Tom Cruise's role in The Color of Money (1986), which also starred Paul Newman. This Martin Scorsese production moved Tom's professional image from the boy-next-door to a more confident and cocky young man with an attitude, which was later amplified in Cocktail (1988).

tom cruise marries nicole kidman
After marrying fellow Scientologist Mimi Rogers in 1987, Tom Cruise proved his dramatic talents in the 1988 drama Rain Man, where he costarred with Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman. Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989) earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his hard-hitting portrayal of war veteran and antiwar activist Ron Kovic.

Cruise fell short for his role in Far and Away (1992) with costar Nicole Kidman, whom he married in 1990 after having shared the screen in Days of Thunder (1990). He married Nicole within the same year of his divorce from Mimi.

Tom Cruise's commercial comeback began with movies like A Few Good Men (1992), where he successfully confronted the legendary Jack Nicholson. He played a lawyer once again in the thriller The Firm (1993), and both of these movies provided great box-office returns.

tom cruise produces movies
Striving to take on even bigger roles (and paychecks), Cruise starred in Interview With The Vampire (1994), alongside Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst; and Mission: Impossible (1996), which had a huge budget of approximately $67 million.

Now a producer and actor, Cruise's resume next included Jerry Maguire (1996) with the pouty-lipped Renee Zellweger, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Magnolia (1999) starring Julianne Moore, and the summer of 2000's mega blockbuster, Mission: Impossible 2.

Tom Cruise and his wife of 10 years, Nicole Kidman, filed for divorce in February 2001, and he was next seen with Spanish beauty Penelope Cruz, his Vanilla Sky (2001) costar. Keeping with the science-fiction theme of Vanilla Sky, Cruise's next starring role was in Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002). Tom Cruise made a killing with Last Samurai (2003), but he broke records when he scored over $100 million for his role in 2005's War of the Worlds.

tom cruise jumps for katie holmes
2005 was also the year that was dubbed, "Jumping The Couch," as Tom announced his love for Katie Holmes on The Oprah Winfrey Show while jumping all over her couch.

The couple married in 2006, the same year the third Mission: Impossible was completed. After Katie gave birth to their first child, Suri, Tom Cruise worked on Bratz: The Movie (2007).

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