Tom Cruise

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Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (/tms kruz mepr/; born July 3, 1962), widely known as Tom Cruise , is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards. He started his career at age 19 in the 1981 film Endless Love. His first leading role was in Risky Business, released in August 1983. Cruise became a full-fledged movie star after starring in Top Gun (1986). He is well known for his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible film series between 1996 and 2011. Cruise has starred in many Hollywood blockbusters, including Rain Man (1988), A Few Good Men (1992), Jerry Maguire (1996), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Tropic Thunder (2008), Jack Reacher (2012) and Oblivion (2013). As of 2012, Cruise is Hollywood's highest-paid actor.[1] Fourteen of his films grossed over $100 million domestically; twenty have grossed in excess of $200 million worldwide.[2] Cruise is known for his support for the Church of Scientology and its affiliated social programs.[3]

Tom Cruise

Cruise at San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2013. Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV July 3, 1962 Syracuse, New York, U.S.

Occupation Actor, producer, writer, director Years active 1981present Religion Spouse(s) Scientology Mimi Rogers (m. 198790) Nicole Kidman (m. 1990 2001) Katie Holmes (m. 200612) 3 Website TomCruise.com (http://www.tomcruise.com/)

Contents
1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 Acting 2.2 Producing 2.2.1 Breakup with Paramount 2.2.2 Management of United Artists 3 Relationships and personal life 4 Popularity 5 Controversy 5.1 Litigation 5.2 Oprah Winfrey Show 5.3 Scientology 6 Filmography 7 Discography 7.1 Soundtracks 8 Awards and nominations 9 See also
Children

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Early life
Cruise was born in Syracuse, New York, the son of Mary Lee (ne Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III (died 1984),[4] an electrical engineer.[5] Cruise has three sisters, Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass. Cruise's surname originates from his great-grandfather, born Thomas Cruise O'Mara, who was renamed "Thomas Cruise Mapother" (Mapother is a Welsh surname).[6][7][8] Cruise is of Irish,[9] German and English ancestry.[10] One of his paternal great-great-great-grandfathers, Patrick Russell Cruise, was born in North County Dublin, in 1799; he married Teresa Johnson in Warrenstown House, County Meath, in 1825. They left Ireland for America that same year and settled in New York.[9] He grew up in near poverty, and had a Catholic upbringing. The family was dominated by his abusive father, whom Cruise has described as "a merchant of chaos."[11] He was beaten by his father, who Cruise has said was a bully and coward. He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my lifehow hed lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang! For me, it was like, 'There's something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him.'[11] Cruise's family spent part of his childhood in Canada. They moved to the Ottawa suburb of Beacon Hill in late 1971 so that Cruise's father could take a position as a defense consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces.[12] There, Cruise attended the just opened Robert Hopkins Public School for much of grade four as well as grade five.[12][13] It was while in grade four that Cruise first became involved in drama, under the tutelage of George Steinburg. Cruise and six other boys put on an improvised play to music called IT at the Carlton Elementary School drama festival.[12] Drama organizer Val Wright, who was in the audience that night, reflected that "the movement and improvisation were excellent. It was a classic ensemble piece."[12] Cruise also enjoyed sports at the school including playing floor hockey, though he was known more for his aggression than his talent. For grade six Cruise went to Henry Munro Middle School. However, in the spring of that year Cruise's mother left his father, taking Cruise and his sisters back to the US.[12] His father died of cancer.[14] He briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati on a church scholarship and aspired to become a Catholic priest.[15] In his senior year, he played football for the varsity team as a linebacker, but he was cut from the squad after getting caught drinking beer before a game.[16][17]

Career
Acting
Cruise first appeared in a small bit part in the 1981 film Endless Love, followed by a major supporting role as a crazed military school student in Taps later that year. In 1983, Cruise was part of the ensemble cast of The Outsiders. That same year he appeared in All the Right Moves and Risky Business, which has been described as "A Generation-X classic, and a career-maker for Tom Cruise",[18] and which, along with 1986's Top Gun, cemented his status as a superstar. Cruise also played the male lead (Jack O' the Green) in Legend (released 1986).

Cruise followed up Top Gun with The Color of Money, which came out the same year, and which paired him with Paul Newman. 1988 saw him star in Cocktail, which earned him a nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. Later that year he starred with Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, which won the Academy Award for Best Film and Cruise the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise portrayed real-life paralyzed Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic in 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Actor, a nomination for BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Cruise's first Best Actor Academy Award nomination. Cruise's next films were Days of Thunder (1990) and Far and Away (1992), both of which co-starred then-wife Nicole Kidman as his love interest. In 1994, Cruise starred along with Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater in Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, a gothic drama/horror film that was based on Anne Rice's best-selling novel. The film was well received, although Rice was initially quite outspoken in her criticism of Cruise having been cast in the film, as Julian Sands was her first choice. Upon seeing the film however, she paid $7,740 for a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising his performance and apologizing for her previous doubts about him.[19]
Cruise at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989

In 1996, Cruise appeared as superspy Ethan Hunt in the reboot of Mission: Impossible, which he produced it was a box office success although it received criticism regarding the Jim Phelps character being a villain despite being a protagonist of the original television series.[1] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117060/reviews?start=10). . In 1996, he took on the title role in Jerry Maguire, for which he earned a Golden Globe and his second nomination for an Academy Award. In 1999, Cruise costarred with Kidman in the erotic Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut , and took a rare supporting role as a motivational speaker Frank T.J. Mackey in Magnolia, for which he received another Golden Globe and nomination for an Academy Award. In 2000, Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt in the second installment of the Mission Impossible films, releasing Mission: Impossible II. The film was directed by Hong Kong director John Woo and branded with his gun fu style, and it continued the series' blockbuster success at the box office, taking in almost $547M in worldwide figures, like its predecessor, being the third highest grossing film of the year, despite being a success it along with its predecessor received a mixed reception. Cruise received an MTV Movie Award as Best Male Performance for this film. His next five films were major critical and commercial successes.[20][21] The following year Cruise starred in the romantic thriller Vanilla Sky (2001) with Cameron Diaz and Penlope Cruz. In 2002, Cruise starred in the dystopian science fiction thriller, Minority Report which was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. In 2003, he starred in the Edward Zwick's historical drama The Last Samurai, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination as best actor. In 2005, Cruise worked again with Steven Spielberg in War of the Worlds, a loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel of the same name, which became the fourth highest grossing film of the year with US$591.4 million worldwide. Also in 2005, he won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Movie Star, and the MTV Generation Award. Cruise was nominated for seven Saturn Awards between 2002 and 2009, winning once. Nine of the ten films he starred in during the decade made over $100 million at the box office.[20] In 2006, he returned to his role as Ethan Hunt in the third installment of the Mission Impossible film series, Mission: Impossible III. The film was more positively received by critics than the previous films in the series, it grossed nearly $400 million at the box office.[22] In 2007, Cruise took a rare supporting role for the second time in Lions for Lambs, which was a commercial disappointment. This was followed by an unrecognizable

appearance as "Less Grossman" in the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Jack Black. This performance earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. Cruise played the central role in the historical thriller Valkyrie released on December 25, 2008 to box office success.[23] In March 2010, Cruise completed filming the action-comedy Knight and Day, in which he re-teamed with former costar Cameron Diaz; the film was released on June 23, 2010.[24] On February 9, 2010, Cruise confirmed that he would star in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment in the Mission:Impossible series. The film was released in December 2011[25] to high critical acclaim[26] and box office success.[27] Unadjusted for ticket price inflation, it is Cruise's biggest commercial success to date.[28] On May 6, 2011, Cruise was awarded a humanitarian award from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and Museum of Tolerance for his work as a dedicated philanthropist.[29] In mid-2011, Cruise started shooting the movie Rock of Ages, in which he played the character Stacee Jaxx. The film was released in June 2012.[30]

Cruise in March 2006

Cruise starred as Jack Reacher, an adaptation of British author Lee Child's 2005 novel One Shot. The film was released on December 21, 2012.[31] It met with positive reviews from critics and was a box office success grossing $216,568,266 worldwide.[32][33] In 2013, he starred in the science fiction film Oblivion based on director Joseph Kosinski graphic novel of the same name. The film met with mixed reviews and grossed $285,600,588 worldwide. It also starred Morgan Freeman and Olga Kurylenko.[34][35] As of 2013, Cruise's films have grossed about $7.3 billion worldwide.[36]

Producing
Cruise partnered with his former talent agent Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1993,[37] and the company has since co-produced several of Cruise's films, the first being Mission: Impossible in 1996 which was also Cruise's first project as a producer. Cruise is noted as having negotiated some of the most lucrative film deals in Hollywood, and was described in 2005 by Hollywood economist Edward Jay Epstein as "one of the most powerful and richest forces in Hollywood." Epstein argues that Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are regarded as able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar film franchise. Epstein also contends that the public obsession with Cruise's tabloid controversies obscures full appreciation of Cruise's exceptional commercial prowess.[38] Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise's film production company, is said to be developing a screenplay based on Erik Larson's New York Times bestseller, The Devil in the White City about a real life serial killer, H. H. Holmes, at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition. Kathryn Bigelow is attached to the project to produce and helm. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is also developing a film about Holmes and the World's Fair, in which DiCaprio will star.[39] Breakup with Paramount