Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise (born 3.7.1962)

Tom Cruise is an American actor, with three Academy Awards and three Golden Globes to his name.

Tom Cruise: Childhood

Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in New York, Cruise is the son of Mary Lee and Thomas Cruise Mapother III. Cruise was raised and educated in Ontario, Canada as his father had taken a job as Defence Consultant with the Canadian Army.

Mary left Tom's father when Tom was 12 and the family lived in a number of different cities. Whilst he was recovering from a wrestling injury, Cruise decided to audition for the lead in a school production of Guys and Dolls. It was this role that made him decide to become an actor.

Tom Cruise: Acting Career

In 1981, Tom Cruise gained his first film role: a small part in Endless Love, which starred Brooke Shields. He also had a larger part alongside Sean Penn in Taps, also released in 1981. Two years later, Cruise was cast in The Outsiders, a Francis Ford Coppola film that also starred Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe. Also in 1983, Cruise appeared in Losin' It, with Shelly Long and Risky Business, which is widely credited as the film that brought Cruise to the public eye. His fourth film of the year was All the Right Moves.

After featuring in Ridley Scott's fantasy picture, Legend, Cruise was cast by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson to appear in Top Gun. It has been reported that Cruise initially turned down the offer but helped to alter the script and eventually took the part. The film opened in 1986 and was the highest grossing film of the year, making over $350 million worldwide. The same year, Cruise starred in The Color of Money, for which co-star Paul Newman won an Oscar.

Two years later, Cruise starred in another two highly successful films. The first was Cocktail, a light-hearted tale in which he played a bartender. The second was Rain Man, which also starred Dustin Hoffman. Rain Man won four of the eight Academy Awards for which it was nominated. This success was continued when Tom Cruise received more Academy Award nominations, this time for his role in Born on the Fourth of July.

Tom then went on to star in Days of Thunder and Far and Away, two films in which he co-starred with his future wife, Nicole Kidman. These were followed with his role in A Few Good Men, with Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson. He then gained a role alongside Gene Hackman in The Firm, based on John Grisham's best-selling novel.

In 1994, Cruise featured in Interview With The Vampire, based on Anne Rice's novel. Brad Pitt and Christian Slater also starred in the film, but Anne Rice was overtly critical of the decision to cast Cruise in the film.

Two years later, Cruise produced and starred in Mission: Impossible, a remake of the 1960s TV series. The film was the third best-selling movie of the year, grossing over $456 million. He then earned another Academy Award for his role in Jerry Maguire, which featured his infamous line "Show Me the Money!"

In 1999, Cruise starred alongside Nicole Kidman (to whom he was still married) in Eyes Wide Shut. The film was Stanley Kubrick's last venture before he died and took two years to complete. Magnolia was released in the same year and Cruise earned a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award Nomination for his role in the film. The next year, Cruise reprised his role in Mission: Impossible in the sequel, directed by John Woo. This was followed by Vanilla Sky, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and the Last Samurai.

2004 saw Cruise deviate from his usual good-guy role, in Michael Mann's Collateral, in which he played a hitman. He worked again with Spielberg, in War of the Worlds, the third highest-selling film of 2005. The next year, he starred in the third installment of the Mission: Impossible trilogy. In 2007, he starred in the drama, Lions for Lambs with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.

Tom Cruise: Personal Life

Tom Cruise's first marriage was in 1987, to Mimi Rogers. They divorced in 1990. It is believed that it was Rogers who introduced Cruise to Scientology, the religious sect of which he is now a figurehead.

In 1990, Cruise remarried, to his previous co-star, Nicole Kidman. The pair adopted two children, Isabella and Connor. Kidman later became pregnant with their first child, but the couple separated months before their 10th anniversary and Kidman suffered a miscarriage shortly after the split.

In 2006, Cruise married the actress Katie Holmes. They have a daughter, Suri together.