Facts about Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise Biography
Tom Cruise has been one of Hollywood’s biggest and most persistent leading men for four decades.
He first made a strong impression in the teen comedy Risky Business (1983) and then had his first box-office smash as the fighter jock Maverick in Top Gun (1986).
Cruise and his cocky grin were propelled higher onto Hollywood’s A-list thanks to a string of successful movies: Rain Man (1988, with Dustin Hoffman), The Color of Money (1986, with Paul Newman), A Few Good Men (1992, with Jack Nicholson) and Jerry Maguire (1996, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. saying “Show me the money!”).
His leading man good looks and a bantam-rooster screen persona have helped Cruise remain one of Hollywood’s busiest actors. He’s especially famous for the blockbuster Mission: Impossible franchise; Cruise played globetrotting superspy Ethan Hunt in the 1996 original and its sequels in 2000, 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2018. He also played literary tough guy Jack Reacher in Jack Reacher (2012) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016).
Cruise has also done more diverse dramas such as Magnolia (1999), Eyes Wide Shut (1999, directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-starring Nicole Kidman, Cruise’s wife at the time), Vanilla Sky (2001) and the Steven Spielberg movies Minority Report (2002, co-starring Samantha Morton) and War of the Worlds (2005).
His other films include Tropic Thunder (2008, starring Ben Stiller), Valkyrie (2008, with Cruise as Nazi bigwig Claus von Stauffenberg) and Oblivion (2010, with Morgan Freeman). 2020’s Top Gun: Maverick, a 34-years-later sequel to Top Gun, saw Cruise flying jets again as an aging fighter jock.
Extra credit
Tom Cruise is a prominent member of the Church of Scientology… Tom Cruise began dating actress Katie Holmes in 2005, and Cruise came in for a ribbing from pundits after he hopped up and down on the talk-show couch of Oprah Winfrey while proclaiming his love for Holmes the next year… Dubbed “TomKat” by the tabloids, the pair had a daughter, Suri, on April 18, 2006, and were married in Italy on November 18, 2006. Holmes filed for divorce in June of 2012… Tom Cruise’s marriage to Holmes was his third. He and actress Nicole Kidman were married in 1990, separated in 2000, and were divorced in 2001. They met while filming one of Cruise’s few duds, Days of Thunder (1990), and appeared together in Stanley Kubrick‘s Eyes Wide Shut (1999). They adopted two children: Isabella (in 1993) and Connor (in 1995). Cruise also was married to actress Mimi Rogers, a fellow Scientologist, from 1986-1990… Tom Cruise dated actress Penelope Cruz, his co-star in Vanilla Sky, from 2001-2004… Most sources seem to agree that Tom Cruise is 5’7″ tall.
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Something in Common with Tom Cruise
- Actors born in New York (199)