Tom Cruise

Actor

Name at birth: Thomas Cruise Mapother IV

Tom Cruise 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!"). Cruise has remained one of Hollywood's busiest actors, taking on blockbuster franchises such as Mission: Impossible (Cruise played superspy Ethan Hunt in the original and two sequels in 1996, 2000 and 2006) as well as more diverse dramas such as Magnolia (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001) and the Steven Spielberg movies Minority Report (2002, co-starring Samantha Morton) and War of the Worlds (2005). Cruise began dating actress Katie Holmes in 2005. Dubbed "TomKat" by the tabloids, they had a daughter, Suri, on 18 April 2006, and were married in Italy on 18 November 2006.

Extra credit: Cruise is a prominent member of the Church of Scientology... Cruise proposed to Holmes at the Eiffel Tower after a highly-publicized whirlwind romance. He 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... Cruise's marriage to Holmes is 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... Cruise dated actress Penelope Cruz, his co-star in Vanilla Sky, from 2001-2004... Most sources say Cruise's height is 5'7".

Cruise joins Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee in our loop They Played Vampires.

Blog posts mentioning Tom Cruise:
The Last of the Anti-Hitler Heroes 'Brangelina' and 'Frelanor'