Tom Cruise

Cruise began acting in the early 1980s and made his breakthrough with leading roles in the comedy film Risky Business (1983) and the action film Top Gun (1986). Critical acclaim came with his roles in the dramas The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). For his portrayal of Ron Kovic in the latter, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. As a leading Hollywood star in the 1990s, he starred in commercially successful films, including the drama A Few Good Men (1992), the thriller The Firm (1993), the horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994), and the romance Jerry Maguire (1996). For the latter, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and received a second Academy Award nomination. Cruise's performance as a motivational speaker in the drama Magnolia (1999) earned him another Golden Globe Award and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.


Since then, Cruise has established himself as an action star acting in science fiction and action films, often performing his own risky stunts. He has played Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible film series since 1996. His other notable films in the genre include Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Knight and Day (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), Oblivion (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016), The Mummy (2017), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022), with the last of these being his highest-grossing film and earning him a Best Picture Award nomination at the Academy Awards for his role as a producer.


Cruise was named People's Sexiest Man Alive in 1990,^[7] and received the top honor of "Most Beautiful People" in 1997.^[8] He has been married to actresses Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes. He adopted two children during his marriage to Kidman, and has a biological daughter with Holmes. He has been an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology, which he credits with helping him overcome dyslexia.

Early life and education

Cruise was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York,^[9] to electrical engineer Thomas Cruise Mapother III (1934–1984) and special education teacher Mary Lee (née Pfeiffer; 1936–2017).^[10] His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky,^[11] and had English, German, and Irish ancestry.^[12][13] Cruise has three sisters named Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass. One of his cousins, William Mapother, is also an actor who has appeared alongside Cruise in five films.^[14] Cruise grew up in near poverty and had a Catholic upbringing. He later described his father as "a merchant of chaos",^[15] a "bully", and a "coward" who beat his children. He elaborated, "[My father] was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life—how he'd 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.'"^[15] Cruise's biological father died of cancer in 1984.^[16]


In total, Cruise attended 15 schools in 14 years.^[17] Cruise spent part of his childhood in Canada; when his father took a job as a defense consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces, his family moved in late 1971 to Beacon Hill, Ottawa.^[18] He attended the new Robert Hopkins Public School for his fourth and fifth grade education.^[18][19] He first became involved in drama in fourth grade, under drama teacher George Steinburg. He and six other boys put on an improvised play to music called IT at the Carleton Elementary School drama festival.^[18] Drama organizer Val Wright was in the audience and later said that "the movement and improvisation were excellent ... a classic ensemble piece."^[18] In sixth grade, Cruise went to Henry Munro Middle School in Ottawa. That year, his mother left his father, taking Cruise and his sisters back to the United States.^[18] In 1978, she married Jack South.^[20] Cruise briefly took a Catholic Church scholarship and attended the St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio; he aspired to become a Franciscan priest before leaving after a year. Priests at the seminary have said Cruise chose to leave the school when his family relocated again; however, a former classmate said that they both asked to leave after getting caught taking liquor.^{[21][22]: 24–26} In his senior year of high school, he played football for the varsity team as a linebacker, but was cut from the squad after getting caught drinking beer before a game.^[22]: 47 He went on to star in the school's production of Guys and Dolls.^[23] In 1980, he graduated from Glen Ridge High School in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.^[24]