Tom Cruise Biography and Filmography:

In 2006, actor Tom Cruise was named Forbes magazine’s most powerful celebrity, with three Golden Globe Awards, three Academy Award nominations, and an typical paycheck of over $50 million dollars per movie. The actor’s aptitude for dramatic passion, combined with his on screen magnetism and striking smile, were the substance of true movie stars, going back to the matinee idols of the 1940's and 1950's. 

Tom Cruise had come quite a distance since 1983’s “Risky Business,” when his high spirited of dancing in his boxer shorts made film history. That half naked underwear scene sparked a career which quickly surpassed the teen boy field and his fellow actors of the time, especially after the release of “Top Gun” (1986). Not only did Cruise become the sex symbol of the day with his shirtless role of Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, he stimulated a whole generation of young boys to want to become elite Navy fighter pilots. Despite a few missteps such as “Cocktail” (1988) and “Days of Thunder” (1990), Cruise showed the critical reviewers wrong when be began playing roles with real depth in films like “The Color of Money”(1986), “Rain Main” (1988), and “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989). Male and Female audiences alike ran to see him play the hotshot young celebrity  in “The Firm” (1993) and “Jerry Maguire” (1996), as well as the sophisticated hero of the “Mission Impossible” series and “War of the Worlds” (2005). Cruise’s attraction survived even critically detested films like Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” (1997) and Cameron Crowe’s bizarre “Vanilla Sky” (2001) merely because the name above the title was Tom Cruise.

But after over a twenty year run of great success, as well as a marriage with wife Nicole Kidman, the worlds most sought after sexy celebrity hit a rough patch after a string of high profile actions turned him into steady tabloid spectacle. Following a wicked divorce from Kidman and a confusing pairing-up with Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, his Scientology based attack on actress Brooke Shields’ pharmaceutical treatment of postpartum depression was followed by abnormally glitzy showing of love for another suspect girlfriend, Katie Holmes. 

In one ill-fated moment, jumping on Oprah Winfrey’s couch to declare his abrupt love for Holmes, Tom Cruise became a late night talk show joke overnight. The media circus came to a head with a “South Park” (Comedy Central, 1997- ) episode poking fun at his assumed gay sexual orientation and the cutting the ties of his longtime studio collaborator Paramount, who hastily and very publicly discarded him, mentioning his weird behavior in the press. Ever focused and diligent, Tom Cruise bounced back to become head of MGM’s UA Films, though it remained to be seen whether his time in public relations hell would have a lasting effect on his standing as the biggest film star of his generation.

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was born on July 3, 1962, the only son of a family that would sprout to include three siblings. Mapother III was an electrical engineer, abusive and keen to getting fired from his jobs, which required the family to relocate many times a year to look for employment. Cruise was born in Syracuse but lived in Louisville, KY; Winnetka, IL; and Ottawa, Ontario, before his mother ultimately had enough of her husband. She left Mapother in 1975 and brought her children back to her hometown of Louisville. Cruise was enrolled in a total of 15 schools during his 14 years of schooling, and his endless outsider status, coupled with a diagnosis of dyslexia made school life a continual problem. 

Cruise spent his freshman year at a seminary boarding school in Cincinnati, OH on a scholarship. Despite enjoying the break of stability he received at the seminary, he decided that the priesthood was not for him. He settled with his mother and new stepfather in Glen Ridge, NJ, and started to make a go of it as an athlete, until he suffered knee damage during a boxing match. In reaction to being benched, Cruise turned to the drama department, having been a constant movie fanatic and the family comedian. He was a natural, appearing in school productions of “Guys and Dolls” and “Godspell,” and with great resolve, Cruise dropped out of high school during his senior year - choosing to go directly to New York City in 1981, where he was hired as a busboy and began running the audition circuit.

Still healing from the 18 year circus that was his life, Tom Cruise’s passion and lust for success left an effect on casting agents looking for young, good looking teen boys to be a symbol of their products. Within a year, Cruise was in Los Angeles, where he was introduced Paula Wagner, a representative at Creative Artists Agency, who would later steer his film career. After making his feature debut in a small role in the famous Brooke Shields vehicle "Endless Love" (1981), Cruise gained attention for a supporting role as an ever more crazy army cadet in "Taps" (1981). He had initially been cast in a small role in the film, but the director was so impressed with his passion, that he moved Cruise up to a more noticeable role alongside stars Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton.

In 1983 Cruise shot onto the celebrity scene with four major studio Hollywood features. His rough and tumble background helped in his role as one of the “greasers” in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders,” a exaggerated revision, but brilliant for its number of future heartthrobs like Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, and Patrick Swayze. Watchful not to limit her client to typecasting as an heated radical, Cruise’s agent focused on his sports ability and teenage boyish magnetism with a role next to Shelly Long in "Losin' It" (1983), a young teen coming of age film. “Risky Business” (1983), however, shot Tom Cruise into an overnight wonder. In his portrayal of a worried, wealthy, uptown young teen hovering dangerously on the verge of young adulthood, Cruise fashioned a meaningful hero for young audiences. In his runaway scene, Cruise, dressed in an Oxford shirt, boxer shorts underwear, and dark sunglasses, played air guitar and danced to Bob Seger's song, "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll." Audiences ate it up, the Golden Globe awards recognized him with a nomination, and it was enough to attract co-star Rebecca De Mornay, who started on a three year liaison with the now  hot young teen sexy celebrity.

Cruise performed well in a more down-to-earth role in "All the Right Moves" (1983), a high school football drama which placed him against short tempered head coach Craig T. Nelson, and did reasonably well at the box office, a short full frontal nude shot did not hurt returns either - viewers wanted to see Tom Cruise naked. Tom's  next role was not as good for a young teen sex symbol, growing his hair long and wearing green leotards for Ridley Scott's huge fantasy loser, "Legend" (1985). Tom Cruise cemented his sexy star status and established his onscreen personality with one of the runaway smash hits of the 1980s, and probably, the movie most identified with him, “Top Gun" with Val Kilmer (1986). With piloting scenes edited to the gyrations of pop tunes, the film worked as both a Navy recruiting advertisement and a steamy passionate exploit between Lt. Maverick and his Top Gun instructor, Charlie (Kelly McGillis). No longer the appealing young teen boy next door, Cruise's Maverick was a model for Cruise roles of the future, an arrogant outsider who plays by his own rules, takes on a crisis head on, then is victoriously changed with his victory. While “Risky Business” might have made him a movie star, it was “Top Gun” that made him the biggest movie star in the world.

Books, Music, Movies, Posters, T-Shirts & Memorabilia Of Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise selected his next roles and designed his career carefully, working with brilliant directors and co-stars for "The Color of Money" (1986) starring Paul Newman, and "Rain Man" (1988) with Dustin Hoffman. The first, Martin Scorsese's stridently made, well colored sequel to 1961's "The Hustler", cast him as a capable but egotistical pool hustler; a younger, less experienced version of Paul Newman's Fast Eddie Felsen. They made an diverse team, with Cruise's animated All-American young boy opposed to Newman's weathered con man, and though the older celebrity hunk got the Best Actor Oscar, he was passing the torch to the new younger celebrity hunk. Off screen, the actor fell in love and married actress Mimi Rogers in what was seen as an unusual pairing, not only because of the couple’s age difference. The marriage lasted less than three years (1987-1990) but Rogers’ heritage lived on in Cruise’s lifetime relationship with Scientology, to which he was introduced by the actress. In 1988, Cruise expanded his dramatic list of roles with director Barry Levinson’s "Rain Man," playing another conceited hothead who cautiously begins a relationship with his autistic brother (Dustin Hoffman), only to find it changes his total attitude on life. Hoffman stood out as the idiot savant and again, a Cruise co-star took home the Oscar, but Cruise was uniformly vital to the Oscar winning Best Picture partnership and Hoffman made this clear to anyone who would listen.

Cruise next chose Oliver Stone's anti war "Born on the Fourth of July" (1989) to answer to his involvement in the hit "Top Gun." For Stone's "Fourth of July,” Tom Cruise earned a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for the role of paraplegic Vietnam veteran activist Ron Kovic. When Tom did not pick up the Oscar statue, many viewers thought he had been robbed. Cruise next two projects, "Days of Thunder" (1990) introduced him to the next love of his life, Nicole Kidman, and started a partnership screenwriter Robert Towne. Burnt by the critics, it still brought in $176 million worldwide, and in December of 1990 the co-stars were married, making the actress a star overnight. But there was nothing good about "Far and Away" (1992), a foolish romance also starring Nicole Kidman.

Cruise returned to box office success by encountering Jack Nicholson in Rob Reiner's military court martial movie, "A Few Good Men" (1992)with an all star cast including Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Kiefer Sutherland. Cruise's genius attorney determined on stopping his crooked bosses in "The Firm" (1993) could have been a brother to his character in "A Few Good Men.” Even with a standout supporting ensemble (Gene Hackman, Hal Holbrook, Holly Hunter), Tom carried the revision of John Grisham's enormous bestseller, tackling the difficult role with an enthusiasm that led to box office success. The same year, Cruise and his agent Paula Wagner formed Cruise/Wagner productions in an endeavor to gain the actor more imaginative and fiscal control over his projects. The production company negotiated a private partnership with Paramount Pictures, a rare event at that time.

Cruise raised eyebrows when he accepted the lead role of the vampire Lestat in Neil Jordan's "Interview with the Vampire" with Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst and Christian Slater (1994). Many laughed at the idea of the All-American sexy movie star playing the depraved, gay killer of Anne Rice's story. In 1996, Cruise/Wagner Productions produced their first production project, the war espionage movie "Mission: Impossible" (1996). Based on the loved 1960s television show starring Peter Graves, the project had stalled in different development holdups before Cruise became involved, and rumors flew of his fighting with director Brian De Palma over financial, script and dialog issues. Nevertheless, despite worldwide location shooting, high tech stunts, outstanding computer generated visual effects and last minute script adjustments, "Mission: Impossible" was completed on time and under budget for around $68 million, with Cruise giving his $25 million paycheck over for production expenses. 

The romantic comedy "Jerry Maguire" (1996) with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Renee Zellweger, in which Cruise played the petty, hard-nosed sports agent, gave a sort of mid life crisis break for Cruise. While it was a classic Cruise execution, stuffed with the usual arrogant allure and behavior, there was an added component of anxiety and a new maturity to his screen role. This time, the critics and viewers reached agreement, and Cruise gained a Golden Globe win and his second Best Actor Academy Award nomination. 

Cruise took himself out of the blockbuster game at the height of his career to work on a series of riskier, more clever projects, beginning with the famous director Stanley Kubrick’s "Eyes Wide Shut,” with Nicole Kidman, in which Tom starred opposite his wife for the first time since "Far and Away."  Following the grueling shoot and assorted reaction to "Eyes Wide Shut," Cruise took on a crucial role in Paul Thomas Anderson's group drama, "Magnolia" (1999). Portraying an arrogant sex expert who runs seminars designed to empower men, the actor offered a compelling role that was alternately alarming and hilarious and earned him another Golden Globe win and Oscar nomination.

Tom Cruise returned to leading roles in more established work, reprising his heroic role as Ethan Hunt in the expensive, special effects heavy "Mission Impossible: 2" (2000), directed by John Woo. The worldwide espionage thriller centered around the control of a fatal virus and earned over $425 million dollars. With the actor’s well-paid production deal, Tom enjoyed a $75 million paycheck. Next, Cruise teamed with Crowe for a remake of the narrative, "Abre los ojos" (1997). It was through the making of that movie, titled "Vanilla Sky" (2001), that Cruise endured a very public and unfriendly divorce from Nicole Kidman as he stared into a romantic relationship with "Vanilla Sky" co-star Penelope Cruz. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman later politely worked out their divorce troubles for their two adopted children's sake, but to say the original split was not bitter would be wrong, with Cruise simply stating “Nic knows what she did” as his justification for divorce just short of ten years of marriage.

"Vanilla Sky" opened to assorted reviews, seen as a skilled and often persuasive riddle with a somewhat rambling ending. Cruise's performance as a successful writer who finds his life taking a bad turn after a car accident with an fanatical lover, was seen as properly powerful, but perhaps a bit much in his efforts to undermine his young pretty boy sexy looks with Hollywood made scars and makeup. Tom returned to better terrain with Spielberg’s "Minority Report" with Cameron Diaz (2002), a partnership filled with action sequences and a extension of science fiction author Phillip K. Dick's idea of a future where police use ESP to stop killings before they happen. 

Cruise gave another great performance for director Ed Zwick in "The Last Samurai" (2003), playing Capt. Nathan Algren, an alcoholic veteran of Custer's battles with Native Americans who journey to Japan to assist Westernize the Imperial army, only to be captured by a unruly samurai leader (Ken Watanabe).  Although the film followed a slightly demeaning outline, Cruise's torment and ensuing retrieval of his soul was skillfully and ingeniously shown by the actor, earning him a Golden Globe nomination. His string of success continued without fail with another of his finest movies, the assassin Vincent, who hijacks a kind L.A. cab driver (Jamie Foxx) to drive him on his deadly rounds in "Collateral" (2004). Wearing a gray wig and unshaved beard, Tom Cruise used his trademark greatness to his benefit in a unusual wicked role, while his instinctive appeal also gave the character a convincing quality.

In 2005, Cruise's private life began to overshadow his professional career in a public relations nightmare that would stain the leading man’s status for years to come. After ending his relationship with Penelope Cruz, he replaced his publicist of 14 years, Pat Kingsley, with his older sister Lee Anne DeVette, a vigorous Scientologist. 

Since 1990, Cruise had been a promoter of the often mysterious, Hollywood based Church of Scientology founded by science fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard, having attributed his studies there with "curing" him of the dyslexia, among other benefits. But Cruise’s attachment was generally accepted as a movie star oddity, that is, until he used his faith to start an attack on "Endless Love" co-star Brooke Shields, who had recently released a biography that described taking antidepressants to relieve her postpartum depression. Based on the Scientology principle that psychiatry is not a science and that it kills people,” Cruise widely criticized Shields and suggested that vitamins would have been a fitting medication for her diagnosis. Shields, not to mention thousands of mothers, mental illness victims and the psychiatric community, were livid.

The incident was followed by a curiously timed pronouncement that Cruise and actress Katie Holmes, who was 17 years younger and three inches taller than Cruise, were intensely in love – though neither could give a straight answer to just when they had met and how long before declaring everlasting love to one another. Cruise’s abnormally vibrant actions and the couple's often feeble physical contact fueled speculations that the romance was a gigantic publicity stunt, planned to make up for the Brooke blunder and rumors of Tom being gay, and to draw attention to the stars’ upcoming summer film releases, the Steven Spielberg, directed "War of the Worlds". 

Cruise made a weird appearance on Oprah Winfrey's talk show to announce his love for Katie Holmes, jumping on the host's furniture and pulling an outwardly unenthusiastic Holmes before the cameras. Katie Holmes, who had been quoted years earlier as saying that as a girl she dreamed of marrying Cruise, presented Cruise with a career achievement award on the MTV Movie Awards. Both appeared individually on the David Letterman show to further share their love story. By all accounts, it was flashy, abnormal behavior for the actor who had a very professional status onscreen and off. Rumors continued that Holmes was one of quite a few actresses who had essentially auditioned for the role of Cruise girlfriend, in exchange for an instant A-list shot in his movies and helping to stop the "gay" rumors. There was no denying the momentum with which the relationship took off, with their first contact in April 2005 and marriage proposal in June. The hard sell of how much “in love” they were with one another, actually backfired with a very disbelieving public.

Much to the shock of all involved with “War of the Worlds”, mainly Spielberg, who knew the spotlight was no longer on his movie; but more on Tom's latest public antics, Cruise continued to stick up for his attack on Brooke Shields in a harshly worded argument with "Today Show" co-host Matt Lauer. During the well-known exchange in which he continually called Lauer “glib,” Tom aggressively chided psychiatry as a "pseudo-science," provoking a stern rebuke from the American Psychiatric Association. About the same time Tom was supposedly instrumental in opening up the mysterious Church of Scientology and welcoming journalists to check out its practices. Katie Holmes began taking Scientology courses, and suspiciously discarded her Hollywood handlers in favor of Tom's.

Nearly lost in all of Cruise's public appearances was the release of "War of the Worlds" (2005), the fourth film adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells story. A masterful example in cinematic suspense and terror, the film was held up by a strong performance by Cruise as Ray Ferrier, a middle class worn-out dad who must protect his two children during a dreadful alien assault. In spite of the media coverage “War of the Worlds” was Cruise’s top producing film to date at over $591 million worldwide.

The media saturation lasted beyond the run of the summer blockbuster, especially when it was announced in October that Katie Holmes was pregnant with Tom's child. In November, Paul Bloch replaced DeVette as Cruise’s publicist, and though the move was seemingly made to allow his sister to focus on managing her brother’s charitable causes, it was perceived as damage control of the hit Tom's image had taken since her coming on-board. 

Tom Cruise’s antics seemed quieted until an episode of the animated series “South Park” (Comedy Central, 1997-), which made fun of Scientology and made overt jokes about Cruise sexuality,  a persistent rumor that he is gay had dogged the actor since he sued several parties in 1998 and 2001 for printing allegations of his homosexuality. Under pressure from its parent company Paramount Comedy Central pulled the show after only one airing, lead some to suspect that Cruise exerted his celebrity power behind the scenes, an idea that was publicly denied. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, South Parks creators, were not afraid to call out Cruise on his power play, being called "Closet Gate", even buying advertisements announcing that they themselves were "servants of Xenu" and that the "million-year war for Earth" had only just started, most likely now that their show had been damaged with behind the scenes happenings.

After months of guessing, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, called “TomKat” by the tabloid media, had a baby girl named Suri on April 18, 2006. The public pregnancy was followed by the necessary disappearance of Holmes from public view, and an absence of baby pictures, starting conspiracy theories that there had never been a baby at all. Meanwhile, Cruise started making the public relations circuit for his next film, “Mission: Impossible 3” (2006). 

The third round in the series portrayed a retired Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) living a kicked back life while training new IMF agents until he is called back to action to do battle with Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an international weapons dealer. The film’s opening weekend box office receipts were lower than expected. A USA Today/Gallup poll showed that only 35 percent of those surveyed held a “favorable opinion” of the Cruise, the large majority showing disapproval over his Scientology spewing preaching and the unfortunate incident with Brooke Shields as well as questioning if he was gay..

Citing an obvious drop in Cruise’s popularity, Paramount Pictures announced an end to its 15-year collaboration with Cruise/Wagner Productions on Aug. 22, 2006. In a blow heard around the world, Sumner Redstone, Chairman of Viacom, (Paramount's parent company), acknowledged Tom Cruise's “recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount." Hollywood insiders assumed that Paramount’s decision was merely monetary, as the Cruise/Wagner percent of box office and DVD sales was higher normal and hurting the studio’s profit margins.

Meanwhile Cruise/Wagner Productions asserted that they had recently secured financing from a private investor and had been planning to break from Paramount anyway. In September, an additional bit of odd publicity took awareness away from Cruise’s business troubles when Vanity Fair gave the world their first view of Suri in a 22-page Cruise family photo spread, shot by renowned celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. In November, the couple were finally wed in a ritual in Italy, and news of the wedding was matched with another happy ending, Cruise/Wagner productions had struck a deal with MGM to manage the ailing United Artists Films.

Back at work and with his nuclear family decisively in place, Cruise seemed primed to put the past 18 months of mayhem behind him and return to his status as one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. The first release from CEO Wagner and producer Cruise was Robert Redford’s November, 2007, release “Lions for Lambs.” Cruise took a co-starring role as an ruthless senator in the film, which sought to explore hard issues about the war in Afghanistan and war in general through three interrelated plots.

Next up for Tom Cruise is the action comedy war thriller "Tropical Thunder" (2008) starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black where through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying. Next was the comedy drama "Men" (2008) about an advertising executive who surreptitiously becomes roommates with his wife's lover, an egotistical artist, in order to sabotage their affair and save his marriage. Scheduled for the following year are "Valkyrie" (2009) the historical drama based on actual events, when a plot to assassinate Hitler is unfurled during the height of WWII. 

Tom's latest film stars Cruise and Ben Stiller in the comedy "Hardy Men" (2009) - Tom Cruise has been talking with Ben Stiller about starring in an updated version of "The Hardy Boys" at Twentieth Century Fox. Tentatively titled "The Hardy Men" "The Hardy Boys" detective novels date back to 1927, though a variety of ghost writers using the pen name of Franklin W. Dixon kept Frank and Joe Hardy perpetual teenagers. "The Hardy Men" would have them finally grown up, but up to their old tricks once more. 

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