Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (; born July 3, 1962), better known by his
screen name of
Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three
Academy Awards and won three
Golden Globe Awards. His first leading role was the 1983 film
Risky Business, which has been described as "A
Generation X classic, and a career-maker" for the actor. After playing the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and financially successful 1986 film
Top Gun, Cruise continued in this vein, playing a secret agent in a series of
action films in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to these heroic roles, he has starred in a variety of other successful films such as
Days of Thunder (1990),
Jerry Maguire (1996),
Magnolia (1999),
Vanilla Sky (2001),
Minority Report (2002),
The Last Samurai (2003),
Collateral (2004) and
War of the Worlds (2005).
In 2005, the Hollywood journalist, Edward Jay Epstein argued that Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar movie franchise.
Early life
Cruise was born in
Syracuse, New York, the son of Mary Lee (née Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. Cruise's surname originates from his great-grandfather, Thomas Cruise O'Mara, who was adopted by a
Welsh immigrant and renamed "Thomas Cruise Mapother". Cruise is of German, Irish, and English ancestry. His oldest sister, Lee Anne, was born in his parents' native
Louisville, Kentucky, while his older sister Marian was born in Syracuse, as were Tom and his younger sister, Cass.
Cruise attended Robert Hopkins Public School for grades three, four, and five. The Mapother family then moved to the suburb of Beacon Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, so Cruise's father could take a position as a defence consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces. There, Cruise completed grade six at Henry Munro Middle School, part of the Carleton Board of Education, where he was active in athletics, playing floor hockey almost every night, showing himself to be a ruthless player, and eventually chipping his front tooth. In the game British bulldogs, he then lost his newly capped tooth and hurt his knee. Henry Munro was also where Cruise became involved in drama, under the tutelage of George Steinburg. The first play he participated in was called IT, in which Cruise won the co-lead with Michael de Waal, one playing "Evil", the other playing "Good." The play met much acclaim, and toured with five other classmates to various schools around the Ottawa area, even being filmed at the local Ottawa TV station.
When Cruise was twelve, his mother left his father, taking Cruise and his sister Lee Anne with her.
In all, Cruise attended eight elementary schools and three high schools. He briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati (on a church scholarship) and aspired to become a Catholic priest. In his senior year, he played football for the varsity team as a linebacker, but he was cut from the squad after getting caught drinking beer before a game.
Cruise said that he was bullied in school, and by his father who he said was "a merchant of chaos", and that he learned early on that his father was – and, by extension, some people were – not to be trusted: "I knew from being around my father that not everyone means me well."
2000s
In 2000, Cruise returned as
Ethan Hunt in the second installment of the
Mission Impossible films, releasing
. The film was directed by
Hong Kong director
John Woo and branded with his
Gun fu Style, and it continued the series' blockbuster success at the box office, taking in almost $547M in worldwide figures, like its predecessor, being the third highest grossing film of the year. Cruise received an
MTV Movie Award as Best Male Performance for this film. His next five films were major critical and commercial successes. The following year Cruise starred in the romantic thriller
Vanilla Sky (2001) with
Cameron Diaz and
Penelope Cruz. In 2002, Cruise starred in the
dystopian
science fiction thriller,
Minority Report which was directed by
Steven Spielberg and based on the science fiction short story by
Philip K. Dick.
In 2003, he starred in the Edward Zwick's historical drama The Last Samurai, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination as best actor.
In 2006, he reprised his role as Ethan Hunt in the third installment of the Mission Impossible film series, . The film was more positively received by critics than its predecessor, and grossed nearly $400 million at the box office. Cruise's 2007 film Lions for Lambs was a rare commercial disappointment. In 2008, Cruise appeared in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Jack Black. This performance earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. Cruise's latest starring role is in the historical thriller Valkyrie, released on December 25, 2008 to box office success. As of 2009, Cruise's films have grossed over $6.5 billion worldwide.
In March 2010, Cruise completed filming the action-comedy Knight and Day, in which he re-teamed with former costar Cameron Diaz; the film was released on June 23, 2010. On February 9, 2010, Cruise confirmed that he will star in the fourth film, slated for release in December 2011.
Producing
Cruise partnered with his former talent agent
Paula Wagner to form
Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1993, and the company has since co-produced several of Cruise's films, the first being
in 1996 which was also Cruise's first project as a producer.
Cruise is noted as having negotiated some of the most lucrative movie deals in Hollywood, and was described in 2005 by Hollywood economist Edward Jay Epstein as "one of the most powerful – and richest – forces in Hollywood." Epstein argues that Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are regarded as able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar movie franchise. Epstein also contends that the public obsession with Cruise's tabloid controversies obscures full appreciation of Cruise's exceptional commercial prowess.
Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise's film production company, is said to be developing a screenplay based on Erik Larson's New York Times bestseller, The Devil in the White City about a real life serial killer, H. H. Holmes, at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition. Kathryn Bigelow is attached to the project to produce and helm. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is also developing a film about Holmes and the World's Fair, in which DiCaprio will star.
Breakup with Paramount
On August 22, 2006,
Paramount Pictures announced it was ending its 14-year relationship with Cruise. In the
Wall Street Journal, chairman of
Viacom (Paramount's parent company)
Sumner Redstone cited the economic damage to Cruise's value as an actor and producer from his controversial public behavior and views. Cruise/Wagner Productions responded that Paramount's announcement was a face-saving move after the production company had successfully sought alternative financing from
private equity firms. Industry analysts such as Edward Jay Epstein commented that the real reason for the split was most likely Paramount's discontent over Cruise/Wagner's exceptionally large share of
DVD sales from the
Mission: Impossible franchise.
Management of United Artists
In November 2006, Cruise and Paula Wagner announced that they had taken over
United Artists film studio. opening to unimpressive box office revenue and critical reception. In August 2008, Wagner stepped down from her position at United Artists; she retains her stake in UA, which combined with Cruise's share amounts to 30 percent of the studio.
Relationships and personal life
in May 2009]]
Cruise married
Mimi Rogers on May 9, 1987; they divorced on February 4, 1990. He met his second wife,
Nicole Kidman, on the set of their film
Days of Thunder. The couple married on December 24, 1990. He and Kidman adopted two children, Isabella Jane (born December 1992) and Connor Antony (born January 1995).
Cruise was next romantically linked with Penélope Cruz, the lead actress in his film Vanilla Sky a relationship that ended in 2004. In April 2005, Cruise began dating actress Katie Holmes. On April 27 that year, Cruise and Holmes, dubbed "TomKat" by the media, made their first public appearance together in Rome. A month later, Cruise declared his love for Holmes on the Oprah Winfrey show, famously jumping up and down on Oprah's couch during the show. On October 6, 2005, Cruise and Holmes announced they were expecting a child, and their daughter, Suri, was born in April 2006. On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy, in a Scientology ceremony attended by many Hollywood stars. The actors' publicist said the couple had "officialized" their marriage in Los Angeles the day before the Italian ceremony. David Miscavige served as Cruise's best man.
Popularity
In 1990, 1991 and 1997,
People magazine rated him among the 50 most
beautiful people in the world. In 1995,
Empire magazine ranked him among the 100 sexiest stars in film history. Two years later, it ranked him among the top 5 movie stars of all time. In 2002 and 2003, he was rated by
Premiere among the top 20 in its annual Power 100 list. as Cruise came in at number 13 on the magazine's 2006 Power List, being the highest ranked actor. The same year,
Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity.
In August 2006, "a USA Today/Gallup poll in which half of those surveyed registered an 'unfavorable' opinion of the actor" was cited as a reason in addition to "unacceptable behavior" for Paramount's non-renewal of their production contract with Cruise. In addition, Marketing Evaluations reports that Cruise's Q score (which is a measure of the popularity of celebrities), had fallen 40 percent. It was also revealed that Cruise is the celebrity people would least like as their best friend. October 10, 2006 was declared "Tom Cruise Day" in Japan; the Japan Memorial Day Association said that he was awarded with a special day because he has made more trips to Japan than any other Hollywood star.
Controversy
Scientology
Cruise is an outspoken advocate for the
Church of Scientology; according to
Andrew Morton's
(2008), Cruise is the church's "second in command in all but name." He became involved with Scientology in 1990 through his first wife, Mimi Rogers. He has said that Scientology, specifically the
L. Ron Hubbard Study Tech, helped him overcome
dyslexia. In addition to promoting various programs that introduce people to Scientology, Cruise has campaigned for Scientology to be recognized as a religion in Europe. He lobbied politicians in France and Germany, where the legal systems regard Scientology as a cult and business, respectively. In 2005 the Paris city council revealed that Cruise had lobbied officials
Nicolas Sarkozy and
Jean-Claude Gaudin, described him as a spokesman and militant for Scientology, and barred any further dealings with him. Cruise co-founded and raised donations for
Downtown Medical to offer New York 9/11 rescue workers
detoxification therapy based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. This drew criticism from the medical profession, as well as firefighters. For these activities and others, David Miscavige awarded Cruise Scientology's Freedom Medal of Valor in late 2004.
A controversy erupted in 2005 after he openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using the drug Paxil (paroxetine), an anti-depressant to which Shields attributes her recovery from postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. Cruise asserted that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance, and that psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. Shields replied that she would not take advice from anyone who believed in space aliens. This led to a heated argument with Matt Lauer on NBC's The Today Show on June 24, 2005. Medical authorities view Cruise's comments as furthering the social stigma of mental illness. Shields herself called Cruise's comments "a disservice to mothers everywhere." In late August 2006, Cruise apologized in person to Shields for his comments. Scientology is well-known for its opposition to mainstream psychiatry.
On January 15, 2008, a video produced by the Church of Scientology featuring an interview with Cruise was posted on YouTube, showing Cruise discussing what being a Scientologist means to him. The Church of Scientology said the video had been "pirated and edited," and was taken from a three-hour video produced for members of Scientology. YouTube removed the Cruise video from their site under threat of litigation.
In May 2010, a former high-ranking member of the Church of Scientology, Mark Rathbun, said that Scientology leader David Miscavige had ordered that Cruise's Auditing sessions be secretly videotaped. Rathbun had himself been responsible for performing auditing counseling with Cruise.
Cruise's more open attitude to Scientology has been attributed to the departure of his publicist of 14 years, Pat Kingsley, in March 2004. He replaced her with his sister, fellow Scientologist Lee Anne DeVette, who served in that role until November 2005. He then replaced her with Paul Bloch from the publicity firm Rogers and Cowan. Such restructuring is seen as a move to curtail publicity of his views on Scientology, as well as the hard-sell of his relationship with Katie Holmes backfiring with the public.
Oprah Winfrey Show incident
.]]
Cruise has made several expressions of his feelings for Holmes to the media, most notably the "couch incident" which took place on the popular
The Oprah Winfrey Show of May 23, 2005. Cruise "jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend." The phrase "jumping the couch", fashioned after "
jumping the shark", is used to describe someone "going off the deep end" in public in a manner extreme enough to tarnish his or her reputation. It enjoyed a short-lived popularity, being chosen by the editors of the
Historical Dictionary of American Slang as the "slang term of the year" in 2005 and by the nonprofit group
Global Language Monitor as one of its top phrases for the year.
The "couch incident" was voted #1 of 2005's "Most Surprising Television Moments" on a countdown on E! and was the subject of numerous parodies, including the epilogue of Scary Movie 4, an episode of South Park, a short on Sesame Street, and an episode of Family Guy. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Lesson learned: Tell, don't show."
In early May 2008, Cruise reappeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to celebrate 25 years in the film business. The feature was a two hour special, the first hour was Oprah spending the day with Cruise at his house in Telluride, Colorado on May 2.
Litigation
During his marriage to Nicole Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors that Cruise was gay. In 1998, he successfully sued
The Daily Express, a British tabloid, which alleged that his marriage to Kidman was a sham designed to cover up his homosexuality. In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor
Chad Slater. Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine
Actustar that he had had an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this, and in August 2001 Slater was ordered to pay US$10 million to Cruise in damages after Slater declared he could not afford to defend himself against the suit and would therefore default. Cruise also sued Michael Davis, publisher of
Bold Magazine, who alleged but never confirmed that he had video that would prove Cruise was gay. The suit was dropped in exchange for a public statement by Davis that the video was not of Cruise, and that Cruise was heterosexual.
After The Beast's publication of their 50 Most Loathsome People of 2004, which included Cruise, Cruise's lawyer Bertram Fields threatened to sue. Seeing the opportunity for nationwide exposure, The Beast actively encouraged the lawsuit. No lawsuit was ever filed and Cruise was included more prominently in the 2005 list. In 2006, Cruise sued cybersquatter Jeff Burgar to obtain control of the TomCruise.com domain name. When owned by Burgar, the domain redirected to information about Cruise on Celebrity1000.com. The decision to turn TomCruise.com over to Cruise was handed down by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on July 5, 2006.
Filmography
See also
Tom Cruise (disambiguation)
Brat Pack (actors)
List of people from Louisville, Kentucky
List of Scientologists
Supercouple
(1998)
(2006)
Trapped in the Closet (South Park)
200 (South Park)
References
External links
Tom Cruise on Facebook
Transcript of the Matt Lauer interview
Rolling Stone Interview: "The Passion of the Cruise"; 08/11/04
Tom Cruise at Rotten Tomatoes
Category:1962 births
Category:20th-century actors
Category:21st-century actors
Category:Actors from New York
Category:American actors of English descent
Category:American actors of German descent
Category:American actors of Irish descent
Category:American expatriates in Canada
Category:American film actors
Category:American film producers
Category:American Scientologists
Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Converts from Roman Catholicism
Category:Living people
Category:Mission: Impossible
Category:People from Syracuse, New York
.svg)
