Tom Cruise
Since winning the EMMA Award (Film Actor)
Tom Cruise is an American Actor and Producer who went on to star in many critically acclaimed and commercially successful films throughout the years, such as Collateral, War of the Worlds (a loose adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel of the same name), Tropic Thunder, Jack Reacher, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, American Made, and Top Gun’s sequel, Top Gun: Maverick.
Tom has continued to work on the Mission: Impossible films, which feature his iconic stunts. The franchise has become one of the highest-grossing ever, grossing over $4 billion worldwide.
In Japan, October 10th has been declared “Tom Cruise Day” since 2006 after he won his EMMA honour in 2004 for The Last Samurai. The Japan Memorial Day Association said he was awarded a special day because of “his love for and close association with Japan.”
Tom is also recognised for his philanthropic endeavors and support for many charitable organisations. He has lent his voice and resources to various causes, including the “America: A Tribute to Heroes” charity telethon for the many victims of the 9/11 attack in 2001.
On 6th May 2011, Tom was awarded a humanitarian award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance for his philanthropy work.
Tom currently holds the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive $100 million grossing movies, a feat achieved from 2012 to 2018. He has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d’Or, three Golden Globe Awards (which he returned to protest for their lack of diversity and alleged racism), and four Academy Award nominations.
With an iconic career spanning around 40 years, Tom Cruise has left an indelible mark on world culture that few people will ever match. His dedication and passion for his career, craft, and work are incredibly evident, from receiving numerous accolades to performing his boundary-pushing stunts.
His compassion and empathy extends beyond the screen, as evidenced by his many acts of kindness, including aiding accident victims in 2006 during a car crash incident.
Background (Before 2004)
Tom Cruise was born in Syracuse, New York, to an electrical engineer father and a special education teacher mother, both of whom were from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has English, German, and Irish ancestry, who grew up in near poverty and had a Catholic upbringing.
Tom spent part of his childhood in Canada and attended Robert Hopkins Public School for his fourth and fifth grades. In fourth grade, he first became involved in drama when he and six other boys put on an improvised play called IT at the Carleton Elementary School drama festival.
At the age of 18, with the blessing of his mother and stepfather, Tom moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. After working as a busboy in New York, he went to Los Angeles to try out for television roles. He signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) and began acting in films. Tom debuted in the 1981 film Endless Love, followed by a major supporting role as a crazed military academy student in Taps later that year.
In 1983, Tom was part of the ensemble cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders. That same year, he appeared in All the Right Moves and Risky Business.
Tom went on to star in the action-drama film Top Gun in 1986 and more critically acclaimed films such as The Color of Money, Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, and Interview with the Vampire. In the latter, Anne Rice, the author of the original Interview with the Vampire novel, praised his performance and apologised for her previous doubts about him after she was initially critical of Tom’s casting in the film.
Tom Cruise was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 1990. In 1996, he starred as superspy Ethan Hunt in the film reboot of Mission: Impossible, which he also produced. Brian De Palma directed the film, which was a box office success and led to the birth of the now iconic Mission: Impossible film franchise. That same year, he took on the lead role in Cameron Crowe’s sports drama Jerry Maguire, playing a sports agent named Jerry Maguire who was in search of love.
In 1999, Cruise starred in the films Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia, and in 2001 he played the lead role in the romantic thriller Vanilla Sky alongside Cameron Diaz and Penélope Cruz.
In 2002, Tom appeared in the dystopian science fiction action film Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the short story by Philip K. Dick.
