An irrefutable Hollywood megastar, Cruise was just 21 when he landed his breakthrough role as a horny high school hunk in the 1983 sex romp
Risky Business. With athletic good looks, a 1,000-watt smile and oodles of natural charm, he became an overnight celebrity, thanks in part to an iconic scene in which he danced around his living room to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" while clad only in a shirt, briefs, socks and sunglasses. Over the next dozen years, he ruled the box office with blockbuster hits like
Top Gun,
A Few Good Men and
Interview with the Vampire, and honed his craft by working with top directors, such as Martin Scorsese (
The Color of Money), Barry Levinson (
Rain Man) and Oliver Stone (
Born on the Fourth of July, which earned him his first Oscar nod). Cruise's personal life was also on the upswing. In 1990, 10 months after divorcing his first wife, actor Mimi Rogers, he married his
Days of Thunder costar, Nicole Kidman. Their second on-screen appearance, the Ron Howard-directed
Far and Away, was a flop, but Cruise quickly rebounded with a string of crowd-pleasing favorites that included
The Firm,
Mission: Impossible and
Jerry Maguire, which snagged him a second Academy Award nomination. At the apex of his fame, Cruise disappeared from the screen for three years in order to work with his wife under celebrated director Stanley Kubrick on the sexual epic
Eyes Wide Shut. Finally released in 1999, Kubrick's last film was a critical and commercial disappointment. But Cruise bounced back with an Oscar-nominated supporting turn as a sex guru in Paul Thomas Anderson's sprawling
Magnolia that same year. In 2001, Cruise's marriage to Kidman fell apart and their split dominated the tabloids for months, as did his subsequent relationship with
Vanilla Sky costar Penelope Cruz. In the '00s, after two decades in showbiz, Cruise began averaging a blockbuster per year (
Mission: Impossible II,
Minority Report,
War of the Worlds). However, in 2005, his off-screen antics began to sully his reputation, including a public feud with Brooke Shields over the merits of antidepressants (for which he later apologized); his constant championing of Scientology; and his controversial appearance on
Oprah Winfrey when he jumped on a couch while declaring his love for Katie Holmes. Dubbed TomKat by the media, the couple enjoyed a whirlwind courtship and soon announced that they were engaged and pregnant. They welcomed a daughter, Suri, in April 2006, and tied the knot the following November in a lavish Italian wedding. Cruise softened his increasingly divisive image in 2008 with a brilliant comic turn as a profane movie producer in
Tropic Thunder.
Tom Cruise Fast Facts:
- Studied for one year, at age 14, at a Franciscan seminary.
- Joined the Church of Scientology after its study courses helped him overcome a learning disability.
- Costar Paul Newman got him interested in auto racing while filming The Color of Money, and he went on to race on Newman's team.
- Earned his pilot's license in 1994.
- First actor to appear in five consecutive movies (A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with the Vampire, Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire) that grossed more than $100 million in the U.S.
- On the recommendation of his children's orthodontist, got braces to correct his bite at the age of 39.
- At the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, received the first-ever MTV Generation Award.
- Re-teamed with his Vanilla Sky costar, Cameron Diaz, in 2010 for the action-comedy Knight and Day.
- Tom Cruise Relationships:
- Cass Mapother - Sister
- Nicole Kidman - Ex-wife
- William Mapother - Cousin
- Suri Cruise - Daughter
- Isabella Jane Kidman Cruise - Daughter
- Connor Anthony Kidman Cruise - Son
- Joe South - Stepfather
- Katie Holmes - Ex-wife
- Lee Anne DeVette - Sister
- Mary Lee Mapother South - Mother
- Marian Mapother - Sister
- Mimi Rogers - Ex-wife
- Thomas Cruise Mapother III - Father
- Penélope Cruz - Ex-significant Other
- Tom Cruise Awards:
- 1997 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy - Winner
- 1990 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Winner
- 1993 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Nominee
- 2004 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Nominee
- 2000 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Winner
- 1989 Oscar: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Nominee
- 1996 Oscar: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Nominee
- 1999 Oscar: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role - Nominee
- 2009 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Nominee
- 1994 People's Choice Awards: Favorite Actor in a Dramatic Motion Picture - Winner
- 1990 People's Choice Awards: Favorite Motion Picture Actor - Winner
- 1990 BAFTA Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role - Nominee
- 1999 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - Nominee
- 1999 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Nominee
- 1996 Screen Actors Guild Awards: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role - Nominee
- 1984 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy - Nominee