Who is Tom Cruise: New Cast & Movies, Biography, Personal Life, Career, Net Worth

Who is Tom Cruise: Biography, Personal Life, Career, Net Worth and More

Tom Cruise is an American producer and film actor from New York. He is one of the best actors of all time. His movies have sold millions worldwide. Tom Cruise started his career as a successful actor at 19 when he starred in ‘Endless Love’ (1981) and ‘Top Gun’ (1986).

He has collaborated with some of the finest actors in the world including Nicole Kidman, Jon Voight, and Jack Nicholson.

Tom Cruise's Early Life and Family

Thomas “Tom” Cruise Mapother IV was born in Syracuse, New York on the 3rd of July, 1962. Cruise is the son of Thomas Cruise Mapother III and Mary Lee.

He is of German, Irish, and English ancestry and spent most of his childhood in Canada.

Cruise later attended Franciscan Seminary in Ohio, and his parents divorced during the same time. In his senior years, he played football. Cruise had his debut appearance in 1981 when he starred in the film Endless Love’.

His father was an electrical engineer and his mother worked as a special education teacher. He has three sisters. He had a difficult childhood and grew up in near poverty. His father was an abusive man who often used to beat young Tom at the slightest pretext. Cruise’s parents divorced when he was 11, and the children moved with their mother to Louisville, Kentucky, and then to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, after she remarried. Like his mother and three sisters, Cruise suffered from dyslexia, which made academic success difficult for him. He excelled in athletics, however, and considered pursuing a career in professional wrestling until a knee injury sidelined him during high school.

He became involved in drama as a school student and was encouraged by his teachers who sensed that the boy was naturally gifted with acting abilities. As a teenager, he briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati on a church scholarship and aspired to become a Catholic priest.

Tom Cruise's Education

Tom Cruise attended Robert Hopkins Public School during his 4th and 5th-grade education. He started involving himself in school drama productions in the 4th grade, under the guidance of George Steinburg, his drama teacher.

Cruise earned a scholarship through the Catholic Church, attending St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. During his schooling, Cruise thought about becoming a Franciscan priest. However, the school expelled him after teachers caught him drinking.

Cruse is also an ambassador for the Church of Scientology, converting to the faith in 1986 after meeting his first wife, Mimi Rogers. The actor would conceal his association with Scientology until an interview with Barbara Walters in 1992.

Tom Cruise's Personal Life

Photo: Mamamia

Tom Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers in May 1987. Rogers introduced Cruise to Scientology and he went on to become an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology. Their marriage, however, ended in February 1990.

In December 1990, he got married to actress Nicole Kidman. The couple adopted two children, but this marriage too ended in divorce.

On November 18, 2006, he got married for the third time to Katie Holmes. They have a daughter together. After five and half years of marriage, Holmes, on June 29, 2012, filed for divorce from Cruise.

Apart from his three marriages, he was in a relationship with Spanish actress Penelope Cruz and British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi.

Tom Cruise's Career

Tom Cruise started acting in the early 1980s and made his revolutionary role as the leading character in the comedy Risky Business and the action series Top Gun. Critical acclamation came with his characters in television serials Rain Man, The Color of Money and Born on the Fourth of July. For depicting the role of Ron Kovic in the latter, he earned a Golden Globe Award and also earned a nominee for Academy Award for the Best Actor. As a prominent Hollywood superstar in the 1990s, Tom Cruise appeared in a number of commercially and critically megahit movies, including the thriller The Firm, the drama A Few Good Men, the horror movie Interview with Vampire, as well as the romance Jerry Maguire, for which he received another Golden Globe award and received his 2nd Oscar nominee.

Tom’s enactment as a motivational speaker in 1999’s drama titled Magnolia bestowed him with a 3rd Golden Globe award as well as a nominee for Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor. As an action hero, Tom Cruise has portrayed Ethan Hunt in the 6th movie of the Mission: Impossible series. Cruise also persisted to appear in numerous action and science fiction and action movies, comprising off Minority Report, Vanilla Sky, Collateral, The Last Samurai, Knight and Day, War of the Worlds, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow and Jack Reacher.

He achieved unprecedented success in 1996 when he played the role of Ethan Hunt in the action spy film ‘Mission: Impossible’. The plot follows agent Hunt and his mission to uncover the mole who has framed him for the murders of his entire team. The film was a big box office success and spawned several sequels.

He continued to be a highly bankable and popular star throughout the late 1990s and 2000s with films like ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999), ‘Vanilla Sky’ (2001), ‘Minority Report’ (2002), ‘The Last Samurai’ (2003), ‘Collateral’ (2004), ‘War of the Worlds’ (2005), and ‘Lions for Lambs’ (2007). Some of his more recent films are ‘Rock of Ages’ (2012), ‘Jack Reacher’ (2012), ‘Oblivion’ (2013), and ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (2014).

In 2015, Tom Cruise starred in the fifth installment of the Mission: Impossible series, 'Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation'. In 2018, he reprised the role in the sixth film of the franchise, 'Mission: Impossible – Fallout'.

In 2017, he starred in the horror movie 'The Mummy'. The film was a reboot of the Boris Karloff's 1932 movie of the same name.

Major Works

The war drama film ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ (1989) is one of his best known movies. His portrayal of Ron Kovic in the movie earned Cruise an Academy Award nomination. The film was both, a critical and commercial success.

Tom Cruise is most famous for playing secret agent Ethan Hunt in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films, a series of action spy thriller film based on the television series of the same name. The series is the 17th-highest-grossing film series of all time with over $2 billion worth of worldwide gross, and has helped maintain Cruise’s superstar status over the years.

Awards & Achievements

Tom Cruise is the recipient of three Golden Globe awards, including Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama in 1990 for ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical in 1997 for ‘Jerry Maguire’.

He received the Excellence in Mentoring Award from the National Mentoring Partnership in 2003 for his work with the organization.

He received the David di Donatello Awards’ ‘Special David’ in 2005.

In 2011, Cruise was awarded a humanitarian award from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and Museum of Tolerance for his work as a dedicated philanthropist.

Tom Cruise's Net Worth, Salary, and Career Earnings

Photo: pulphousecritics

Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who has a net worth of $600 million. Over the last three decades, Tom Cruise has starred in dozens of major blockbuster movies and today is generally considered one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Tom Cruise spent his early years moving around the country, with a brief stint in Canada. His first taste of acting came in high school when, after a knee injury forced him off the wrestling team, Cruise joined the drama club and quickly won the lead role in their production of Guys and Dolls. After high school, Cruise moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting. It didn't take long for him to land a handful of minor and supporting roles. Cruise had his big break with 1983's Risky Business. The movie secured Cruise as an up-and-coming star and earned him his first Golden Globe nomination.

His next big hits were the 1986 film Top Gun, which grossed $356 million worldwide and 1989's Rain Man, which won four Academy Awards. Cruise's first Oscar nomination came a year later with Born on the Fourth of July, followed by a Golden Globe nomination for A Few Good Men. Cruise simultaneously starred in and produced the blockbuster hit Mission: Impossible, which grossed worldwide at $457 million and produced two more successful sequels. Other films produced by Cruise include The Last Samurai, The Others, and Shattered Glass. Cruise's second and third Academy Award nominations came with the critically and commercially successful films Jerry Maguire and Magnolia, for which he did earn a Golden Globe Award. To date, over twenty of Cruise's films have grossed well over $100 million worldwide. Tom has been married several times, to actresses Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and most recently Katie Holmes.

How did Tom Cruise build his net worth?

Tom's debut acting role in the 1983 smash-hit "Risky Business." He earned $75,000 for his part in the movie. That salary bumped to $500,000 for his next role in the 1985 movie, "Legend."

The actor cemented his status on the Hollywood A-list with his role in the 1986 blockbuster, "Top Gun," earning $2 million for the role of the hot-shot pilot "Maverick."

From there, Tom kept increasing his pay, earning $3 million for the 1988 movie "Cocktail" and $9 million for his part in "Days of Thunder."

However, Tom would land his biggest payday with the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. He grossed $100 million for the second film in the franchise, comparable with his $100 million salary for 2005's War of the Worlds.

The top-10 all-time paychecks for actors see Tom mentioned in three of the ten films on the list. Between the years 1983 and 2011, Cruise earned $445 million in salary. He made another $300 million between 2011 and 2019, totaling $745 million in career earnings through his films.

Tom Cruise's Real Estate

Tom owns and has owned a number of extremely impressive properties around the US over the years.

In 2013 Tom sold a 10th-floor condo in New York City's East Village for $3 million.

In September 2015 he sold a multi-residence property in the Hollywood Hills for $11.4 million. The buyer was Eva Longoria.

In May 2016, Tom sold his longtime Beverly Hills estate to billionaire financier Leon Black for $40 million. He purchased the house for $30.5 million in 2006 when he was still married to Katie Holmes.

In the mid-1990s when he was married to Nicole Kidman, Tom built a large mansion in Telluride, Colorado. His Telluride property spans 320 acres. The main home is 10,000 square feet with seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, horse stables, and a private helipad. He spent years lobbying the local airport to expand its runway so larger private jets could arrive. His runway wish was granted in 2010. In 2016 he listed this home for $59 million but ultimately did not find a buyer. He listed the home again in 2018 and again did not find a buyer. He re-listed the home in March 2021 for $39.5 million. Tom finally sold the property in May 2021 for exactly $39.5 million.

Favorite Quotes from Tom Cruise

“I’ve gotten very good at scheduling my life, scheduling the scene and preparing myself for knowing, saving the energy, consuming the energy, knowing when to go for it and having the available reserves to be able to do that. You have to think about that because it’s endurance.” – Tom Cruise

“When I was about 7 years old, I had been labeled dyslexic. I’d try to concentrate on what I was reading, then I’d get to the end of the page and have very little memory of anything I’d read. I would go blank, feel anxious, nervous, bored, frustrated, dumb. I would get angry. My legs would actually hurt when I was studying. My head ached. All through school and well into my career, I felt like I had a secret. When I’d go to a new school, I wouldn’t want the other kids to know about my learning disability, but then I’d be sent off to remedial reading.” – Tom Cruise

“I look at the Samurai because they were the artists of their time. What I think struck me when I read Bushido is compassion. ‘If there’s no one there to help, go out and find someone to help.’ That hit me because I try to lead my life like that.” – Tom Cruise

“I’ve gotten very good at scheduling my life, scheduling the scene and preparing myself for knowing, saving the energy, consuming the energy, knowing when to go for it and having the available reserves to be able to do that. You have to think about that because it’s endurance.” – Tom Cruise

“I just want to help people. I’m a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. It’s called Narconon.” – Tom Cruise

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