About Tom Cruise

BIO, MOVIES, and CAREER

Mission impossible? Not if Tom Cruise has anything to say about it—the ageless wonder’s starred as secret agent Ethan Hunt in six Mission: Impossible films since 1996, and there’s at least two more to come. Born not on the the fourth of July, but on July 3rd, 1962, Cruise has been a staple of the American cinemascape for more than four decades—and, at 60, he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

Although his body of work includes countless action films—like Valkyrie (2008), Jack Reacher (2012), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Top Gun (1986) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022)—Tom Cruise entered the hearts of moviegoers as an endearing young man in the early 1980s, his breakout performance in Risky Business (1983) firmly placing him at the center of attention in Hollywood, both as an actor and sex symbol.

But it’s not just because of his consummate handsomeness that Tom Cruise has maintained his iconic standing in the movie world—he can also act. He received Oscar nods for Born on the Fourth of July (1990), Jerry Maguire (1997), and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (2000). Films for which Cruise received critical acclaim also include Rain Man (1988), A Few Good Men (1992), The Last Samurai (2003), and Collateral (2004). He even starred in Stanley Kubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999). And if all this hadn’t already earned him serious respect as an actor (it had), Cruise would surprise fans and skeptics alike in the 2008 action-comedy hit Tropic Thunder, as bombastic TV studio head Les Grossman, a Golden Globe-nominated role for which he wore a bald cap and fat suit—making him virtually unrecognizable—and in which he got to showcase both his dramatic and comedic chops.

The buck (or maverick, if you will) doesn’t stop at acting, though—Tom Cruise is also an incredibly successful producer. In 2022, he earned another Academy Award nomination, but this time for producing, on Top Gun: Maverick. With former talent agent Paula Wagner, Cruise co-founded Cruise/Wagner Productions, through which he’s produced a handful of other movies, including Vanilla Sky (2001) and The Others (2001).

Tom Cruise’s personal life has been a mixed bag of highly-publicized romances—with fellow A-listers like Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz—and heavily-criticized moments of —ahem—exuberance. Who could forget the time he leapt onto a yellow couch on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005 and shouted, “I LOVE THIS WOMAN” in reference to actor Katie Holmes? But for those who think he’s “a little out there,” you’ve got to give Cruise credit: He’s rumored to be filming a movie on the actual International Space Station, and he plans to perform a literal spacewalk. Touché.

Whether it’s on this planet or somewhere far and away, we the moviegoers can look forward to many more years of Tom Cruise mania.

 

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