Tom Cruise
biography
In 1976, if you had told 14 year old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be considered one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become Tom Cruise, one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history. The only son (among four children) of nomadic parents young Tom spent his boyhood eternally on the move and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the US and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.
Though below average height and not particularly handsome in the traditional sense, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top grossing films of the 1980s including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s he was one of the highest paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as _Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)_ , Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996) for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth.
trivia
- When he was 6-7 his sisters and their friends would put him on the kitchen sink and practice kissing him.
- (1997) Voted Best Dressed Male Movie Star
- Member of the Church of Scientology
- While he was working with Paul Newman in the Color of Money, (1986, he engaged in much conversation with the politically active actor. The resulting conscious raising changed him from an actor who ignored the jingoistic tone of Top Gun (1986) to a performer who chose a film with a strong anti-war tone, Born on the Fourth of July (1989) to counter his contribution to the former film.
- He's the third of four children of an electrical engineer, whose family moved often due to his father's job. Because of having dyslexia (can't read correctly - letters on a page start to blurr after a few moments of looking at them), he needed to switch schools constantly. Unfortunately this lead to bad grades. He try to compensate for this handicap by being active in sports, until a knee injury ended his career in wrestling (THANKS FOR THE INPUT, Andrea!). He attended a Franciscan seminar for a year, but instead of putting on a habit, he ended up in the theater costume of Nathan Detroit, in a student production of the musical Guys & Dolls. After the completion of the musical, he decided to dedicate his life to professional acting, and left for New York where he performed in a biblical-type of play by the name of Godspell. This is where the Italian director Franco Zeffirelli discovered him. He gave him his first role of Billie Harris in the drama Endless Love. And after this role, his agressive character of David Shaw in Taps made him noticeable, and Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in "Top Gun" made him a Star. From then on, the offers kept coming faster than lightning.
- Tom turned down the role in "Always" by Steven Spielberg and "Edward Scissorhands" by Tim Burton. He was also considered for the musical "Sunset Boulevard".
- He was on the varsity wrestling team and played Nathan Detroit in the Junior Class production of "Guys and Dolls".
quotes
- "Nothing ends nicely, that's why it ends."
- "Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow's embarrassment?"
- "Jerry Maguire: Jump in my nightmare, the water's warm!"
- "I disagree with people who think you learn more from getting beat up than you do from winning"
- "When you have to cope with a lot of problems, you're either going to sink or you're going to swim."
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