Birth name
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV
Height
5' 7" (1.70 m)
Mini 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. |
