Tom Cruise

          Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (pronounced /ˈtɒməs ˈkruːz ˈmeɪpɒθər/; born July 3, 1962), better known by his screen name of Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and won three Golden Globe Awards. His first leading role was the 1983 filmRisky Business, which has been described as "A Generation X classic, and a career-maker" for the actor. After playing the role of a heroic naval pilot in the popular and financially successful 1986 film Top Gun, Cruise continued in this vein, playing a secret agent in a series of Mission: Impossible action films in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition to these heroic roles, he has starred in a variety of other successful films such as Days of Thunder (1990), Jerry Maguire (1996), Magnolia (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004) and War of the Worlds (2005).

In 2005, the Hollywood journalist, Edward Jay Epstein argued that Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar movie franchise. Since 2005, Cruise and Paula Wagner have been in charge of the United Artists film studio, with Cruise as producer and star and Wagner as the chief executive. Cruise is also known for his controversial support of and adherence to the Church of Scientology.

          Cruise's early life was so tough it's a bona fide miracle that he's come so far. He was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in Syracuse, New Jersey on the 3rd of July, 1962, to nomadic parents. His mother, Mary Lee Pfeiffer from Louisiana, had married Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electronics engineer from the University of Kentucky, whose job with General Electric took them all over. Daughter Lee Anne was born in Louisville, then Marian, Tom and Cass (a third daughter) were born in Syracuse. Then they moved to Ottawa, to Missouri, back to New Jersey, and back to Louisville, before finally divorcing when Tom was 11.

          Cruise would later have little good to say about his father. "He was a bully and a coward," he'd recall in an interview with Parade magazine. "He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. He was an antisocial personality, inconsistent, unpredictable. It was a great lesson in my life - how he'd lull you in, make you feel safe and then BANG!" Cruise would not see his father for 10 years, when the older man was dying of cancer. Even then there would be no apology, no forgiveness, no closure, his father only seeing Tom at all if he swore not to mention the past.

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 July 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, 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 decade including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s and 2000s 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), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), 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 thoughtful 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.

Movie Year	Movie Name	Movie Director	Movies Cast
1981	Endless Love	Franco Zeffirelli	Brooke Shields, Shirley Knight, Martin Hewitt, Richard Kiley, Tom Cruise
-	Taps	Harold Becker	George C. Scott, Ronny Cox, Timothy Hutton, Tom Cruise
1983	The Outsiders	Francis Ford Coppola	Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Tom Cruise
-	Losin’ It	Curtis Hanson	Tom Cruise, John Stockwell, Jackie Earle Haley, Shelley Long
-	Risky Business	Paul Brickman	Tom Cruise, Joe Pantoliano, Rebecca De Mornay, Bronson Pinchot
-	All the Right Moves	Michael Chapman	Tom Cruise, Lea Thompson, Craig T. Nelson, Gary Graham
1985	Legend	Ridley Scott	Tom Cruise, Tim Curry, Mia Sara, David Bennent, Billy Barty
1986	Top Gun	Tony Scott	Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards
-	The Color of Money	Martin Scorsese	Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, John Turturro
1988	Cocktail	Roger Donaldson	Tom Cruise, Elisabeth Shue, Bryan Brown, Laurence Luckinbill
-	Young Guns	Christopher Cain	Emilio Estevez, Lou Diamond Phillips, Kiefer Sutherland…Tom Cruise
-	Rain Man	Barry Levinson	Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Valeria Golino, Jack Murdock
1989	Born on the Fourth of July	Oliver Stone	Tom Cruise, Caroline Kava, Raymond J. Barry, Jamie Talisman
1990	Days of Thunder	Tony Scott	Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Cary Elwes
1992	Far and Away	Ron Howard	Tom Cruise, Thomas Gibson, Nicole Kidman, Barbara Babcock
-	A Few Good Men	Rob Reiner	Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kiefer Sutherland
1993	The Firm	Sydney Pollack	Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Hal Holbrook
1994	Interview with the Vampire	Neil Jordan	Brad Pitt, Virginia McCollam, Christian Slater, Tom Cruise
1996	Mission: Impossible	Brian De Palma	Tom Cruise, Emmanuelle Béart, Jon Voight, Jean Reno
-	Jerry Maguire	Cameron Crowe	Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry O’Connell
1998	“3rd Rock from the Sun”	Terry Hughes	John Lithgow, French Stewart, Kristen Johnston…Tom Cruise
1999	Eyes Wide Shut	Stanley Kubrick	Tom Cruise, Madison Eginton, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack
-	Magnolia	Paul Thomas Anderson	Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Tom Cruise
2000	Mission: Impossible II	John Woo	Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Richard Roxburgh
2001	Vanilla Sky	Cameron Crowe	Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Penélope Cruz, Kurt Russell
2002	Minority Report	Steven Spielberg	Tom Cruise, Steve Harris, Max von Sydow, Neal McDonough
-	Austin Powers in Goldmember	Jay Roach	Mike Myers, Seth Green, Beyoncé Knowles… Tom Cruise
2003	The Last Samurai	Edward Zwick	Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, William Atherton, Ray Godshall Sr
2004	Collateral	Michael Mann	Tom Cruise, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo
2005	War of the Worlds	Steven Spielberg	Tom Cruise, Miranda Otto, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin
2006	Mission: Impossible III	J.J. Abrams	Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan
2007	Lions for Lambs	Robert Redford	Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Andrew Garfield
2008	Tropic Thunder	Ben Stiller	Jeff Kahn, Anthony Ruivivar, Robert Downey Jr… Tom Cruise
-	Valkyrie	Bryan Singer	Tom Cruise, David Bamber, Manfred-Anton Algrang, Stephen Fry
2010	Knight and Day	James Mangold	Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Maggie Grace, Paul Dano
2011	Mission: Impossible IV	Brad Bird	Tom Cruise,