Tom Cruise: biography of an actor who wanted to become a priest

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Tom Cruise: biography of an actor who wanted to become a priest
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. Picture: elle.com
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If someone had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in 1976 that he would become a movie star Tom Cruise in the future, he would probably have chuckled and replied that this was not so and his aspiration is to become a priest.

Nevertheless, this young man was destined to become one of the most famous and highly paid actors in the history of the screen.

Childhood and youth

Tom Cruise was born on July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, New York, to Thomas and Mary Mapother. His father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III worked as an electrical engineer and the family moved frequently to accommodate his father’s career. His mother Mary Lee (Pfeiffer) was a school teacher. In addition, she was an amateur actress, and probably this passion later influenced Cruise himself. Tom’s parents were originally from Louisville, Kentucky, and therefore, the famous actor has German, Irish and English roots. In addition to him, there were three more sisters in the family.

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Cruise’s parents divorced when he was 11 years old, and the children returned to Louisville with their mother. When his mother remarried, they moved to Glen Ridge, New Jersey. In total, due to frequent moves, Cruz studied at 15 schools in the US and Canada.

Cruz, like his mother and three sisters, suffered from dyslexia, which made it difficult for him to study. At the same time, he excelled in sports and in particular in athletics and wrestling. He even considered a career as a professional wrestler, but this was not destined to happen due to a knee injury in high school.

At the age of 14, Tom wanted to become a priest and entered the Franciscan seminary, but left after a year. At the age of 16, Tom, on the advice of one of his teachers, participated in the school production of the musical “Guys and Dolls” and this became the starting point of his acting career.

Career

He dropped out of high school and moved to New York to build a career as an actor. His film debut was a small role in Endless Love (1981), starring Brooke Shields. At the same time, he received a small role in the drama Lights Out (1981) with Sean Penn.

Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise. Picture: Rinofelino | Dreamstime

Cruise’s performance attracted the attention of a number of critics and directors. In 1983, director Francis Ford Coppola invited Cruise to star in the film The Outsiders, which also starred such famous young actors as Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon and Emilio Estevez. The film was not popular with the public, but it gave Cruise valuable experience working with a well-known director.

This was followed by shooting in the film Risky Business (1983), which grossed $65 million at the box office and made Cruise a very recognizable actor. With good looks and a charismatic smile, Tom Cruise starred in a number of 1980s box-office films over the course of 5 years, including Legend, The Color of Money, Top Gun (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on Fourth July” (1989). The role of a Vietnam War veteran in the latter film earned Cruise an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor.

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By the 1990s, he was among the highest paid actors in the world, earning an average of $15 million per picture. In 1992, Cruise starred in the military drama A Few Good Men, where such a master of acting as Jack Nicholson played along with him. The film grossed over $15 million in its opening weekend and earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination.

Then there were shootings in such hits as “Interview with the Vampire” (1994), “Mission: Impossible” and “Jerry Maguire” (1996). For his role in Jerry Maguire, he was again nominated for an Oscar, as well as a Golden Globe for Best Actor. In the Mission Impossible franchise, he also acted as a producer in addition to acting, which brought the franchise a total of $ 3 billion.

1997 and 1998 Cruise, along with his then-wife Nicole Kidman, spent in England filming the erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut, which was the last film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film was released in the summer of 1999 and received many mixed reviews. In the same year, with the participation of Cruz, the film “Magnolia” was released, where he played the role of a self-confident sex guru. The film earned him another Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

After that, in 2000, Cruise’s long-awaited hit “Mission: Impossible 2” was released, and the next three years of his life were spent shooting in such famous films as “Vanilla Sky” and “The Last Samurai”. The war epic about events in Japan earned him another Golden Globe nomination.

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In 2005, Tom Cruise starred in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the science fiction film War of the Worlds. The film received good reviews and grossed over $230 million at the box office.

Cruise’s next work, Mission Impossible 3 (2006), was also liked by the public. However, then the actor began a period of setbacks. In August 2006, Paramount Pictures terminated a 14-year relationship with him. Cruz’s erratic behavior and conflicting views were cited as the official reason for the breakup. However, the press noted that the real reason for the actor’s dismissal from the film company was his high income from the Mission Impossible franchise.

Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise. Picture: Electrochris | Dreamstime

In November 2006, Cruz signed with United Artists, and as a result, Lions for Lambs, a political drama directed by Paula Wagner, was released in 2007. However, despite a strong cast of Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, the film was a commercial disappointment.

But, already in 2008, Cruise pleased the audience with a small role in the comedy Tropical Thunderstorm. At the same time, in the film, he managed to hide his trademark appearance by playing the obese and balding head of the film studio.

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In December 2008, Cruz released his second project in collaboration with United Artists. The main idea of ​​the drama “Valkyrie” was a story about the events of the Second World War, and in particular about the plot to kill Adolf Hitler. In this film, Cruz starred as a German officer involved in the conspiracy.

In 2011, Tom Cruise returned to his most popular franchise, Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and in 2012, he starred in Adam Shankman’s Rock of the Ages, based on the Broadway musical of the same name. However, despite the positive reviews for Cruise’s performance, the film failed to arouse the interest of a large audience. In subsequent years, Tom Cruise starred in a number of films, which were again received positively by the public. So in 2012, a crime drama based on the book by Lee Child “Jack Reacher” was released, and in 2013-2014 a couple of fantastic blockbusters “Oblivion” and “Edge of Tomorrow”. The following year, 2015, the actor released the fifth part of his Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation franchise.

In 2016, Cruise played the role of Jack Reacher in the film Never Go Back. His next film, The Mummy (2017), performed well at the box office, but was still panned by the press. However, in the same year, 2017, Cruise received the best reviews for his performance in the crime thriller American Made.

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The result of Cruise’s work in 2018 was the next, sixth part of the franchise, released under the title Mission: Impossible: Fallout. It was the sequel to Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Tom Cruise decided not to stop at six parts and in November 2021 Paramount Pictures plans to release the next part. This is the seventh film of the acclaimed and third film to be directed and written by Christopher McQuarrie.

In addition, the action movie “Top Gun: Maverick” is scheduled to be released, which is a continuation of the film “Top Gun” with Tom Cruise in the title role. The film was directed by Joseph Kosinski. The release of the film was announced for December 2020, but later the release date of the film was postponed to July 2021.

Private life

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers in 1987. It was thanks to her that the actor became involved in such a religion as Scientology, founded by writer Ron Hubbard. According to Cruz, it was thanks to the Church of Scientology that he was cured of dyslexia, which haunted him for a long time. Soon he became one of her active followers and began to contribute huge sums to the development of the church.

Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise. Picture: Laurence Agron | Dreamstime

Despite the fact that his spiritual life took on new colors, Cruise’s marriage to M. Rogers broke up in 1990. In the same year, the actor participated in the filming of the racing car drama Days of Thunder, where Nicole Kidman played one of the roles. And although the film did not receive popularity among either critics or fans, it became an important link in the life of two actors and on Christmas Eve 1990, Cruise and Kidman got married. During the marriage, the couple had two children – daughter Isabella and son Connor.

Cruz and Kidman lived together for 11 years, but on February 5, 2001, they announced their divorce. As the reason for the breakup, the couple cited the difficulties of acting, which affected the little time they spent together and cooled their love feelings.

After the divorce, Cruz briefly dated his Vanilla Sky co-star Penelope Cruz, and then began a highly publicized romance with actress Katie Holmes.

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In June 2005, after two months of courtship, Cruise proposed to Katie Holmes, and in October of the same year they announced that they were expecting a baby together.

In 2006, Cruise and Holmes had a daughter, Suri. In the same year, they got married in the famous castle of Orsini-Odescalchi, which is located in the small Italian town of Bracciano. However, this romance also ended in divorce, in June 2012 the couple announced their separation.

However, despite everything, Tom Cruise remains one of the beloved members of the film community, having gone through a long and thorny path to become one of the greatest movie stars.

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