Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards. His films have grossed over $4 billion in North America and over $11.1 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing box-office stars of all time.
Tom's Wiki/Bio/Family/Education
Cruise
was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, to electrical engineer Thomas Cruise Mapother
III (1934–1984) and special education teacher Mary Lee (née Pfeiffer;
1936–2017). His parents were both from
Louisville, Kentucky, and had English,
German, and Irish ancestry. Cruise has
three sisters named Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass. One of his cousins, William
Mapother, is also an actor who has appeared alongside Cruise in five films. Cruise grew up in near poverty and had a
Catholic upbringing. He later described his father as "a merchant of
chaos", a "bully", and a "coward" who beat his
children. He elaborated, "[My father] was the kind of person where, if
something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life—how he'd
lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang! For me, it was like, 'There's
something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him.'"
In
total, Cruise attended 15 schools in 14 years. Cruise spent part of his
childhood in Canada; when his father took a job as a defense consultant with
the Canadian Armed Forces, his family moved in late 1971 to Beacon Hill,
Ottawa. He attended the new Robert
Hopkins Public School for his fourth and fifth grade education. He first became involved in drama in fourth grade,
under drama teacher George Steinburg. He and six other boys put on an
improvised play to music called IT at the Carleton Elementary School drama
festival. Drama organizer Val Wright was
in th
e audience and later said that "the movement and improvisation were
excellent ... a classic ensemble piece." In sixth grade, Cruise went to
Henry Munro Middle School in Ottawa. That year, his mother left his father,
taking Cruise and his sisters back to the United States. In 1978, she married
Jack South. Cruise's biological father
died of cancer in 1984. Cruise briefly took a Catholic Church scholarship and
attended the St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio; he aspired to become a
Franciscan priest before being expelled from the seminary for drinking. This
led to his becoming interested in acting. 24–26 In his senior year of high
school, he played football for the varsity team as a linebacker, but was cut
from the squad after getting caught drinking beer before a game. 47 He went on to star in the school's production
of Guys and Dolls. In 1980, he graduated
from Glen Ridge High School in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
Spouses
Cruise has been married to actresses Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes. He has three children, two of whom were adopted during his marriage to Kidman and the other of whom is a biological daughter he had with Holmes. Cruise is an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology, which he credits with helping him overcome dyslexia. In the 2000s, he sparked controversy with his criticisms of psychiatry and anti-depressant drugs, his efforts to promote Scientology in Europe, and a leaked video interview of him promoting Scientology.
Personal life/Relationships
Cruise
splits his time between homes in Beverly Hills, California; Clearwater, Florida; and the South of England where Cruise has
lived in various places including Central London, Dulwich, East Grinstead, and Biggin Hill.
In
the early-to-mid-1980s, Cruise had relationships with Melissa Gilbert, Rebecca
De Mornay, Patti Scialfa, and Cher.
Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers on May 9, 1987.They divorced on February 4, 1990. Rogers had grown up in Scientology and was one of its 'auditors'; they met when Cruise became one of her clients. After she left the organization, she blamed its leader, David Miscavige, for the break-up of their marriage.
Cruise
was next romantically linked with Penélope Cruz, his co-star in Vanilla Sky
(2001). Their three-year relationship ended in 2004. An article in the October
2012 issue of Vanity Fair stated that several sources have said that after the
breakup with Cruz, Scientologist leaders launched a secret project to find
Cruise a new girlfriend. According to those sources, a series of "auditions"
of Scientologist actresses resulted in a short-lived relationship with
British-Iranian actress Nazanin Boniadi, who subsequently left Scientology. Scientology and Cruise's lawyers issued
strongly worded denials and threatened to sue, accusing Vanity Fair of
"shoddy journalism" and "religious bigotry". Journalist
Roger Friedman later reported that he received an email from director and
ex-Scientologist Paul Haggis confirming the story.
In
April 2005, Cruise began dating actress Katie Holmes. On April 27 that year,
Cruise and Holmes—dubbed TomKat by the media—made their first public appearance
together in Rome. A month later, Cruise
publicly declared his love for Holmes on The Oprah Winfrey Show; he jumped on
Winfrey's yellow couch and stood there. Media coverage at the time implied that Oprah
was somewhat taken aback by Cruise's outburst, which distracted from the
intended promotion of Cruise's current film, War of the Worlds.[citation
needed] On October 6, 2005, Cruise and Holmes announced they were expecting a
child. In April 2006, their daughter
Suri was born. On November 18, Holmes and Cruise were married at the
15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, in a Scientologist ceremony attended
by many Hollywood stars. Their
publicists said the couple had "officialized" their marriage in Los
Angeles the day before the Italian ceremony. There has been widespread
speculation that their marriage was arranged by the Church of Scientology. David Miscavige, the head of Scientology, served
as Cruise's best man. On June 29, 2012, Holmes filed for divorce from Cruise. On July 9, the couple signed a divorce
settlement worked out by their lawyers. New York law requires all divorce
documents remain sealed, so the exact terms of the settlement are not publicly
available. Cruise stated that ex-wife
Katie Holmes divorced him in part to protect the couple's daughter Suri from
Scientology and that Suri is no longer a practicing member of the organization.
Work as a producer
Cruise partnered with his former talent agent Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1993, and the company has since co-produced several of Cruise's films, the first being Mission: Impossible in 1996 which was also Cruise's first project as a producer.
Cruise is noted as having negotiated some of the most lucrative film deals in Hollywood, and was described in 2005 by Hollywood economist Edward Jay Epstein as "one of the most powerful – and richest – forces in Hollywood." Epstein argues that Cruise is one of the few producers (the others being George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer) who are regarded as able to guarantee the success of a billion-dollar film franchise. Epstein also contends that the public obsession with Cruise's tabloid controversies obscures full appreciation of Cruise's exceptional commercial prowess.
Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise's film production company, is said to be developing a screenplay based on Erik Larson's New York Times bestseller The Devil in the White City about a real-life serial killer, H. H. Holmes, at Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition. Kathryn Bigelow is attached to the project to produce and helm. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio's production company, Appian Way, is also developing a film about Holmes and the World's Fair, in which DiCaprio will star.
Cruise has produced several films in which he appeared. He produced Mission: Impossible, Without Limits, Mission: Impossible 2, The Others, Vanilla Sky and many others.