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Biography: Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise is the stage name of Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, an American actor, producer, and Scientologist who has starred in a number of top-grossing movies and remains one of the biggest movie stars in the world. His first leading role in a blockbuster movie was in 1983's Risky Business.
Early life
Cruise was born to Thomas Cruise Mapother III and Mary Lee Pfeiffer on July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, New York. His paternal ancestry is Welsh: his great great grandfather Dylan Henry Mapother emigrated from Flint, in north Wales, to the United States in 1860. Cruise also has German ancestry from his paternal great-grandparents, William Reibert and Charlotta Louise Voelker. Cruise's parents moved frequently when he was a child, residing in a number of locations throughout the United States and Canada, including Ottawa; Louisville, Kentucky; Glen Ridge, New Jersey (where he attended Glen Ridge High School); and Wayne, New Jersey. Before going into acting, Cruise attended a Franciscan seminary and aspired to become a Catholic priest.
Acting career
He received Academy Award nominations for Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Jerry Maguire (1996), both as Best Actor; and for Magnolia (1999), as Best Supporting Actor. In 1996, he became the first actor in history to star in five consecutive films that grossed $100 million in domestic release. The films were A Few Good Men (1992), The Firm (1993), Interview with the Vampire (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996).
Cruise also took on more unusual roles following Interview With The Vampire and Jerry Maguire, with Eyes Wide Shut (1999) which took two years to finish as director Stanley Kubrick's last film, alongside former spouse Nicole Kidman. Cruise also performed as a misogynistic male guru in Magnolia (1999), which netted him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, and in very rare form, played a villain as the hitman who kidnaps unsuspecting cabbie Jamie Foxx in Michael Mann's Collateral (2004).
Cruise teamed with producer Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions, which has co-produced several of Cruise's films such as Mission: Impossible and its sequels, Vanilla Sky (2001), and The Last Samurai (2003). The company also co-produced The Others (2001).
Sex appeal
In 1990, 1991 and 1997, People magazine rated him among the 50 most beautiful people in the world. In 1995, Empire magazine ranked him among the 100 sexiest stars in film history. Two years later, it ranked him among the top 5 movie stars of all time. In 2002 and 2003, he was rated by Premiere among the top 20 in its annual Power 100 list. Although not being what you would call conventionally handsome and being from all reports a below average height of about 5 ft. 7 Cruise has a huge female fan base.
10/05 UPDATE Tom Cruise’s popularity has dropped significantly in the last few months, according to the latest Genius StarPower report. By all measures, the plunge (among 13 to 49 year-olds) is steep for a celebrity of his magnitude:
his StarPower ranking plummeted from 12th to 50th
he went from the 11th most liked celebrity to the 197th
his fan base (those who like or like him a lot) shrank from 33% to 25%
he ranks among the top 5 most controversial actors (those who are heavily disliked and liked), along with David Spade, Tom Green, Pauly Shore and Ashton Kutcher.
The drop follows Cruise’s controversial publicity tour for the release of “War Of The Worlds” and his engagement to actress Katie Holmes. The above figures are from the Genius StarPower Summer 2005 report (covering the six months to July 1, 2005) and the Spring 2005 report (covering the six months to April 1, 2005).
Personal life
Cruise has been married twice, to Mimi Rogers (married on May 9, 1987, divorced February 4, 1990) and later Nicole Kidman (married on December 24, 1990, divorced August 8, 2001). He and Nicole Kidman adopted two children, Isabella (born 1993) and Connor (born 1995). Cruise recently discussed his bi-racial son with the TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Oprah asked Cruise if the issue of his race was ever discussed in the household. "We're from the human race, human kind," Cruise said. "I mean, what's there to talk about? He's my son. Listen, that's just how I feel about it. He's my son. I've never thought about color, race, I just have not thought about that."
During his marriage to actress Nicole Kidman, the couple endured public speculation about their sex life and rumors that Cruise was gay. In May 2001 he filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor Chad Slater. Slater had allegedly told the celebrity magazine Actustar that he had engaged in an affair with Cruise. Both Slater and Cruise denied this, and in August 2001 Slater was ordered to pay $10 million to Cruise in damages.
It is also rumored that Kidman lost interest in Scientology, and the friction between her and Cruise over this issue drove the marriage apart. Tom Cruise left Nicole Kidman 3 months pregnant just shy of their 10 year anniversary. Nicole lost the child.
Cruise was next romantically linked with Penélope Cruz, the lead actress in his film Vanilla Sky. In March 2004, he announced that his relationship with Penélope Cruz had ended in January. In April 2005, he began dating Katie Holmes, before announcing on 17 June 2005 that he had proposed to her at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France . She accepted his offer, but the couple have yet to decide on a wedding date.
Church of Scientology
Cruise is arguably Hollywood's most outspoken member of the Church of Scientology. He joined in 1986 while married to Mimi Rogers. Cruise has publicly said that Scientology, specifically the L. Ron Hubbard Scientology Study Tech , allowed him to overcome his dyslexia .
Since 2004, Cruise has talked more openly about Scientology and promoted its ideas, especially its rejection of psychiatric drugs, which was the subject of a heated argument with Matt Lauer on the Today Show on June 24, 2005. He openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using the drug Paxil, an anti-depressant, which Shields claims helped her recover from post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter in 2003; Brooke Shields subsequently questioned Cruise's wisdom. Cruise also claimed in an Entertainment Weekly interview that psychiatry "is a Nazi science" and that methadone was actually originally called Adolophine after Adolf Hitler , a well-known urban legend. In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine, Cruise claimed that "In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. It's called Narconon... It's a statistically proven fact that there is only one successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. Period." (While Narconon claims to have a success rate over 70%, no outside source has ever verified this claim, let alone declaring it the only successful program as a matter of statistical fact.)
Tom Cruise has said "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in the body." This runs counter to what is believed by most of the medical profession; chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin are widely recognized as playing a role in some mental disorders.
Cruise's more open attitude to Scientology has been attributed to the departure of his publicist of 14 years, Pat Kingsley in March 2004. He replaced her with his sister, fellow Scientologist Lee Anne DeVette, who served in that role until November 2005.
Recently Cruise has also been reported to have risen to one of the highest echelons of the Church of Scientology, what is known as 'Operating Thetan Seven' or OT-VII. This rise in the ranks also has contributed to Cruise's more frequent comments on Scientology, since that level reportedly gives Cruise, among other things, more authoritative powers. Cruise's fiancée, Katie Holmes, recently has begun studying Scientology, which Cruise says does not conflict with her Roman Catholic upbringing.
Cruise may have successfully converted his bride-to-be, Katie Holmes, into Scientology but failed to convert Scarlett Johansson. After two hours of proselytizing, Cruise introduced her to a room full of upper level Scientologists waiting to dine with the pair at that point she excused herself politely. She had then pulled out of Cruise's upcoming movie Mission Impossible III. Johansson never confirmed this incident and claimed to have dropped out of the movie due to scheduling conflicts with a Woody Allen film she is working on.
Wikinews has news related to this article:
Church of Scientology does not see humor in website dedicated to Tom CruiseAs of 2005, Tom Cruise has begun advocating for the Church of Scientology before politicians and government officials around the world. As an example, he has lobbied French minister Nicolas Sarkozy in favor of Scientology. Such advocacy does not go well in several European countries where this organization is considered as a cult that swindles its members. As an example, on July 13th, 2005, the city council of Paris vowed "never to receive [before the council or the mayor] the actor Tom Cruise, spokesman for Scientology and self-declared militant for this organisation" after he was mentioned as lobbying Sarkozy and Jean-Claude Gaudin, mayor of Marseille.
Cruise also fell victim to South Park episode (Trapped in the Closet), which explicitly made fun of Scientology. It alluded to his possible homosexuality when he locked himself inside a closet after Stan told him that he was a decent actor, but "not as great as the guy who played Napoleon Dynamite." Throughout the episode while he was in the closet, all the other characters, including fellow Scientologist John Travolta, R&B singer R. Kelly, and ex-wife Nicole Kidman, pleaded with him to "come out of the closet".
Cruise’s involvement with Scientology is parodied on the site scienTOMogy.info.
Oprah, interviews and Katie Holmes
Tom Cruise debates psychiatry on Today show
Tom Cruise jumps ecstatically on Oprah's couchOn May 23, 2005, Cruise raised some eyebrows with a frenzied, almost manic appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in which he — in the words of The New York Times — "jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell rapturously to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend, the actress Katie Holmes."
Cruise's public image came under further scrutiny after a number of subsequent television interviews in which he was described as acting in an odd manner and espousing a number of controversial views. In his famous Matt Lauer interview, Cruise appeared tired and hostile when discussing psychiatry. He accused Lauer of being "glib" and insisted that there is "no such thing as a chemical imbalance," and that through "vitamins and exercise" a person's psychiatric problems can be cured. Noting that Katie Holmes was embracing Scientology, Lauer then asked Cruise if he could be with someone who wasn't a Scientologist. He replied: "It's something you don't understand. You can be a Christian and be a Scientologist. It is a religion in that it deals with the spirit, you as a spiritual being."
This short, yet very public love affair took a dramatic turn when Cruise and Holmes got engaged in Paris while on a world publicity tour for their two most recent movies (War of the Worlds for Cruise and Batman Begins for Holmes). War of the Worlds director Steven Spielberg has been critical of Cruise's focus on his relationship during promotion of the film, but believed it to be genuine. On October 5, 2005, it was reported by People magazine that Holmes is pregnant. The birth would be Holmes' first child, and Cruise's third. Cruise has two adopted children; Connor, 10, and Isabella, 12, from his marriage to Nicole Kidman.
Cruise's hostile behavior in recent interviews and his very public romance with Katie Holmes have led to his being the butt of numerous jokes on late night television shows such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman. The jokes commonly refer to Cruise being crazy or insane. The phrase "jumping the couch" is now used to refer to someone (usually a celebrity) who seems to have gone insane.
In the wake of these events, Tom Cruise demoted his sister LeAnne DeVette and replaced her with veteran publicist Paul Bloch, from the publicity firm Rogers and Cowan. Such restructuring is seen as a move to curtail publicity about Tom's Scientology views, though DeVette said that it was her decision to work on philanthropic projects rather than publicity.
Selected filmography
Taps (1981)
Endless Love (1981)
The Outsiders (1983)
Losin' It (1983)
Risky Business (1983)
All the Right Moves (1983)
Legend (1985)
Top Gun (1986)
The Color of Money (1986)
Cocktail (1988)
Young Guns (1988) (Cameo)
Rain Man (1988)
Born On The Fourth Of July (1989)
Days of Thunder (1990)
Far and Away (1992)
A Few Good Men (1992)
The Firm (1993)
Interview With the Vampire (1994)
Mission: Impossible (1996)
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Magnolia (1999)
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) (documentary) (narrator)
Vanilla Sky (2001) (also producer)
Space Station 3D (2002) (documentary) (narrator)
Minority Report (2002)
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) (Cameo)
The Last Samurai (2003) (also producer)
Collateral (2004)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Mission: Impossible III (2006) (currently being filmed) (also producer)
Reported salaries
War of the Worlds (2005) $70,000,000 (20% profit participation)
The Last Samurai (2003) $25,000,000 + % of profits
Minority Report (2002) $25,000,000+
Vanilla Sky (2001) $20,000,000 + 30% of Profits
Mission: Impossible II (2000) $75,000,000 (gross participation)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) $20,000,000
Jerry Maguire (1996) $20,000,000 against 15%
Mission: Impossible (1996) $70,000,000 (gross participation)
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) $15,000,000
Far and Away (1992) $13,000,000
Rain Man (1988) $3,000,000+% of gross
Top Gun (1986) $2,000,000
Risky Business (1983) $75,000
Worldwide Movie Grosses (does not count inflation)
War of the Worlds $587,170,495
Collateral $216,770,152
The Last Samurai $456,710,575
Minority Report $342,000,000
Vanilla Sky $202,726,605
Mission Impossible II $545,547,560
Jerry Maguire $274,000,000
Mission Impossible $467,000,000
Interview with the Vampire $221,300,000
The Firm $262,292,525
A Few Good Men $236,500,000
Rain Man $412,800,000
Top Gun $344,700,000