Name: Tom Cruise
Profession: Actor, Producer, Director
Birth Date: July 3, 1962
Height: 5' 7"
Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Tom Cruise has become one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history. The only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Cruise spent his boyhood eternally on the move. By the time he was 14, he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. Cruise finally settled in Glen Ridge, N.J., with his mother and her new husband.
While in high school, Cruise developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest. He 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 1981's"Endless Love" and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. His breakout role was that of a high school student in 1983's "Risky Business."
Despite his below-average height, Cruise would soon be starring in some of the top-grossing films of the 1980s, including "Top Gun," "The Color of Money," "Rain Man" and "Born on the Fourth of July."
By the 1990s, Cruise was one of the highest paid actors in the world, earning an average $15 million a picture in such blockbuster hits as "A Few Good Men," "Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles," "Mission: Impossible" and "Jerry Maguire" — for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
In 1990, Cruise 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.
- Comment
