Tom Cruise: Life On The Line | Full Biography (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, Rain Man)

He is an adrenaline junkie, Scientologist, and Hollywood cash cow. He is associated with a shining Hollywood smile and one very popular spy tune. He earned tens of millions of dollars from his films and became one of the hundred most important actors of all time. What were the craziest tricks he performed on his own on the set? Why did Steven Spielberg refuse to work with him? And why was Nicole Kidman so happy to divorce him? This is the Biographer channel, and today we're going to tell you about the charming Tom Cruise's life path, his best roles, his love of extreme sports, and how his passion for Scientology influenced his romantic relationships. And before we start, we suggest you subscribe to our channel because here you will find the most detailed and fascinating documentaries about your favorite celebrities. Click on the subscription button and the bell, and we start. The full name of this American actor sounds like Thomas Cruise Muputher the Fourth. Tom Cruise was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, on the eve of Independence Day and became the second of four children in the family. His parents, electrical engineer Thomas Cruise Muputher the Third and special education teacher Mary Lee, were from Louisville, Kentucky and had English, German, and Irish descent. Cruise grew up almost in poverty and received a Catholic upbringing. He later characterized his father as a chaos merchant, a bully, and a coward who beat his children. He remembered, "...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 the future actor, it was like, there's something wrong with this guy. He understood that it was not worth trusting him. You need to be careful with him. His father struggled to earn a living for a large family. They had to move from place to place frequently, traveling the United States and Canada. By the age of eight, Tom was already tired enough of poverty and had to get a job. He was mowing lawns, raking leaves, delivering newspapers, and even selling postcards for Easter and Christmas. Due to frequent moves from state to state, from America to Canada, the boy had to change at least 15 schools in 14 years. Tom's father got a job in the Canadian Armed Forces as a consultant, and the whole family moved to Beacon Hill, Ottawa, at the end of 1971. While living in Canada, one of the schools of particular importance to Tom was the Robert Hopkins Public School in Ontario. There, the boy, studying in the fourth and fifth grade, became interested in drama and participated in plays under the guidance of drama teacher George Steinberg. One day, Cruz and six other boys staged an impromptu piece to music called It at the Carleton Elementary School Drama Festival. Val Wright, who was the organizer and was in the hall, said that the movement and improvisation were excellent. It was a classic ensemble piece. A bit later, after another move, Cruz studied in the sixth grade at Henry Monroe Middle School in Ottawa. In the same year, his mother left his father and took the children back to the United States. Later, in 1978, she married Jack South. Tom's father had cancer, and he passed away in 1984. For a time, Cruz received a church scholarship to study at Franciscan Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was that seminary that influenced the actor's desire to become a However, he was expelled from the seminary for drunkenness and passion for acting. During that period, he decided to give up religious studies in his late teens. From being this kind of wild child to one year studying to be a Franciscan priest at the seminary, I was very frustrated. I didn't have a lot of friends. The closest people around me were my family. I think they felt a little nervous about me because I had a lot of energy and I couldn't stick to one thing. If I worked at an ice cream store, and I've worked in a lot of them, I would be the best for two weeks. In high school, Tom played football for the university team as a midfielder, but after an incident with being caught drinking beer before the game, he was off the team. At that time, Cruz had such extremes in his life. In one interview, the actor recalled how he constantly quit jobs or was fired because he was bored. Tom has never lived in one place for a long time. His whole life consists of moving. He always packed up and moved, staying in Canada, Kentucky, Jersey, St. Louis. All that was useful because he was constantly learning a new accent, finding himself in a different surrounding. Tom's last school was Glenridge High School in New Jersey, where he again participated in school plays and starred in a school production of Guys and Dolls. The actor graduated from the senior class in 1980 and finally breathed a sigh of relief. After graduating from high school, Tom Cruz decided to develop his acting career and, with the blessing of his mother and stepfather, arrived in New York. At first, he tried to survive by waiting tables in a restaurant. In his spare time, he regularly had acting auditions. After working as a waiter in a restaurant, Tom went to Los Angeles to try himself on television. And pretty soon, all his efforts paid off. Tom signed a contract with the CAA and got a small role in the 1981 film Endless Love, based on the novel by Scott Spencer. In the same year, he played the main supporting role of a crazy student of the military academy in the film Taps. The appearance in Endless Love gave the actor invitations to other minor roles. Therefore, Cruz became part of the cast in an adaptation of the dramatic novel by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He also appeared in the film All the Right Moves. It was difficult not to notice the promising potential of the young actor. At the start of his career, Tom had several relationships with women. In the early-mid 1980s, the actor had a romance with Rebecca de Mornay, Patti Schiaffa, and even Cher. But he put all his efforts into his work. One of the most showing of Tom's acting potential was a role in the film Risky Business, of the same 1983. That period in the actor's life and appearance in that film was a turning point in his career. The film was rated by Rotten Tomatoes as undeniably one of his early best. From that moment on, Cruz's life really started taking off. In 1985, Tom, in the status of a rising star, played the main role in the Ridley Scott film Legend. It was an epic adventure in the genre of dark fantasy. He played the role of Jack O. the Green, a green man of the forest. Interestingly, later, Tom would get the name Jack in other films. The actor noted that the name was easy to remember. The film did not receive much audience love, but was nominated for several awards — Oscar, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Saturn Award, as well as several nominations for BAFTA Awards. As a result, by the release of the film Top Gun next year, Cruz was already in the status of a superstar. Initially, Tom was not eager to act in the film, but still changed his mind. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer told how he managed to convince the actor. So, the Navy take Tom up there and they do 5Gs. They do barrel rolls. They do everything. He's heaving in the plane. He gets on the tarmac, runs to a payphone and he said, I'm in. I'm doing the movie. I love it. This is great. Jerry Bruckheimer. The actor had never ridden a motorcycle before and went to learn at the House of Motorcycles in El Cajon, California. They taught him in the parking lot of their store. Of course, that was not all that Tom had to learn for the film. Next, he took the wheel of a real F-14 and probably soon felt the craving for adrenaline. Today, we know Tom as a real hard worker and one of the few actors who perform their own stunts in films without stuntmen. But back then, in 1986, Tom's adrenaline addiction was just beginning to emerge in the form of a high-speed motorcycle ride that would be with him from movie to movie. It would be fully revealed in 10 years. When Tom Cruz first took off in an F-14, he was the Lieutenant Commander Lloyd Bozo Abel. After Bozo performed several maneuvers, Cruz's body made itself felt and he had to take his sick bag. Tom had to wear high-soled shoes in shots with Kelly McGillis. Tom Cruz is 5 feet 7 inches or 1.70 meters tall and McGillis is 5 feet 10 inches or 1.78 meters tall. At least it came in handy for one episode. It was a scene when after the auto chase, Charlie told Maverick that he didn't want anyone to know that she was falling in love with him. Maverick initially had a phrase that he wanted to say according to the script. However, Tom forgot the phrase and instead improvised by kissing Kelly McGillis. Director Tony Scott liked it so much that he decided not to reshoot anything. The film turned out to be extremely successful. It got $357 million at the box office with a of $15 million. During the release, the U.S. Navy installed recruiting booths in movie theaters to try to catch some adrenaline-charged guys leaving the watching. As a result, the level of applicants was the highest in recent years. The popularity of the film led to a 500% increase in the number of recruits wishing to enroll in the aviation program. On May 9, in 1987, Cruz married actress Mimi Rogers. It was she who introduced Tom to the Church of Scientology. Their marriage was short-lived and in February of 1990, the couple divorced. According to the ex-spouses, they had different work schedules and lost the spark. But Cruz would connect his life with Scientology for many years to come. Apparently, the new religion significantly influenced his future relationships with women. But we will talk about that later. Tom started shooting a new film after the divorce. Soon, the picture The Color of Money was released, which hooked him up with Paul Newman. Many years later, on The Graham Norton Show, Tom would tell about one lesson from Paul Newman, which could only be learned by working on the set for a long time. That lesson Cruz would remember for a lifetime. Filming took place in Chicago in January, and it was very cold outside. And while Tom was freezing in a leather jacket with a summer t-shirt, Newman was sitting in a car with an electric heater and a warm coat. They exchanged surprise glances having met in a joint scene, and Newman did not miss a chance to tease the aspiring actor. In 1988, Cruz appeared in the movie Cocktail, which was nominated for the 9th Golden Raspberry Awards in four nominations at once, and the actor himself was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. However, in the same year, Tom played with Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, which turned out to be much more successful. Hoffman and Tom Cruz questioned the film's potential and jokingly called it two jerks in a car. Hoffman did not believe in the potential of the film and his performance so much that three weeks after the start of the project, he wanted to leave it, telling director Barry Levinson, "'Invite Richard Dreyfuss. Invite someone, Barry, because this is the worst job of my life.'" Oh, if Hoffman only knew that he would receive the Academy Award for Best Actor for his work. Cruz rehearsed his role with Hoffman throughout the filming, sometimes changing roles. Once in an interview, Sir Michael Caine admitted that the role of Tom Cruz in Rain Man was one of his favorites from everything he had ever seen in a movie. He said with great sincerity, "'Tom's performance was perfectly played.' Tom Cruz was required to have a lot of discipline and responsibility so that the viewer could empathize with his character." In the first release weekend, the film got only $6 million, showing a lower result than expected, but in the following weeks, it caused an excitement and was on top of the box office. As a result, the picture received extremely positive reviews and eventually got cult status. The film won an Academy Award and Tom Cruz received the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1989, Cruz appeared in Born on the Fourth of July, where he played the role of a paralyzed Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovach, who was a real historical figure. Thanks to the film, he got the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, the Chicago Film Critics Association Award, the People's Choice Award, as well as a nomination for the BAFTA Award and Tom's first nomination for the Best Actor Academy Award. Every year, Tom Cruz became an increasingly important figure in Hollywood. For example, in 1990, the actor was recognized as the sexiest man alive by People magazine. The actor's next film was Days of Thunder in 1990, the romantic sports-adventure drama directed by Tony Scott fixed Tom up with a young actress named Nicole Kidman. Cruz approved the actress's candidacy as his character's love interest after watching her in Dead Calm, on the recommendation of the director. The idea of Days of Thunder was born from when Tom and Paul Newman were allowed to test one of Rick Hendrix's racing cars. The production of the film started without a finished script. It was the first picture for which Tom helped write the script. Scenes were often born right on the day of filming. During one of the driving episodes, Tom Cruz actually had to read his lines from the tips attached to the windshield, which led to a small accident. In the subsequent driving scenes, the actor was provided with a special earphone to make hints. Tom has loved racing and cars all his life, and when he was growing up, he often watched racing competitions on TV. Working with Paul Newman on The Color of Money, they only talked about cars. Once, Tom told Paul that he would like to try himself in that field, and he offered him a try. Cruz arrived at the quarter-mile track, and Paul Newman, being familiar with a large number of riders, borrowed the car for a while. And Tom managed to drive a Nissan GT3 car. The host of the show, David Letterman, noticed that it was a more modified model of the car that Tom could have bought himself. Despite the fact that the model accelerated to 150 miles per hour, Tom failed to get that speed. However, at the Pocono competitions in the summer of 1988, he accelerated to 145 to 146 miles per hour. He remembered his first race. I was scared to death. I thought I was going to die. You go into corners, and you think, yeah, you just, uh, but it's really exciting. High-speed chess game. In Days of Thunder, most of Tom Cruz's stunts were performed by NASCAR driver Greg Sachs. Even then, Tom had a craving for extreme sports and wanted to do stunt driving himself, but for insurance reasons, he was not allowed. Chevrolet-brand cars were prepared by Rick Hendricks' racing team, which later used some cars in real races. During the filming, 35 cars were crushed. The film turned out to be a bit unrealistic in terms of special effects, characters, and fake dialogues. It got mixed reviews. However, it was Quentin Tarantino's favorite big-budget film about racing. The director believed that the picture should not be taken seriously and, in fact, was quite funny. There was a spark between Cruz and Kidman on the set, and over time, the relationship developed into a happy marriage. The couple got married on Christmas Eve of the same year. The actors quickly became a Hollywood star couple. In an interview with Marie Claire, Kidman recalled, I felt I became a star only by association. We would go to the Oscars, and I would think, I'm here to support him. I felt it was my job to put on a beautiful dress and be seen and not heard." Nicole Kidman Over time, Nicole admitted that she was so in love that she overlooked some things. She forgot about her plans for life and desperately wanted to have a child with Tom. A little over a year after the wedding, Kidman became pregnant. Unfortunately, the pregnancy turned out to be ectopic and she lost her first child. That painful and traumatic experience prompted the couple to adopt. In 1992, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruz adopted a girl named Isabella Jane, and in 1995, they adopted a boy named Connor. According to the actors' religious beliefs, the children were adopted through the church. Cruz and Kidman were very secretive parents and rarely put their children's lives in the spotlight. In 1992, the couple appeared in another joint project, Far and Away, directed by Ron Howard. The actors played the roles of Irish immigrants seeking happiness in America in the 1890s, which led them to the land run of 1893. Cruz's acting career continued to go uphill. In 1993, the actors starred in the legal thriller The Firm, directed by Sidney Pollack, based on the novel of the same name by author John Grisham. During the production of the film, Tom reached an agreement with Paramount that only his name could appear above the title on the poster. Gene Hackman, who joined the shooting not from the beginning of the project, wanted his name to appear on top too, but he demanded that his name be removed from the poster altogether after being refused. The film was a great commercial success, grossing $270 million with a budget of $42 million. Every year, Cruz's projects became larger and more diverse, although the actors still focused on action films such as sports and military dramas. The next picture in which Cruz played was a surprise for many who closely followed the actor's career. In 1994, the film Interview with a Vampire was released. It was a gothic drama in the horror genre directed by Neil Jordan, based on Anne Rice's 1976 novel of the same name. The big-budget movie adaptation received an all-star cast. Therefore, Tom Cruz was on the set with another handsome Brad Pitt, who was becoming increasingly popular. They performed together as the main roles of the novel as Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pont-de-Lac. Why did Tom decide to play a role in that movie? I just love scary movies and I've had a fascination with vampires, and I loved the book Interview with a Vampire. Just sounded like it's a great character, a fun character to play. Filming was not easy for Tom. Actors playing vampires had to hang upside down for up to 30 minutes during makeup, and the blood rushed to their heads in that position, causing the blood vessels in their faces to swell. Then, the makeup artists highlighted the swollen veins, creating an eerie look with translucent skin. The poor devils had to repeat the process several times as the blood quickly flowed back. Because of that, the makeup process took a very long time. Cruz spent three and a half hours in the makeup chair every day. On the set, Tom again got into an awkward position because of his height. The actor had to occupy elevations to reduce the difference in height with other vampires during some scenes. In addition, during the filming, tension arose between Tom Cruz and Brad Pitt due to Pitt's allegedly poor personal hygiene. According to Cruz, his film colleague did not use deodorant, and because of that, the smell of sweat became noticeable. But how true that was, we probably won't know in any way. Tom Cruz prepared for the role of Lestat by watching videos of lions attacking zebras in the wild. By the way, Johnny Depp was offered that role before Tom Cruz, but he refused. You can find out information about Johnny, his career and difficult relationships in our separate biographical video. Click on the pop-up card if you are interested. The film was well-received, although initially the author of the novel, Anne Rice, criticized the casting of Cruz for the role of Lestat. Later, when she saw the film, she was pleasantly surprised and even apologized to Tom. She paid $7,740 for a two-page advertisement for the film in Daily Variety, in which she praised his performance and apologized for doubting him. The film got $223 million and was awarded an Oscar nomination for Best Art Production and Best Original Soundtrack. Since then, Tom Cruz has been sending Kirsten Dunst a coconut cake with pieces of white chocolate every Christmas. Dunst calls it the Cruz Cake, which she is always happy to receive. The actress admits that the cake never stays longer than a day. Meanwhile, until the beginning of 1996, the filming of perhaps the most significant picture in Cruz's career took place. Participation in that particular film would become the most recognizable role of Tom Cruz and would probably forever fix the image of a top agent named Ethan Hunt for him. Mission Impossible, directed by Brian De Palma, became both a continuation of the 1966 TV series and its reinterpreted sequel. Tom Cruz was the first producer of the film in which he played the main role. Paramount Pictures owned the rights to the TV series and tried to shoot a full movie for years but could not come up with a viable interpretation. Tom Cruz had been a fan of the show since he was young and thought it was a good idea for his next movie. The actor chose Mission Impossible as the first project of his new production company and convinced Paramount to allocate a budget of $80 million. Cruz and his production partner Paula Wagner worked on the story for several months with director Sidney Pollack before the actor hired Brian De Palma for the production. Cruz met De Palma while working on Interview with a Vampire. It happened during dinner with Steven Spielberg. The actor was impressed by De Palma's filmography, so when he returned home, he watched all the director's films and convinced himself to hire De Palma for Mission Impossible. I loved the TV series when I was growing up. I loved the music, and to be able to turn it into a feature film and really take it from a Cold War series to this, to bring it to modern audiences and cinema as something that is there without a doubt the most challenging films to produce, the challenging films to make. The process of working on the script was not easy. The idea was repeatedly revised. The initial and final episodes were rewritten by Steve Zivilian, David Knopp, and Robert Towne, and the dialogues were finalized for a long time by Willard Hayek and Gloria Katz. Only the main plot remained unchanged. The journey that Ethan Hunt and his team go through, it is an odyssey and definitely inspired and reflective of that story. It's an epic tale. It's a personal tale, and there's incredibly huge stakes, emotional stakes, I think, for the characters. De Palma convinced Cruise to shoot the first act of the film in Prague because it was a city that was rarely seen in Hollywood films at that time. The management wanted to save the budget, but Tom wanted a spectacular and impressive action movie. However, they still managed to save part of the Although some of them were really dangerous, the thirst for extremes finally got the upper hand over the actor. For example, during the filming of the famous scene in which Tom Cruise fell from the ceiling and hovered a few inches above the ground, his head kept hitting the floor until he came up with the idea to put coins in his shoes for balance. The seedy trick that Tom Cruise did to fool the Jean Reno character was a real sleight-of-hand trick, without editing. The scene in the restaurant with glass walls and a giant aquarium with lobsters in the middle was Cruise's idea. De Palma tried to shoot that scene with a stuntman, but it didn't look real, and he allowed Cruise to do it, even despite the possibility that the actor might drown. Mission Impossible was released on May 22, 1996, and broke the record on the premiere day of the screening with $11.8 million ahead of Terminator 2 Judgment Day. Tom Cruise refused his usual $20 million fee in favor of a significant percentage of the box office. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert rated the film well, and wrote, This is a movie that exists in an instant, and we have to exist in an instant to enjoy it. However, some actors of the original series were dissatisfied with the reinterpretation of their characters. Thanks to the success, the picture would make a series of spry thrillers, and Mission Impossible and Tom Cruise would return to the role of Ethan Hunt. In the same year, the romantic comedy-drama Jerry Maguire was released, where Cruise acted with It was another film for Tom that was a financial success, and critics praised the acting and the script. The movie was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Actor. It was Tom Cruise's second nomination. In addition, the film got three Golden Globe nominations, one of which was received by Cruise. At the same time, the actor was considered for the main role in the sci-fi thriller The Matrix, which, as a result, went to Keanu Reeves. In 1998, Tom Cruise won a court case against the British tabloid Daily Express, which claimed that his marriage to Kidman was a fiction to hide his homosexuality. Over time, the courts would become a usual thing for the actor. A year later, Tom reappeared on screen with Nicole Kidman in their third joint film, Eyes Wide Shut. It was an erotic detective psychological drama by Stanley Kubrick. Unfortunately, the director died six days after showing the final version of the film to Cruise and Kidman and the management of Warner Bros. Pictures. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman had signed indefinite contracts, agreeing to work on the project until Stanley Kubrick released them, no matter how long it took. The couple lived in the UK for so long because of the protracted filming that their two children acquired an English accent. Director Stanley Kubrick joined psychoanalysis sessions with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to prepare his stars for their roles. He forced them to confess their fears about the relationship and their real marriage. According to Kidman, it was extremely honest and blurred the line between them and their fictional characters. Both have vowed never to reveal what they discussed during those sessions. Unfortunately, psychoanalysis did not help the couple to maintain a relationship, but you will find out that a little bit later. One day, director Paul Thomas Anderson visited the set where he offered Tom Cruise to play the supporting role of Frank T.J. Mackie in Magnolia. Tom was a fan of Anderson's previous movie Boogie Nights and agreed. The film was released the same year and Cruise received another Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. A year later, Tom returned to the role of Ethan Hunt in the second part of Mission Impossible 2. He performed most of the dangerous stunts on his own, despite the studio's concern for his safety. In the opening scene, Tom climbed on his own at Dead Horse Point State Park in Moab, Utah. He did not want to remove that scene from the film and performed the trick only with a climbing harness, not having an insurance net under him. Performing a jump from one part of the cliff to another, Tom tore his shoulder. The film became the highest-grossing movie of 2000 and Tom Cruise received the MTV Movie Award for his efforts. The following year, Cruise starred in the romantic thriller Vanilla Sky with Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. That was an English-language adaptation of the Spanish film Alejandro Cruz said, During that period, the public was shocked by the news that Cruise was divorcing Nicole Kidman. The couple did not disclose the reasons for the breakup, but many suspected that it was because of Cruise's fascination with Scientology. By the time Nicole and Tom Cruise's marriage went wrong, the actor was not just an adept of the Church of Scientology, but its face. There is simply no more famous follower of this doctrine in the world than Cruise, and it's no coincidence. It was rumored in closed circles that David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology, specifically kept Tom in his pocket, creating the illusion around him that he was helpless without religion. Kidman, in turn, is a diligent Catholic, which is simply unthinkable for a leading Scientologist. Moreover, Kidman's father is a psychologist who has repeatedly pointed out to his daughter the strange behavior of her husband. Because the actress was madly in love with Tom, she tried to join the Church of Scientology for him, but left in 1997. It was rumored that the actress began to interfere with Tom's rituals, disrupted his meditations, and expressed suspicions that his Church was using him. It is difficult and even impossible to figure out where the truth is and where the fiction of conspiracy theory lovers is. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Nicole would say that she was locked up during her marriage to Tom. She admitted that she was too young for a long marriage. She got together with Tom when she was only 23 years old, and by the time Nicole turned 27, she and Tom had already adopted their two children. She compared that condition to being in a bubble. As a result of the difficult divorce, the children remained with their father and the Church. That led to a strained relationship with their foster mother. Looking back in an interview with The Sun, Nicole would say, Motherhood is about the journey. There are going to be incredible peaks and valleys, whether you are an adopting mother or a birth mother. What a child needs is love. Despite the divorce, the actor tried to be a good father. After the opening ceremony of the 2002 Oscars, Tom did not stay for the rest of the awards ceremony because it was his turn to look after his and Nicole Kidman's children. He left the Kodak Theater through the back door after the opening of the event and rushed home to watch the rest of the event on TV with Connor and Isabella. During the divorce process, Cruz managed to start a romantic relationship with his colleague in the film Vanilla Sky, Penelope Cruz. They would meet for three years before breaking up in 2004. In 2002, Tom starred in the science fiction action dystopian Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the Minority Report by Philip K. Dick. Tom's partner on the set at that time was Colin Farrell. The picture became one of the most popular in 2002 and was nominated for an Oscar and also received as many as 11 nominations for the Saturn Award. The next year, Tom was again a success for his role in the historical thriller by Edward Zwick, The Last Samurai. The actor was nominated for a Golden Globe. In 2004, Cruz received critical acclaim for his role of Vincent in the film Collateral, directed by Michael Mann. A year later, the actor returned to work with Steven Spielberg on the film adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel War of the Worlds. Working with Steven Spielberg, which, it is a creative combustion. It's not an analytical, it's not a mechanical process, it's an inspired process. This was the fastest pre-production and scale of this film is the largest scale that I've ever been a part of. While filming underwater scenes, Steven Spielberg pranked Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning by playing dramatic music from another of his films, Jaws, through massive underwater speakers. War of the Worlds was nominated for many awards, including the Oscar and Saturn. But the reaction of critics to Tom Cruise's acting turned out to be so bipolar that the actor received nominations for the Saturn Award and for the Golden Raspberry. That's not to say that Tom's performance in the movie was bad, but what do you think? You can share your opinion in the comments. Anyway, the audience loved Tom and therefore, in the same year, the actor was awarded the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Movie Star and the MTV Generation Award. After the filming, Steven Spielberg stated that he would never make a film with Tom Cruise again because of his connection with the Scientology Church. It's not surprising because Tom tried to involve the director in that. Spielberg was neither the first nor the last one whom the actor tried to involve in Scientology. Other celebrities, including James Packer, Victoria and David Beckham, Jada Pinkett, Will Smith, were tried to be involved too. In addition to promoting various programs that introduced people to Scientology, Cruise campaigned for Scientology to be recognized as religion in Europe. In 2005, the actor lobbied French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Senate President Jean-Claude Godin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to recognize the Church in the United Kingdom as a tax-exempt non-profit organization. Cruise also personally lobbied for Scientology among Bush administration officials. Now, Tom Cruise is one of the most famous Scientologists in Hollywood. Scientology is a rather controversial religion, which has both many fans and opponents. Cruise claims that the teachers of this church are practically saving the world. In an interview, the actor admitted that he suffered from dyslexia at an early age, and Scientology helped him overcome the disease. Those who left the church spoke quite differently about the church. Some mentioned Cruise himself in their stories. For example, the actress Leah Remini, who left the church in 2013 and actively criticized it, spoke about Cruise as follows. I think it's time for people to start waking up to the real facts here. Tom has, for years, manipulated his image to be the good guy. Although I believe there was a time when Tom was a decent and kind-hearted person, he has morphed himself into David Miscavige and is completely dedicated to Scientology's mission to clear planet Earth, which means making 80% of the world's population into Scientologists. According to rumors, Cruise's next bride was helped to be chosen by the Scientology church in order to avoid previous mistakes with Nicole Kidman. The brethren in religion introduced Cruise to the actress Nazanin Baniyadi. The couple met for a few months, after which they broke up. Shortly after that, at one of the Hollywood parties, a girl accidentally knocked over a glass of champagne on Tom. It was like in the movies, they felt a spark and soon they began dating. That girl, as you already understood, was called Katie Holmes. She had been in love with Cruise since her youth and even had a poster of the actor in her room. Their relationship developed rapidly. A month later, Cruise publicly declared his love for Holmes on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and in October of 2005, the actors announced they were expecting a child. Tom Cruise was thrilled about the upcoming birth of his third child. He was so excited that he bought an ultrasound machine that cost about $200,000. The American Institute of Ultrasound and Medicine condemned Tom, noting that the purchase was inappropriate and violated FDA regulations regarding the sale of medical equipment. In response, Cruise promised to donate the device to the hospital after Katie gave birth. On October 18 of the next year, the couple had a daughter named Suri. A week later, Tom was still emotional. In an interview with 20-20, he said, It was everything that we wanted it to be. It was spiritual. It was powerful. It was indescribable. Six months later, Tom proposed to Katie at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. On November 18, Holmes and Cruise were married at Odescalci Castle in Bracchiano, in a Scientology ceremony to which many Hollywood stars were invited. David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology, was Tom Cruise's best man, like a best friend. Katie, who grew up in a religious family of Baptist Christians, got his religion for the love of Tom and began to go to his church with him. At the same time, Tom continued to build his career. In 2006, the actor returned to his spy series and the sequel Mission Impossible 3. The film was more positively received by critics than the previous parts of the series and grossed almost 400 million dollars at the box office. Meanwhile, Premier magazine named Cruise the most influential actor in Hollywood, as Cruise took 13th place in the magazine's power list, becoming the actor with the highest rating. In the same year, Forbes magazine named him the most influential celebrity in the world. On October 10, 2006, Tom Cruise Day was announced in Japan. The Japan Memorial Day Association said he was honored with a special day because of his love for Japan and his close connection with it. The following year, Tom played a minor role in the war drama Lions for Lambs, which failed the box office. That was followed by an unrecognizable performance as Les Grossman in the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder. The partners on the set were Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., and the director was also Ben Stiller. Cruise got another Golden Globe nomination thanks to that project. Also that year, Tom played the main role in the historical political military thriller Valkyrie, which was a commercial success. Between 2002 and 2009, Tom Cruise was nominated for seven Saturn Awards, winning once. In general, this can be considered the best period in the actor's career. Nine out of ten films in which he starred over a decade were commercially successful at the box office and got over $100 million. Well, the quest for truth and excellence in both characters and stories are a goal of every actor. And nowhere is that quest better exemplified than in the dedicated actors. In the summer of 2010, the comedy Night and Day was released. It was the second joint work with Cameron Diaz after Vanilla Sky. Then Tom Cruise again played the role of Ethan Hunt on the screen in the fourth part of Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol. In that film, Tom Cruise performed some unimaginable tricks of his own. For example, holding onto a safety rope, Tom, at a height of several hundred meters, jumped on the facade of the high-rise building named Burj Khalifa at the level of about the 130th floor. And that was at the age of 49, while young actors were filming on a green screen with stuntmen. It's crazy. The film made a record amount for the series of $694.7 million from the release. In mid-2011, Cruise started filming the jukebox musical comedy Rock of Ages, which failed at the box office despite an extremely successful start. At that time, Tom was already working on the film adaptation of the novel by British writer Lee Childs, One Shot. The actor played the role of Jack Reacher in the film of the same name, although again, he almost suffered due to the height. Some fans of the series of novels actively spoke out against the casting of Cruise due to the fact that the actor's height did not match the characteristic of Reacher in the novels. The original author defended Cruise, saying, Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way. With another actor, you might get 100% of the height, but only 90% of Reacher. With Tom, you'll get 100% of Reacher with 90% of the height. The film was positively received by critics and collected $218 million, thereby ensuring the possibility of continuing the series. On June 29, 2012, Katie Holmes filed for divorce from Cruise. Many believe that it happened because of the desire of the actress to put herself and the child out of the Church of Scientology. There is an interesting fact. By a strange coincidence, all three of Cruise's wives filed for divorce at the age of 33. Cruise was having a hard time breaking up. Colleagues in the set of the film Oblivion, in which the actor starred at that time, said that one of the most famous actors on the planet at that time looked like one of the saddest people on Earth. As a result of the divorce process, Cruise did not receive custody of his daughter at all, and because of that, refused the visitation rights offered to him. Tom provides quite a large amount for the child. He pays more than $33,000 a month for the care of Suri. In 2013, Joseph Kaczynski's science fiction film Oblivion, based on the director's graphic novel of the same name, was released. Cruise has been showing interest in the film for a long time. The most difficult scene on the set was when Tom's character took a break to admire the view and water a flower. It was shot when Cruise was sitting on an 800-foot or 240-meter cliff at the top of Iceland's Jalhartur on the route of Langokul, which is accessible only from a helicopter. The film received slightly mixed reviews from critics, but got a pretty good box office. Then, Tom starred in the sci-fi action movie Edge of Tomorrow with Emily Blunt. The film was an adaptation of the 2004 Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Warner Bros. spent over $100 million just to advertise the film, but it was worth it. The movie received positive reviews from critics who praised the plot, direction, action, and performance of Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. In 2015, Cruise starred in the fifth part of Mission Impossible, Rogue Nation, where Simon Pegg as Benji and Jeremy Renner as William Brant also returned. We can also guess that the stuntmen did not return there again. Tom continued to amaze the audience with his courage and recklessness, performing incredibly dangerous stunts. For example, there was a scene in the film when The actor was told how a movie scene should look like and that it would not work to shoot it live, but Cruise said that they should try. He was offered to replace him with a stuntman, but he just wanted to do it himself. And he did, being attached only by a meter-long rope. The first thing the 53-year-old actor thought about when the plane took off was, Holy ----, I'm really doing this! The film did not break the box office record of the previous part but showed a quite similar result. In 2017, Tom Cruise starred in the relaunch of Boris Karloff's horror film The Mummy from 1932. In the movie, Tom Cruise played the role of U.S. Army Sergeant Nick Morton, a soldier of fortune who accidentally unearthed the ancient tomb of the trapped Egyptian princess Amen. Although the new film adaptation of The Mummy received negative reviews and wasn't much success at the box office. The following year, Tom reprised the role of Ethan Hunt in the sixth film of the series Mission Impossible – Fallout. Each time, the actor's tricks, which he performed himself, became more and more dangerous because in that part, Tom made a jump from an airplane from a At the time of filming, the actor was 56 years old. There were also injuries. In one scene, Tom made a jump from the roof of one building to another, between which were 5 to 6 meters. However, the actor did not reach it and hit his foot into the wall of the building, holding with hands and hanging out on it. Cruise would tell later, in The Graham Norton Show, I knew I broke it instantly. And I just, uh, run past camera, we got the shot. The film was more positively received by critics than the previous parts of the series and grossed more than $791 million, updating the franchise's box office record. It was not surprising that thanks to such a success of the series, two more planned sequels await us. During the filming of Mission Impossible 7, Tom Cruise was spotted on the roof of a train that was moving at a speed of 60 miles or 97 kilometers per hour. It's scary to imagine what kind of madness he will agree to for the sake of the eighth movie. Meanwhile, in May of 2020, it was reported that Cruise will play the main role and produce a film shot in outer space. Doug Liman will be the director, screenwriter, and co-producer of the film. Together with Cruise, they will go to the International Space Station as part of the upcoming Axiom space mission on SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft. Now, in the near future, the premiere of Tom Cruise's new project Top Gun Maverick will take place. Director Joseph Kaczynski has already worked with the actor on Oblivion, and now he has worked on the sequel to the original 1986 film. The film was supposed to be released in 2019, but was repeatedly postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of which it is going to be released in 2022. Cruise often gets into some scandalous stories. In May of 2001, the actor filed a lawsuit against gay porn actor Chad Slater. He told celebrity magazine ActuStar that he had an affair with Tom Cruise. Tom rejected that statement and the court ordered Slater to pay him $10 million. The case dragged on, but after two years, the porn actor said that his story was a lie. Cruise also sued the publisher of Bold magazine, Michael Davis, requesting $100 million for claiming that he had a sex video with the actor, proving that Cruise was gay. The lawsuit was dismissed in exchange for Davis' public statement that Tom Cruise was not in the video and that the actor was heterosexual. In October of 2012, Cruise filed a lawsuit against InTouch and Life & Style magazines for defamation. They claimed that Cruise left his six-year-old daughter. During the settlement of the dispute, Tom stated that he had not seen his daughter for 110 days due to the workload of filming. The lawsuit was settled. It happened, of course, that Cruise himself had thrown oil on the fire. In January of 2004, the actor made a very ambiguous statement. There, he added that he could not believe that electroshock therapy was still being used. Cruise thinks it's definitely doing more harm than good. The very same statement raised a lot of noise, especially among actors who attend psychotherapy sessions. However, the controversial religion of the Church of Scientology refuses to accept psychiatry as a legitimate form of self-improvement. Later, in 2005, Cruise openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using Paxil, paroxetine. It was an antidepressant to which she attributes her recovery from postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter. Cruise argued that there was no such thing as a chemical imbalance and that psychiatry was a form of pseudoscience. In response, Shields said that Cruise should continue to save the world from aliens and allow women experiencing postpartum depression to decide for themselves which treatment options are right for them. That led to a huge debate between Cruise and Matt Lauer on the NBC Today program. In August of the following year, Cruise visited the actress at her home and personally apologized to Shields for his comment. Touched by that gesture, she accepted Cruise's apology. In May of 2021, after a scandal and controversy surrounding the Golden Globe Awards broke out, the actor returned three of his Golden Globes to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In particular, the reason for that was the lack of diversity, the absence of people from BME and ethical issues related to financial benefits for some members of the award. Tom Cruise shows his love for extreme sports not only on the set of films. The actor enjoys skydiving, scuba diving, and piloting his Pitt Special S-2B stunt plane. He owns and operates a World War II P-51 Mustang with the inscription Montana Miss. He later changed it to Kiss Me Kate. Once on the show The Late Late Show with James Corden, the actor jumped with a parachute together with the host James Corden from a height of 12,000 feet or 3,657 meters. The actor has several houses. He lives moving between Beverly Hills in California, Clearwater in Florida, Dulwich in London, and East Grinstead in West Sussex. Thanks to his friendship with David Beckham, he became a fan of the Spanish football club Real Madrid. Tom Cruise regularly tries to help charities and people who really need help. He made donations, sparing no expense, to the Ashley Flint Fund, the Tsunami Relief Fund, the Diabetes Foundation, the Moms.biz, Hillary Clinton's campaign, and the Church of Scientology. Cruise co-founded and collected donations for Downtown Medical to offer the lifeguards of New York on September 11th detoxification therapy based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard. Tom was criticized by doctors and firefighters, but Scientology leader David Miscavige awarded the actor the Scientology Freedom Medal of Valor award at the end of 2004. Also, we know the story about Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, and 20 other team members' visit to Lexington, Virginia Dairy Queen during the filming of War of the Worlds. The actor saw a jar with a photo of Ashley Flint and the story that happened to her. Flint got into a go-kart accident, leaving her family with a mountain of hospital bills. Tom didn't hesitate to put $5,000 in the jar. Most likely, that was not the last time that Cruise decided to help a stranger. Now, Tom Cruise is filmed less often than before, but films with his participation are still eagerly awaited by fans around the world. We are sure that a lot of good things are waiting for him in the future, both in the vastness of cinematography and beyond. We know that there are no boundaries for Tom Cruise. His films have grossed over $4 billion in North America and over $10.1 billion worldwide, making Tom Cruise one of the highest-grossing stars of all time. Surprisingly, with all his experience with blockbusters and the skill to attract big-box offices, Cruise has not yet starred in any Marvel movie, although he could. Not everyone knows, but Marvel planned to shoot Iron Man back in the 90s, and then it was Cruise who was the main contender for the cult role. But the work had reached a dead end. But that was probably for the best, because the picture would have most likely become a failure. Why are we so sure of this? Why didn't filmmakers create high-quality comic book adaptations in the 80s and 90s? Click on the icon on your screen, and you will find out about how movie comics have developed and why they have not lost their popularity over the years. This has been the Biographer. Thanks for watching this video till the end. You can like it, and we are already planning something new for you. See you soon.