Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on 3 July 1962 in Syracuse, New York, USA. Tom’s family moved a lot and it’s claimed that he went to more than 10 different schools. When he was 11 years old, his mother left his father and Tom and his three sisters settled with her in New Jersey. He has described his father, who died when Tom was in his early 20s, as a “merchant of chaos”. Cruise claims that as a child he suffered from dyslexia and was a “functional illiterate.”
The young Cruise attended seminary school for a while and planned to become a Catholic priest, but he was struck by the acting bug and moved to New York to follow his career when he was 18. Cruise got his big break 25 years ago in the teen flick Risky Business in 1983. He played a nerdy teenager who hooks up with a prostitute while his parents are away. Tom dated his co-star on the film, Rebecca De Mornay, for two and a half years.
Tom sealed his status as a Hollywood star when he bagged the role of fighter pilot Maverick in 1986’s biggest grossing film, Top Gun, with Kelly McGillis as his leading lady. Top Gun was the quintessential ‘80s movie: hot, buffed young men pumped-up on testosterone, a power ballad that topped the charts and flashy machines that went very fast. It was controversial in some circles, particularly for its glorification of the military and claims that the locker room and volleyball scenes were homoerotic. In 1989 Tom was nominated for a Razzie award for romantic comedy Cocktail, and also starred alongside Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.
Tom married successful ’80s actress Mimi Rogers, who is six years his senior, in 1987 but they divorced less than three years later. Rogers introduced Cruise to the controversial religion Scientology. Tom is now the world’s most famous Scientologist. He caused a stir earlier this year when a Scientology video was leaked featuring Tom hit the internet. Set to a soundtrack of the Mission Impossible theme, during the interview Tom makes a series of bizarre statements including: “Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident… you know you have to do something about it because you know you’re the only one that can really help, ” and, “We are the authorities on getting people off drugs, we are the authorities on the mind, we are the authorities on improving conditions… we can rehabilitate criminals.”
In 1989 Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for his part in Oliver Stone’s Born On The Fourth Of July. Tom met his second wife, up-and-coming Australian actress Nicole Kidman, on the set of ulta-cheesey stock-car racing movie Days Of Thunder, and they married in December 1990. Nicole and Tom adopted two children, Isabella (born 1993) and Connor (born 1995). They starred together in two more films, Far And Away, directed by Ron Howard, and the controversial Eyes Wide Shut, directed by Stanley Kubrick, which featured explicit sex scenes with the couple. They split in August 2001. After Nicole divorced Tom, her career sky-rocketed and she is now one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. She is expecting her first biological child with new husband Keith Urban.
In 1996, Cruise produced and starred in Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, a re-imagining of the ‘60s US TV show of the same name. Cruise returned as the film’s hero Ethan again in 2000 and 2006. In 2002, he teamed up for the with legendary Indiana Jones director Steven Spielberg for the first time on sci-fi thriller Minority Report, which propelled co-star Colin Farrell to A-list status. Tom and Spielberg re-untied on the remake of the HG Wells alien invasion movie, War Of The Worlds.
In 2000, Tom fell for his Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, who starred with him in Vanilla Sky and the pair dated for three years, splitting in March 2004. Tom’s high-profile romance with actress Katie Holmes, who is 16 years his junior, began in April 2005. Katie Holmes shot to fame as Joey Potter in the huge hit teen US television series, Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003. Katie Holmes split from her actor fiance; Chris Klein (American Pie) just a few weeks before she started dating Cruise. Chris and Katie had been together for five years.
I like the size and ease of use of the unit but will be returning it and purchasing a Tom Tom. Sex Films