Tom Cruise is among the upper echelon of talent in Hollywood. His films take in
hundreds of millions of dollars and his fans also number in the millions. This is the
story of a powerful man who started out an average person like you or I and became a
superstar. Tom Cruise was born on July 3, 1962. He lived his early life in the small town
of Syracuse, New York, and in Ottawa, Canada. This is where he first learned of acting at
this young age. As a teenager Tom's movies, ads, and tv roles attracted the attention of
many fans and he earned the status of a teenage "hunk". In 1981 Cruise started
his Hollywood film career as an actor. This is when he starred in the movie Endless Love,
and Taps. At this point he was
more than just a teen star with a relatively small cult following... he was taking the
first step towards becoming a superstar. Two years later Cruise starred in Risky Business as a young man about
to enter college. His parents were away for the weekend and he was about to have the time
of his life. This movie made Tom Cruise, this was what brought in his core fans. Those
fans, of course, being mostly young women interested in his sex appeal on the big screen.
He dressed up in shades and underwear in one particular scene and danced around to the
song "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll". His next movie was All The Right Moves, which did well
at the box office and increased his status as an actor. And then Legend in 1985 which did
very poorly. Top Gun was the
ultimate move for Tom Cruise. Taking on this role as the defiant navy jet pilot Maverick
he increased his fans to include a larger amount of men. In his next few roles Cruise
would play similar characters to Maverick. Those type of characters being young, cocky
exciting people that could relate to the viewer of the movie. Cruises next movies were Cocktail, The Color Money, and Days of Thunder. In these movies Tom
played similar roles to that of Maverick and continued his appeal to a broad range of
audiences. In The Color of Money he went for a deeper role and gained respect among
critics for this role. Rain Man is
widely considered to be Tom's best acting role. Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July gave Tom
a nomination for a best actor oscar due to the strong and powerful role of Ron Kovic, an
activist fighting against the war. The only real mistake other than Legend that Tom made
was the movie Far and Away, which
was directed by Ron Howard and co-starring his wife Nicole Kidman. Fortunately a downward
spiral into unpopulartity was avoided when Tom starred in A Few Good Men with Jack Nicholson.
Tom played a lawyer out to find the truth. "You can't handle the truth!" In his
next thriller, The Firm Tom earned
just as much success in another role as a lawyer. After the Firm he starred in Interview With the Vampire which
gained as much success as his past movies. After this string of successful movies Tom has
become a much sought after actors by studios. In Interview With a Vampire he earned over
20 million dollars for his role. Mission:
Impossible opened in theatres on May 22 with a new record for sales in it's first 6
days. Tom both starred in and payed for parts of Mission: Impossible on his own. It
is fair to say that Tom is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful star in
Hollywood. Tom's role in Eyes Wide
Shut is his most recent work, due out in 1999. Following is a listing of his
films:
