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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.
A powerful man who started out an average person like you or I and
became a superstar.
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 movies 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.
Rain Man is widely considered to be Tom's best acting role, and
his breakthrough as a serious actor.
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.
In his next thriller, The Firm, Tom earned just as much success
in another role as a lawyer.
After the Firm he starred in the Anne Rice film Interview With the
Vampire as the vampire Lestat.
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 in 1996 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. After Mission: Impossible
it should be fair to say that Tom is one of the most powerful, if
not the most powerful stars in Hollywood.
Tom's next role was as a sports agent in the popular hit Jerry Maguire.
After Maguire, Cruise took a long hiatus from films, during which
time work was done on Eyes Wide Shut, a psychological drama directed
by the late Stanley Kubrick.
Tom Cruise's eyes still light up when he talks about movies even
after a career of his spanning Magnolia with co-stars George C.
Scott.
And then on to the cliff-hanger scen in his latest film, John Woo's
Mission: Impossible 2.
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