30 Fun And Interesting Facts About Tom Cruise

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is an American actor, stuntman and producer. He’s been nominated for three Academy Awards and has won three Golden Globe Awards. He started his career at the age of 19 in the movie Endless Love. Take a look below for 30 more fun and interesting facts about Tom Cruise.

1. Since 1996, Tom Cruise has been well known for his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible movie series.

2. In 2012, he was Hollywood’s highest paid actor. 16 of his movies grossed over $100 million in the United States, and 23 have grossed more than $200 million worldwide.

3. As of September, 2017, Cruise’s movies have grossed more than $3.7 billion at the U.S. and Canadian box offices and more than $9 billion worldwide, making him the eighth highest grossing actor in North America and one of the top grossing actors worldwide.

4. He has won Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture in Drama in 1990 for Born on the Fourth of July, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture in Comedy/Musical in 1997 for Jerry Maguire; and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture in 2000 for Magnolia.

5. Tom Cruise is an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology and its associated social programs, as he credits them for helping him overcome dyslexia.

6. In the 2000’s, his Church affiliated criticisms of psychiatry and anti depressant drugs, particularly for 9/11 rescue workers, and efforts to promote Scientology as a religion in Europe, sparked controversies, as did a leaked video interview of him promoting Scientology.

7. He is the first actor to appear in five consecutive movies, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with the Vampire, Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire, that grossed more than $100 million in the United States.

8. In 1996, after seeing a woman get struck by a car, he accompanied her to the hospital. After learning that she didn’t have insurance, he paid for her emergency room bill, which was $7,000.

9. He described his father as a bully. His father left his mom when Cruise was young and Cruise took up odd jobs like mowing neighbors lawns to help his mom pay the bills.

10. During the late 1980’s, Cruise, with Julia Roberts, was approached to be the leads in an adaption of John Carter of Mars, which eventually become the box office failure starring Taylor Kitsch.

11. He earned his pilot’s license in 1994.

12. Cruise improvised the iconic Risky Business scene when he dances in his underwear. It was shot in half a day and the scene started with only one line in the script: “Joel dance sin underwear through the house.”

13. He missed his high school graduation ceremony because he was acting in a production of Godspell.

14. Cruise’s first wife was actress Mimi Rogers.

15. Actress Nicole Kidman was his wife for 11 years. They divorced in 2001.

16. Cruise was raised in a devout Catholic household and he initially wanted to become a priest. When he was 14 years old, he even attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati on a scholarship.

17. In 1994, he was awarded the Man of the Year award by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Club, which is known for its production featuring Harvard men in drag. He accepted the award wearing a bra and heels.

18. He became interested in acting when he won the lead in a high school production of Guys and Dolls.

19. Costar Paul Newman got Tom Cruise interested in car racing while filming The Color of Money, and he went on to race on Newman’s team.

20. In 1998, he saved a woman being mugged in London when he chased away the attackers with his bodyguards.

21. While working on getting his big break, Cruise worked as a bus boy, porter and he cleaned tables. Later, he studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

22. He’s of Irish, German and English ancestry. His Irish heritage dates back 840 years. There are knights, barons and rebels in the Cruise family tree.

23. Cruise has visited Japan so many times that the country awarded him with his very own “Tom Cruise Day,” which is celebrated in Japan on October 10th.

24. He reportedly refuses to sign onto a movie unless the producers let him do his own stunts. In Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, he hung off the side of a plane in flight and held his breath for nearly six minutes underwater.

25. Cruise was forced to leave his school’s wrestling team after suffering from a knee injury, and discovered acting with his new found free time.

26. He damaged his front teeth playing hockey as a kid and he was so insecure about his teeth that he avoided photo shoots. In 2002, he got adult braces to fix his smile.

27. In his 2010 Top Hear appearance, Cruise had the fastest lap on the celebrity leaderboard, nearly flipping his car in the process.

28. Tom Cruise and Emilio Estevez were friends prior to filming The Outsiders, and they showed up to audition for the movie together.

29. Tom Cruise has been married three time and he split from each of those wives when they turned 33.

30. When he was 10 years old, Cruise spent his savings on a motorcycle, which he fixed up before crashing between two cars. The bike was a Yamaha and he stored it in his basement while he worked on it.

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