More Tom Cruise Bios & Profiles
The most recent Tom Cruise biography is published on the main page.
Biography #2 (for Lions for Lambs)
Tom Cruise has achieved unprecedented success as an actor, producer, and philanthropist in a career spanning two decades. He is a three-time Academy Award nominee whose films have earned in excess of six billion dollars worldwide, an achievement no other actor has come close to. Cruise was most recently seen reprising his role as special agent Ethan Hunt in the J.J. Abrams directed Mission Impossible: 3. As with the previous installments of the billion dollar franchise, Cruise also served as producer of the film, which grossed nearly $400 million worldwide. Cruise will next be seen in suspense-drama Valkyrie, directed by Bryan Singer and written by Academy Award Winner Christopher McQuarrie, the team behind The Usual Suspects.After 13 years as a producer through his Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise recently added the title of studio executive to his long list of accomplishments when he and his longtime producing partner Paula Wagner took control of the legendary film studio United Artists. Both Lions for Lambs and Valkyrie will be released under the re-born studio's banner.
With Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he founded in 1993, Cruise moved seamlessly into the broader role of producer, bringing a range of diverse projects from new and established talents to the screen. The first film released under the C/W banner was the international hit Mission: Impossible, and in 1997 resulted in the company being honored with the Nova Award for Most Promising Producers in Theatrical Motion Pictures. The company went on to produce the critically acclaimed films Without Limits, Shattered Glass, Narc and the period thriller The Others. The last marked Cruise's first collaboration with director Alejandro Amenabar, whose film Abre Los Ojos became the basis for the C/W production Vanilla Sky, under the direction of Cameron Crowe. The producing team was honored with the UCLA /Producers Guild of America Vision Award. The company also produced Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, released in the Fall of 2005. In total Cruise/Wagner Productions amassed more than $3 billion in worldwide box office sales.
Cruise made his feature film debut in 1981 at the age of nineteen in the romantic drama Endless Love, followed by the critically acclaimed Taps, co-starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, and Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders. His breakout performance in Risky Business earned him his first Golden Globe nomination in 1983. The role of Maverick in Tony Scott's Top Gun catapulted Cruise to international stardom as the film went on to become the highest grossing picture of 1986.
He next starred opposite Paul Newman in Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money, and opposite Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning Rain Man. In 1989, Cruise received his first Academy Award nomination and earned the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his portrayal of Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July, which received a Best Picture nomination.
His performance in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men, opposite Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, led to a third Golden Globe nomination, and in 1997 he received his second Academy Award nomination and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire.
In 1999, Cruise received critical acclaim for his powerful performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's ensemble drama Magnolia, earning a third Academy Award nomination and his third Golden Globe, for Best Supporting Actor. That same year, he starred in Stanley Kubrick's final and most commercially successful film, the psychological thriller Eyes Wide Shut. His additional screen credits include Ron Howard's epic Far and Away, Sydney Pollack's legal thriller The Firm, Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, based on the bestselling novel by Anne Rice, the critically acclaimed box-office hit Collateral from director Michael Man, and The Last Samurai. In 2005, Cruise teamed with director Steven Spielberg for the remake of Orson Welles' sci-fi epic War of the Worlds. It marked Cruise's second collaboration with Spielberg, having starred in Spielberg's futuristic thriller Minority Report in 2002.
Cruise has been the recipient of numerous awards and tributes, reflecting both critical and commercial recognition within the industry and the broad popular support of audiences worldwide. In addition to his films resulting in worldwide box-office totals in excess of $6 billion, his last 14 films have grossed $100 million in domestic receipts alone, with the last seven consecutive films reaching that benchmark.
Most recently Cruise received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for excellence in film from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, as well as being presented with the MTV Generation Award, which celebrated Cruise as the actor of his generation. In April 2005 Cruise received a David di Donatello award for lifetime achievement. He has been honored twice by the People's Choice Awards, and received two Screen Actors Guild nominations for his work in Jerry Maguire and Magnolia. He was recognized by the Chicago Film Festival as the ‘Actor of the Decade' in 1993, and earned the NATO/SHOWEST Meritorious Achievement Award that same year. Cruise has also been honored with a Saturn Award for Vanilla Sky, both the Chicago Film Critics Award and the Blockbuster Award for Magnolia, and an MTV Award for Mission: Impossible 2.
Cruise has also been honored with tributes ranging from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award to the John Huston Award from the Artists Rights Foundation, The American Cinema Award for Distinguished Achievement in Film, and the American Cinematheque Award.
While continuing to explore new artistic challenges, Cruise has utilized his professional successes as a vehicle for positive change, becoming an international advocate, activist, and philanthropist in the fields of health and education. Recently he was honored by the Mentor-LA organization for his work on behalf of the children of Los Angeles and around the world.
Bio courtesy MGM for "Lions for Lambs" (01-Jan-2008)
Biography #3 (for The Last Samurai)
Tom Cruise made his film debut in 1981 with the critically acclaimed Taps and has subsequently experienced a distinguished and distinctive career. He last starred as pre-cog specialist John Anderton in Steven Spielberg's futuristic thriller Minority Report, the latest of his many intriguing, ground-breaking and diverse films. He has collaborated with some of the film industry's most respected directors and actors, including Barry Levinson and co-star Dustin Hoffman in the Academy Award-winning Rain Man; Martin Scorsese in The Color of Money, opposite Paul Newman; Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July; Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire and Vanilla Sky; Ron Howard's Far and Away; Sydney Pollack's The Firm; and Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, to name just a few.In 1983, Cruise won widespread acclaim for his bravura performance in Risky Business, which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. He went on to create one of the most memorable characters of all time, flying ace Maverick, in the highest-grossing film of 1986, Top Gun. In 1989, Cruise received his first Oscar nomination and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Oliver Stone's searing tale of Viet Nam veteran Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July. More accolades and a Golden Globe nomination followed in 1992 with Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men, also starring Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore. In 1996 he received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Jerry Maguire. In 1999, Cruise dazzled audiences and critics alike with his work in P.T. Anderson's ensemble drama Magnolia. His powerful performance earned him his third Academy nomination and his third Golden Globe Award, this time for Best Supporting Actor. That same year he starred in what would be Stanley Kubrick's final film, the psychological thriller Eyes Wide Shut.
Cruise is currently filming Collateral, directed by Michael Mann.
A testament to his critical and popular success, Cruise has received numerous awards, tributes and nominations, including The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, the BAFTA Awards, The Chicago Film Critics Association, The Golden Satellite Awards, The National Board of Review, The People's Choice Awards, The Screen Actors Guild Awards and The Kids' Choice Awards. In 1987, the ShoWest Convention acknowledged Cruise as the Boxoffice Star of the Year and, in 1990, the American Cinema presented him with its Distinguished Achievement Award. He earned Harvard's Hasting Pudding Man of the Year Award in 1994 and the prestigious American Cinematheque Award in 1996. In 1998, the Artists Rights Foundation recognized Cruise with the John Huston Award, an honor bestowed upon those known for safeguarding the integrity of the artistic process.
Cruise is also a successful producer. In 1993, he teamed with Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions, which quickly grew to become one of the industry's leading production companies, known for its commitment to supporting new talent. The first film released under the Cruise/Wagner banner was the 1996 worldwide blockbuster Mission: Impossible. That same year, Cruise/Wagner collaborated with Cameron Crowe on the award-winning Jerry Maguire. In 1997, the Producers Guild of America celebrated Cruise/Wagner with the Nova Award for the Most Promising Producers in Theatrical Motion Pictures. The following year, Cruise/Wagner produced the critically acclaimed film about runner Steve Prefontaine, Without Limits, written by Robert Towne, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Chinatown.
In Cruise/Wagner's 2000 hit sequel Mission: Impossible 2, Cruise reprised his roles both as Agent Ethan Hunt and as a producer. Mission: Impossible 2 gave Cruise/Wagner one of the most successful film franchises in history, grossing over one billion dollars. The company also produced the successful thriller The Others, which marked Cruise's first collaboration, as executive producer, with director Alejandro Amenábar. Amenábar came to Cruise's attention after Cruise saw Amenábar's Spanish romantic thriller, Abre Los Ojos. Cruise/Wagner optioned the project and it eventually became the basis of Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, for which Cruise also starred and produced. He recently served as executive producer on the Billy Ray feature drama Shattered Glass, which screened at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals and premiered at the Hollywood Film Festival.
Cruise/Wagner is currently in pre-production on the third Mission: Impossible installment, to be directed by Joe Carnahan, in addition to Cameron Crowe's upcoming drama Elizabethtown.
Bio courtesy Warner Bros. for "The Last Samurai" (02-Dec-2003)