Tom Cruise Biography

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TOM CRUISE (Producer) has blazed a meteoric trail of success as an actor, producer, and humanitarian in an unparalleled career that spans two decades. A three-time Academy Award® nominee, the combined force of his work on film as both an actor and producer has earned more than six billion dollars at the box office worldwide.

Cruise's most recent film, the international blockbuster “War of the Worlds,” set new career highs for largest opening day, largest opening weekend, largest single day, and largest total worldwide gross. “War of the Worlds” marked Cruise's second collaboration with director Steven Spielberg; in 2002, Cruise starred in Spielberg's futuristic thriller, “Minority Report.”

Under the banner of Cruise|Wagner productions - which Cruise formed in 1993 with his partner, Paula Wagner - Cruise is currently filming the third installment of the blockbuster “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which has grossed over one billion dollars worldwide to date.

Cruise made his feature film debut in 1981 at the age of 19 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.

Cruise followed up on the tremendous success of “Top Gun” with a string of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including “The Color of Money” (1986), co-starring Paul Newman; “Rain Man” (1988), co-starring Dustin Hoffman; and director Oliver Stone's “Born of the Fourth of July” (1989), for which Cruise received an Academy Award nomination and his first Golden Globe for Best Actor. In 1992, Cruise starred with Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men,” for which he received his third Golden Globe nomination. He starred in the legal thriller “The Firm” in 1993 and in “Interview with the Vampire” in 1994.

In 1996 Cruise starred in and produced the blockbuster “Mission: Impossible” which was followed the same year by Cameron Crowe's highly acclaimed “Jerry Maguire,” for which Cruise earned a second Academy Award nomination and a second Golden Globe for Best Actor. In 1999, Cruise earned a third Academy Award nomination and won his third Golden Globe, for Best Supporting Actor, for his powerful performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's ensemble drama, “Magnolia.” That same year, he starred in Stanley Kubrick's final film, the psychological thriller “Eyes Wide Shut,” bringing a range of diverse projects from both new and established talent to the screen.

In 1997, C|W received the Nova Award for Most Promising Producers in Theatrical Motion Pictures. Since that time Cruise|Wagner Productions has gone on to release a host of critically acclaimed films, including “Without Limits,” “Mission: Impossible 2”, “Shattered Glass,” “Narc” and “The Others.” In 2003, Cruise and Wagner, along with Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, produced “The Last Samurai,” which grossed over half a billion dollars worldwide. Cruise's performance in the film earned him a sixth Golden Globe nomination. “The Last Samurai” received a Producers Guild of America nomination for Best Picture and was named one of the top 10 films of the year by both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.

Cruise has been the recipient of countless awards and tributes, reflecting both critical and commercial recognition within the industry, and the broad popular support of audiences worldwide. This November, Cruise will receive the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for excellence in film from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts. He was recently honored with the MTV Generation Award, which celebrated Cruise as the actor of his generation. And, 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 two Chicago Film Critics Awards, for “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Magnolia”; a Saturn Award for “Vanilla Sky”; a Blockbuster Award for “Magnolia”; and MTV Awards for “Jerry Maguire” and “Mission: Impossible II.”

Other tributes Cruise has received include Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award, the John Huston Award from the Artists Rights Foundation, the American Cinema Award for Distinguished Achievement in Film, and the American Cinematheque Award.