tom cruise mapother name

Why Tom Cruise Changed His Name When He Got To Hollywood

Tom Cruise is one of the most prominent actors in the world. His films, including "Top Gun" and the "Mission: Impossible" series, have made him a bankable star in Hollywood. That said, Cruise is worth even more than you probably realized , with a staggering net worth of $600 million. Variety reported that Cruise made $100 million alone from his 2022 hit film "Top Gun: Maverick."

Fame and fortune aside, Cruise is also known for his doomed marriages to fellow actors Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes. Born in 1962, acting was not Cruise's first career choice. As a young teen, Cruise was studying for a surprising job as a Catholic priest. However, after starring in the play "Guys and Dolls" in high school, Cruise was bitten by the acting bug. By the time he was 19, he had signed with an agent. He subsequently nabbed a role in the 1981 film "Endless Love" and later gained notoriety with 1983's "Risky Business," which critics now consider to be a cult classic. A string of successful movies followed, including "Top Gun" and "Rain Man."

But, before he was an A-lister, Cruise went by a longer moniker: His birth name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. Early on in his career, he shortened his name. The reason for this? His father was "a merchant of chaos" who would bully his kids, the actor once said (via  Gentleman's Journal ), though Cruise apparently dropped the Mapother name for commercial reasons as well as personal ones.

Tom Cruise's dad was abusive

According to People , an agent suggested that Thomas Cruise Mapother IV change his name to Tom Cruise. Of course, this is nothing new in the entertainment industry. Several stars, including Whoopi Goldberg, Marilyn Monroe, and countless others changed or modified their name before making it big in Hollywood. However, Gentleman's Journal writes that Cruise also decided against using the last name Mapother because he wanted to symbolically cut ties with his father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III.

Per CBS News , Cruise, who is notoriously private, revealed in a 2006 interview with Parade magazine that his father was abusive to him while he was growing up. Cruise told the publication that his father "was a bully and a coward... the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life — how he'd lull you in, make you feel safe, and then, bang!" Cruise's mother, Mary Lee South, divorced him in 1974. Cruise did not see his father again until 1984. By that point, the elder Mapother was on his deathbed.

Cruise explained to Parade that even as he was dying of cancer, his father did not want to discuss "the past." He said, "When I saw him in pain, I thought, 'What a lonely life.' He was in his late 40s. It was sad."

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services .

Tom Cruise's actor cousin kept his last name

Tom Cruise may have had a fractured relationship with his father, but he's not the only celebrity in the Mapother family.  His cousin, William Mapother (pictured above), is also an actor. Unlike Cruise, William professionally uses the surname he was born with. He is best known for starring in the 2001 film "In the Bedroom" opposite Marissa Tomei and Sissy Spacek, as well as the hit J.J. Abrams series "Lost," in which he played Dr. Ethan. He has also worked on several of Cruise's films. These include "Born on the Fourth of July" (which was Mapother's first movie), "Magnolia," "Mission: Impossible II," "Vanilla Sky," and "Minority Report."

William prefers to keep a low-key profile and doesn't like discussing his family. In an interview with HuffPost , he was asked what it was like to have Cruise as a cousin. He replied, "That's one question I'm not going to answer — I don't mind you asking — only because whenever I answer questions about my cousin, it ends up getting spun and misinterpreted. Not by you guys, because I know you'll present exactly what I say, but someone else will take out pieces and you know... It's happened too often." He did say that they are "very close" and that Cruise is "a great guy," but he wouldn't be drawn any further on the matter.

Why Did Tom Cruise Change His Name?

Over the last 40 years, Tom Cruise's name has been prominently featured in the center of billboards and posters for classic films like " Mission Impossible ," "Interview with the Vampire," and "Top Gun." Perhaps, in an alternate universe, a slightly longer name would have been displayed, as Cruise's birth certificate actually reads Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. It's been reported that the "Rain Man" star's talent agent urged him to be credited as Tom Cruise for his projects, presumably due to the name's undeniable catchiness. The agent may have also correctly surmised that Cruise enjoys stunt work, specifically cruising on fast-moving vehicles.

While it does not seem to have been confirmed by the actor, Cruise may have also amended his surname because he is the namesake of his father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III. Cruise stated he harbored resentment toward his father and alleged he inflicted abuse in a 2006  Parade  interview. "He was a bully and a coward. He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life—how he'd lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang! For me, it was like, 'There's something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him,'" stated the star. 

Cruise also shared that his late mother, Mary Lee Pfeiffer, eventually fled from her then-husband. "My mother finally had the courage to stand up to my dad and go, 'No more! I'm not taking it. So long,'" stated the actor. 

Tom Cruise spoke to his father before his death

During the Parade magazine interview, Tom Cruise stated he agreed to have a face-to-face conversation with Thomas Cruise Mapother III in his early 20s after he discovered he had been hospitalized for terminal cancer. The "Top Gun" star shared he found the situation upsetting despite his decade-long estrangement from his father. "When I saw him in pain, I thought, 'Wow, what a lonely life.' He was in his late 40s. It was sad," shared the actor. 

In a 2004  " Inside the Actors Studio " interview, Cruise revealed he gifted his dad a figure in the likeness of Mark Twain's beloved character Tom Sawyer. "It had the music from 'The Sting' on it ... because he and I, we loved that movie. We saw that movie together. I gave him that as a gift, and he laughed," shared Cruise. 

While speaking to Barbara Walters in 1992, Cruise stated that his father asserted that he wanted to get to know him better after his hospital visit. "He said, 'Look, when I get out of here, we'll go out and we'll have a beer. And we'll talk about everything.' And then he died," he related.

While the exact reason for the actor's choice of Hollywood name is unclear, it's difficult to deny that the name Tom Cruise makes a big impact when the credits are rolling.

Tom Cruise’s Family History & the Mapother Name Origin .

If you’re interested in genealogy, a fascinating way to explore it is by researching famous people and their family trees. One celebrity whose ancestry can be traced back to Ireland is Tom Cruise, the actor known for the films Mission Impossible, The Color of Money, and Risky Business, among others.

Cruise’s Irish origins can be traced through the Cruise and Mapother surnames. Read on to discover the extensive research we’ve done on this family line. We’ll explore the family’s history, immigration to the US, and some interesting stories and historical figures from Cruise’s family tree.

What Is Tom Cruise’s Ethnicity?

Tom Cruise’s full name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, after his father, Thomas Mapother III. The paternal side of his family is Irish, though the Mapother surname has early origins in England.

The Mapother name made its first known appearance in Devon several centuries ago, as the family had a seat as Lords of the Manor . There are many known variations of the Mapother name, including Maypowter, Maypower, Mapower, and Mapowder.

Tom Cruise’s Family Roots

The Cruise family made their first appearance in Ireland in the twelfth century. A Cruise was a knight who came to Ireland with the infamous Strongbow, whose invasion led to the English conquest of Ireland.

Afterwards, the Cruises were granted land in north Dublin. They established themselves in the area and remained there for many generations.

They were a well-connected Catholic gentry family who maintained their religion and their status despite the upheavals of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The family intermarried with local gentry families, and one branch became known as the Russell Cruises.

Immigration to the United States

In 1825, Patrick Russell Cruise married Teresa Johnson. Together, the family moved to the United States around 1826. Patrick Cruise’s land was managed indirectly through a local land agent during his time in America.

However, just before the Irish Famine, he became unhappy with the actions of his land agent, who had forced many families out of their homes. Patrick Cruise returned to Ireland around 1843 to give these lands back to his tenants.

The youngest known child of Patrick Russell Cruise was Mary Paulina Russell Cruise, born in New Jersey in 1832. She married Dillon Henry Mapother, an engineer from Dublin, in 1858. They had several children before Dillon died around 1874.

After Mapother’s death, Mary Paulina Mapother married Thomas O’Mara. The couple had one known son, Thomas O’Mara, in 1876. He was Tom Cruise’s great-grandfather.

Thomas O’Mara Senior died between the 1880 and 1890 US censuses. His son assumed the surname Cruise Mapother, as it was the surname of his siblings. Interestingly, if this ancestor hadn’t changed his name, Tom Cruise’s last name would be O’Mara.

Recent Family History

Tom Cruise’s parents, Thomas Mapother III and Mary Lee Pfeiffer were originally from Louisville, Kentucky. They married and had four children: Tom, Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass Cruise.

Tom Cruise was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York. His family relocated to Canada when his father took a job with the Canadian Armed Forces. The Top Gun actor’s parents divorced when he was in sixth grade, and he moved with his mother and sisters back to the US.

Family and Career

Tom Cruise has been married to actress Nicole Kidman, Mimi Rogers, and Katie Holmes. He has two adopted children with Nicole Kidman: Connor and Isabella Cruise. The actor also has a daughter named Suri Cruise with Katie Holmes.

Cruise is known for his activity in the church of Scientology and roles in many well-known films, including the franchise Mission Impossible, Vanilla Sky, and Jerry Maguire. He has won several Golden Globe Awards, among many other accolades for his performances over the years.

Tom Cruise Discusses His Irish Ancestry

On a trip to Ireland in 2013, Tom Cruise discovered more about his Irish family history. Expert genealogists Fiona Fitzsimons and Helen Moss were able to trace his ancestry back as far as the early twelfth century. Watch Tom Cruise discover our research and receive his Certificate of Irish Heritage in the video below.

Cruise has continued to share his delight with our hard work over the years. Watch Tom talk about his Irish family history on Jimmy Kimmel Live in the video below.

Turn to the Experts When Researching Your Irish Roots

Learning about Tom Cruise’s family history may pique your curiosity about your own. Luckily, there are resources available to help you to find as many details on your ancestry as we uncovered on Cruise’s family line.

If you’re interested in researching your Irish family history, the team at Irish Family History Centre can help. Contact us today to learn how we can help you unlock new pieces of your family’s story.

Discover your family history .

Actor Tom Cruise is the star of several box-office hits, including Risky Business , A Few Good Men , The Firm , Jerry Maguire , and the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Who Is Tom Cruise?

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, better known as Tom Cruise, was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, to Mary and Thomas Mapother. Cruise's mother was an amateur actress and schoolteacher, and his father was an electrical engineer. His family moved around a great deal when Cruise was a child to accommodate his father's career.

Cruise's parents divorced when he was 11, and the children moved with their mother to Louisville, Kentucky, and then to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, after she remarried. Like his mother and three sisters, Cruise suffered from dyslexia, which made academic success difficult for him. He excelled in athletics, however, and considered pursuing a career in professional wrestling until a knee injury sidelined him during high school.

At age 14, Cruise enrolled in a Franciscan seminary with thoughts of becoming a priest, but he left after a year. When he was 16, a teacher encouraged him to participate in the school's production of the musical Guys and Dolls . After Cruise won the lead of Nathan Detroit, he found himself surprisingly at home on the stage, and a career was born.

'Taps,' 'The Outsiders'

Cruise set a 10-year deadline for himself in which to build an acting career. He left school and moved to New York City, struggling through audition after audition before landing an appearance in 1981's Endless Love , starring Brooke Shields. Around this same time, he snagged a small role in the military school drama Taps (1981), co-starring Sean Penn .

His role in Taps was upgraded after director Harold Becker saw Cruise's potential, and his performance caught the attention of a number of critics and filmmakers. In 1983, Cruise appeared in Francis Ford Coppola 's The Outsiders , which also starred Emilio Estevez , Matt Dillon and Rob Lowe —all prominent members of a group of young actors the entertainment press dubbed the "Brat Pack." The film was not well received, but it allowed Cruise to work with an acclaimed director on a high-profile project.

'Risky Business'

His next film, Risky Business (1983), grossed $65 million. It also made Cruise a highly recognizable actor — thanks in no small part to a memorable scene of the young star dancing in his underwear.

In 1986, after a two-year hiatus, the budding actor released the big-budget fantasy film Legend , which did poorly at the box office. That same year, however, Cruise's A-list status was confirmed with the release of Top Gun , which co-starred Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan . The testosterone-fueled action-romance, set against the backdrop of an elite naval flight school, became the highest-grossing film of 1986.

'The Color of Money,' 'Rain Man' and 'Born on the Fourth of July'

Cruise followed the tremendous success of Top Gun with a string of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. He first starred in The Color of Money (1986) with co-star Paul Newman , and then went on to work with Dustin Hoffman on Rain Man (1988). Cruise's next role, as Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in the biopic Born on the Fourth of July (1989), earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

'A Few Good Men,' 'The Firm' and 'Interview with a Vampire'

In 1992, Cruise proved once more that he could hold his own opposite a screen legend when he co-starred with Jack Nicholson in the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men . The film grossed more than $15 million its first weekend and earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. He continued to demonstrate his success as a leading man with The Firm (1993) and Interview with a Vampire (1994), which co-starred Brad Pitt.

'Mission: Impossible,' 'Jerry McGuire'

Next, Cruise hit the big screen with two huge hits—the $64 million blockbuster Mission: Impossible (1996), which the star also produced, and the highly acclaimed Jerry McGuire (1996), directed by Cameron Crowe. For the latter, Cruise earned a second Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe for Best Actor.

'Eyes Wide Shut,' 'Magnolia'

Cruise and then-wife Kidman spent much of 1997 and 1998 in England shooting Eyes Wide Shut , an erotic thriller that would be director Stanley Kubrick 's final film. The movie came out in the summer of 1999 to mixed reviews, but that year Cruise enjoyed greater success with the release of Magnolia . His performance as a self-confident sex guru in the ensemble film earned him another Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

'Vanilla Sky,' 'The Last Samurai'

Cruise then starred in the long-awaited smash hit Mission: Impossible 2 in 2000, alongside Anthony Hopkins , Thandie Newton and Ving Rhames. In 2002, he starred in Vanilla Sky , his second collaboration with Crowe, as well as Steven Spielberg 's Minority Report . The following year, Cruise traveled to Australia to shoot the $100 million war epic The Last Samurai, which earned him another Golden Globe nomination.

'War of the Worlds'

Cruise proved he remained a top draw by starring in the Spielberg-directed remake of the science-fiction classic War of the Worlds (2005), which grossed more than $230 million at the box office.

His next effort, Mission: Impossible 3 (2006), also scored well with audiences. However, Cruise was faced with a professional setback in August when Paramount Pictures ended its 14-year relationship with the actor. The company's chairman cited Cruise's erratic behavior and controversial views as the reason for the split, though industry experts noted that Paramount more likely ended the partnership over Cruise's high earnings from the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Cruise quickly rebounded and on November 2, 2006, he announced his new partnership with film executive Paula Wagner and the United Artists film studio. Their first production as a team, the political drama Lions for Lambs (2007), proved a commercial disappointment despite a strong cast that included Meryl Streep and Robert Redford .

'Tropic Thunder'

Taking a break from weighty material, Cruise delighted audiences with his performance in the comedy Tropic Thunder (2008). Despite his relatively small role in a movie that featured Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller , Cruise stood out by obscuring his trademark good looks to play a balding, obese movie studio executive.

'Valkyrie,' 'Rock of Ages'

In December 2008, Cruise released his second project through United Artists. The film, Valkyrie , was a World War II drama about a plot to assassinate German leader Adolf Hitler . Cruise starred as a German army officer who became involved in the conspiracy.

Cruise returned to one of his most popular franchises in 2011 with Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol . Breaking into new territory, he then starred in the 2012 musical Rock of Ages . Although Cruise received some positive reviews for his performance as a rock star, the movie failed to attract much of an audience.

'Jack Reacher,' 'Edge of Tomorrow'

Returning to his mainstream action roots, Cruise starred in the 2012 crime drama Jack Reacher , based on a book by Lee Child. He then headlined a pair of science-fiction adventures, Oblivion (2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014). Showing no signs of slowing down, the veteran actor in 2015 delivered his usual high-energy performance for the fifth installment of his blockbuster franchise, Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation .

Latest Movies and Familiar Franchises

In 2016, Cruise reprised the role of Jack Reacher for Never Go Back . He then headlined a reboot of The Mummy (2017), which performed respectably at the box office but was savaged by critics, before earning better reviews later that year for the crime thriller American Made .

2018 brought a return to familiar territory for Cruise, who starred in Mission Impossible —Fallout that summer. Prior to its release, he tweeted a photo to mark day 1 of production on the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick , scheduled for a June 2020 release.

Scientology and Personal Life

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers in 1987. It was through Rogers that the actor became a student of Scientology, the religion founded by writer L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise credited the church with curing his dyslexia, and he soon became one of its leading proponents. However, while his spiritual life flourished, his marriage to Rogers ended in 1990. That same year, Cruise made the racecar drama Days of Thunder alongside Kidman. Though the movie was unpopular among critics and fans alike, the two lead actors had real chemistry. On Christmas Eve 1990, after a brief courtship, Cruise and Kidman married in Telluride, Colorado.

Divorce from Kidman

For much of the 1990s, Cruise and Kidman found themselves fiercely defending the happiness and legitimacy of their marriage. They filed two different lawsuits against tabloid publications for stories they considered libelous. In each case, the couple received a published retraction and apology, along with a large monetary settlement which they donated to charity. The couple has two children, Isabella and Connor.

On February 5, 2001, Cruise and Kidman announced their separation after 11 years of marriage. The couple cited the difficulties involved with two acting careers and the amount of time spent apart while working. Following the divorce, Cruise briefly dated his Vanilla Sky co-star Penelope Cruz , followed by a much-publicized relationship with actress Katie Holmes. A month after his ties to Holmes became public, Cruise professed his love for the actress in a now-famous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, during which he jumped on Winfrey's sofa, shouting "Yes!"

Marriage to Katie Holmes

In June 2005, after a two-month courtship, Cruise proposed to Holmes in a restaurant at the top of the Eiffel tower. In October, they announced that they were expecting their first child together. The hasty proposal and surprise pregnancy quickly became tabloid gossip. But Cruise made even bigger headlines that year as an outspoken advocate for Scientology. He openly criticized former co-star Brooke Shields for using anti-depressants during her recovery from postpartum depression. He also denounced psychiatry and modern medicine, claiming Scientology held the key to true healing. Cruise's statements led to a heated argument with news anchor Matt Lauer on The Today Show in June 2005, for which Cruise later apologized.

In 2006, Cruise and Holmes welcomed daughter Suri into the world. That year, they were married in an Italian castle, with celebrities Will Smith , Jada Pinkett Smith , Jennifer Lopez and Victoria and David Beckham among those in attendance. However, the storybook romance wouldn't last, and in June 2012, the couple announced their separation.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1962
• Birth date: July 3, 1962
• Birth State: New York
• Birth City: Syracuse
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Actor Tom Cruise is the star of several box-office hits, including 'Risky Business,' 'A Few Good Men,' 'The Firm,' 'Jerry Maguire' and the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise.
• Astrological Sign: Cancer

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Tom Cruise Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/tom-cruise
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 26, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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• Contact info
• 64 wins & 119 nominations total

Photos 1992

• Nathan Algren

• Jerry Maguire

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• Capt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell

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Personal details

• Tomu Kurûzu
• 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
• July 3 , 1962
• Syracuse, New York, USA
• Spouses Katie Holmes November 18, 2006 - August 20, 2012 (divorced, 1 child)
• Children Isabella Jane Cruise
• Parents Thomas Mapother III
• Relatives William Mapother (Cousin)
• Other works Played Nathan Detroit in a high school production of "Guys and Dolls"
• 12 Print Biographies
• 9 Portrayals
• 32 Interviews
• 145 Articles
• 21 Pictorials
• 764 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

• Trivia His acting idol is Paul Newman . Much to the delight of Cruise, they became good friends during work on The Color of Money (1986) . Newman got him into racing, and Cruise ultimately raced on his team.
• Quotes The thing about filmmaking is I give it everything, that's why I work so hard. I always tell young actors to take charge. It's not that hard. Sign your own checks, be responsible.
• Trademarks Often plays romantic leading men with an edge
• Salaries Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two ( 2025 ) $13,000,000 + % of back end
• How old is Tom Cruise?
• When was Tom Cruise born?
• Where was Tom Cruise born?

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Tom Cruise Is Intensely Private, But Here's What We Know About His Personal Life

Tom Cruise is truly larger than life (though a little below average in stature ) even by Hollywood standards. Any movie he stars in is virtually guaranteed to be a box office hit if not smash. In fact, taking in all box office numbers, foreign and domestic, you have to go back to the 1980s to find a movie that truly bombed.

Incredibly, Tom Cruise has made 18 films that have earned north of $100 million. The numbers are staggering, but what about the man behind the numbers? Let’s take a look, shall we?

How Tall Is Tom Cruise?

Tom Cruise is often called out for being short, and while he’s not tall, he’s also not the shortest guy in Hollywood either. At 5’7" in height, he’s taller than a lot of famous actors, like Daniel Radcliffe (5’5”), Michael J. Fox (5’4”), Scott Caan (5’5”), and Richard Dreyfuss (5’5”).

How Old Is Tom Cruise?

Tom Cruise was not born on the 4th of July, but he was born on the 3rd of July in Syracuse, NY in 1962, making him 56-years-old at the time of this writing. He's pretty fit for someone pushing sixty, too, and regularly still has shirtless scenes in movies.

Who Is Tom Cruise’s Wife?

Tom Cruise has been married three times. His first marriage was to Mimi Rogers, who introduced him to the Church of Scientology. They were married from 1987 to 1990 when he left her after meeting the woman that would become his second wife, Nicole Kidman .

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman got married in 1990 after meeting on the set of Day Of Thunder . They stayed married through the '90s, but eventually divorced in 2001. Kidman is now married to fellow Aussie Keith Urban.

After Tom and Nicole divorced, he began dating his Vanilla Sky co-star, Penelope Cruz (Cruise and Cruz), before breaking up with her in 2004, and shortly after, he began dating his soon-to-be third wife, Katie Holmes .

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Sixteen years his junior, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise stayed married for six years before Holmes filed for divorce in New York State. Their relationship was often splashed on the covers of the tabloids, sometimes because of Cruise’s involvement in the Church of Scientology or sometimes because he was jumping up and down on couches with Oprah .

It's worth noting that before Tom Cruise married Mimi Rogers in the '80s, he was linked to a number of actress, all older than the young Hollywood heartthrob was at the time. He dated his Risky Business co-star Rebecca De Mornay briefly. He had a relationship with Bruce Springsteen ’s now-wife Patti Scialfa (before she and The Boss got together) and he also was linked to Cher for a short time, who was 16 years his elder.

Is Tom Cruise A Scientologist?

He is. Tom Cruise is almost as famous for being a Scientologist as he is for his movies. The two adopted children from his marriage to Nicole Kidman are as well .

He first joined the Church in the mid-eighties and has since become a strong advocate on behalf of it. The leader of the church, David Miscavige, was the best man at Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes and Cruise has spoken publicly often about his faith in Scientology. Tom Cruise is such an important part of the Church, Miscavige invented an award to give him , called the Freedom Medal Of Valor.

In 2008, a video of an interview with Tom Cruise that was intended to be for Church use was leaked to the internet. In the video -- which was edited to have the Mission: Impossible theme playing under his talking -- the actor makes a lot of wild statements that the Church claimed were taken out of context and they sued YouTube and others to have the video removed. YouTube eventually removed it, but it can be found on the internet still.

Before he started acting as a young man, Tom Cruise also briefly attended Seminary hoping to become a Catholic priest, but the acting bug caught and he left for Hollywood.

What Is Tom Cruise’s Real Name?

When he was born, Tom Cruise was named Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. He was named after his father, who Cruise didn’t not get along with growing up. When Cruise was in 6th grade, while living in Ottawa, Canada, his mother divorced his father and moved back to The States. Later, she remarried when Cruise was 16. Thomas Cruise Mapother III died when Tom Cruise was 22, just as Cruise really broke big in Hollywood.

A cousin on his father’s side is actor William Mapother, who starred as Ethan on Lost and has appeared in three films with Cruise himself, Born On The Fourth Of July, Mission: Impossible 2 , and Minority Report.

Does Tom Cruise Have Kids?

Yep. Tom Cruise has three kids. Two were adopted during his marriage to Nicole Kidman. Allegedly, Nicole Kidman was pregnant when he filed for divorce in 2000, but tragically she miscarried. She also reportedly had a miscarriage early in their marriage as well.

Six years later, in 2006, his then-girlfriend Katie Holmes famously gave birth to their daughter Suri. The tabloids and gossip sites went crazy and the world buzzed with the announcement. Vanity Fair published the first pictures of their baby and circulation reportedly jumped 60% for the issue. It was a BIG deal. More recently, the news hasn't been as good though, as it's been reported that Tom Cruise doesn't have much contact, if any, with Suri.

What Are Tom Cruise’s Kids’ Names?

His two adopted children with Nicole Kidman are, Isabella Jane Cruise, both in 1992 and Connor Anthony Cruise, born in 1995. The most famous of his children though, is the one he had with Katie Holmes , whose name is Suri.

Why Did Tom Cruise Get Divorced?

As noted prior, his first marriage ended in divorce to Mimi Rogers because he met and started dating Nicole Kidman.

Neither Nicole Kidman nor Tom Cruise have ever spoken publicly very much about their divorce in 2001. All that is really known is that it was Cruise that filed for divorce, using the nebulous “irreconcilable differences” reason in California.

Like his divorce from Kidman, Cruise has never talked much about his divorce from Katie Holmes, nor has she . Holmes filed for divorce in New York State, which has very strict privacy laws when it comes to divorce and custody, so everything is speculation, really.

So, those are the public details of Tom Cruise’s private life. As someone who has been on the front page of newspapers for almost 40 years, surprisingly little is really known about him. He’s a huge name, but an intensely private person.

Of course, there have been times where the absolute opposite of all of that is true, like when his daughter Suri was born in 2006.

One thing is still for sure – he is still box office platinum . He is one of the rare few actors in Hollywood that basically guarantees a huge box office number. That probably won’t change in anytime soon with the releases of the Top Gun sequel Maverick in 2020 and then two more Mission: Impossible movies in 2021 and 2022.

Hugh Scott is the Syndication Editor for CinemaBlend. Before CinemaBlend, he was the managing editor for Suggest.com and Gossipcop.com, covering celebrity news and debunking false gossip. He has been in the publishing industry for almost two decades, covering pop culture – movies and TV shows, especially – with a keen interest and love for Gen X culture, the older influences on it, and what it has since inspired. He graduated from Boston University with a degree in Political Science but cured himself of the desire to be a politician almost immediately after graduation.

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Historical records matching Tom Cruise

Added 2023-11-06 18:54:18 -0800 by Private User

• Collection: Biographical Summaries of Notable People
• Birth: July 3 1962 - Syracuse
• Parents: Mary Lee Pfeiffer, Thomas Mapother
• Siblings: Lee Ann Mapother, Marian Mapother, Cass Mapother
• Wife: Katie Holmes, Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz
• Children: Suri Cruise, Isabella Jane Cruise, Connor Cruise
• Residences: Ottawa, Syracuse, And 3 more addresses

Added 2023-11-06 18:54:14 -0800 by Private User

• Collection: Famous People Throughout History
• Description: American Actor And Producer
• Birth: July 3 1962 - Syracuse, United States
• Spouse(s): Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, Katie Holmes, Rebecca De Mornay, Penélope Cruz

Thomas Cruise Mapother Iv

• Collection: MyHeritage Family Trees
• Site name: Felixio Web Site
• Site manager: Leo Felixio
• Birth: 1962 - United States
• Wife: Nicole Mary Cruise Mapother Iv (born Kidman)
• Child: <Private> Cruise

• Site name: James Web Site
• Site manager: Owen James
• Wife: Nicole Mary Kidman
• Site name: Bunny Web Site
• Site manager: Bugs Bunny
• Wife: Nicole Cruise (born Kidman)
• Child: <Private> Bunny
• Site name: Filipe Web Site
• Site manager: João Filipe
• Partner: <Private> Cruise (nascida Holmes)
• Child: <Private> Filipe
• Site name: dhon Web Site
• Site manager: donna dhon
• Partner: <Private> Cruise (born Holmes)
• Child: <Private> Mccartney (born Cruise)
• Site name: pines Web Site
• Site manager: shakti pines
• Site name: LA FLEUR Web Site
• Site manager: OCEANNE LA FLEUR
• Partner: <Private> Cruise (née Holmes)
• Child: <Private> Longoria (née Cruise)
• Site name: HeRnaNdEz Web Site
• Site manager: Verónica Hernández
• Wife: Nicole Cruis (nacida Kidman)
• Child: <Private> Cruis
• Site name: parel Web Site
• Site manager: jinalyn parel
• Child: <Private> Naruto (born Cruise)
• Site name: yuliatien Web Site
• Site manager: etien yuliatien
• Child: <Private> Pranayudha (born Cruise)

Immediate Family

About Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise made a strong impression in the teen comedy Risky Business (1983) and then had his first box-office smash as the fighter jock Maverick in Top Gun (1986). Cruise and his cocky grin were propelled higher onto Hollywood's A-list thanks to a string of successful movies: Rain Man (1988, with Dustin Hoffman), The Color of Money (1986, with Paul Newman), A Few Good Men (1992, with Jack Nicholson) and Jerry Maguire (1996, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. saying "Show me the money!"). Cruise has remained one of Hollywood's busiest actors, taking on blockbuster franchises such as Mission: Impossible (Cruise played superspy Ethan Hunt in the original and two sequels in 1996, 2000 and 2006) as well as more diverse dramas such as Magnolia (1999), Vanilla Sky (2001) and the Steven Spielberg movies Minority Report (2002, co-starring Samantha Morton) and War of the Worlds (2005). His most recent movie Knight and Day will be released on June 23rd, 2010.

Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962 in Syracuse, New York to Mary Lee (née Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. Cruise's surname originates from his great-grandfather, Thomas Cruise O'Mara, who was adopted by a Welsh immigrant and renamed "Thomas Cruise Mapother". Cruise is of German, Irish, and English ancestry. His oldest sister, Lee Anne, was born in his parents' native Louisville, Kentucky, while his older sister Marian was born in Syracuse, as were Tom and his younger sister, Cass.

He has been married three times. His first marriage was to actress Mimi Rogers, a fellow Scientologist, from 1986-1990. While filming one of Days of Thunder (1990), he met his second wife Nicole Kidman. He and Kidman were married in 1990. They adopted two children: Isabella (in 1993) and Connor (in 1995). In 2000, Cruise and Kidman separated. Their divorce was finalized in 2001. He began dating actress Katie Holmes in 2005 and proposed to Holmes at the Eiffel Tower after a highly-publicized whirlwind romance. He came in for a ribbing from pundits after he hopped up and down on the talk-show couch of Oprah Winfrey while proclaiming his love for Holmes. Dubbed "TomKat" by the tabloids, they had a daughter, Suri, on 18 April 2006, and were married in Italy on 18 November 2006.

Cruise is a prominent member of the Church of Scientology.

This week Tom Cruise discovered the truth of his Irish family history and that his Irish ancestors have been identified as knights, rebels and heroes in a family history that stretches back an incredible 800 years. The Hollywood actor and producer visited Dublin on the European leg of his tour to promote his new film 'Oblivion'.

Research commissioned by Tourism Ireland for Cruise’s visit, and completed by genealogy researchers Eneclann, has unveiled the amazing history of a family that contained knights in the 12th century, rebels in the 17th century and a hero – Patrick Russell-Cruise – who reinstated tenants on his lands in the 19th century, following their eviction against his wishes by an unscrupulous land agent. Tom Cruise is a fifth generation direct descendant of Patrick Russell-Cruise.

Prior to the red carpet première of 'Oblivion' in Dublin, Cruise was presented with a Certificate of Irish Heritage by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore. The Certificate is an official recognition by the Irish Government of those who are proud of their Irish ancestry and heritage.

When presented with his Certificate of Irish Heritage, Cruise said: “It’s a great honour for me and for my whole family – I can’t wait to bring it back to them and enlighten them on their history.” Cruise continued: “I’m very proud to be Irish. There’s a pride in America of being Irish. I can’t wait to come back and I want to visit the land of my ancestors and the castle that they had.”

As this is the year of The Gathering Ireland 2013, with a programme of over 300 clan gatherings and local history talks taking place throughout the year, Tourism Ireland has christened 2013 Ireland’s “Family History Year”. Tourism Ireland is encouraging those with Irish connections throughout the world to follow in Cruise’s footsteps and to visit in 2013 to learn more about their heritage and explore the places their ancestors came from.

· The Certificate of Irish Heritage provides official recognition of Irish descent. Anyone with an Irish ancestor, born outside Ireland, is eligible. www.heritagecertificate.com

-Eneclann is an agency specialising in Irish genealogy and history research. Full details of the amazing family history of Tom Cruise can be found online at www.eneclann.ie/exhibitions/tomcruise. A summary is provided below.

Tom Cruise's Irish Roots Research Overview

Tom Cruise's Irish roots can be traced back 840 years to the arrival of Strongbow in Ireland. Tom was christened Thomas Cruise Mapother IV and the story of his Irish ancestors - the Cruises, the Russells and the Mapothers – is one of knights, rebels and heroes.

The knights in Tom's family were among the first wave of Anglo-Normans to invade Ireland between 1169 and 1176. In 1176, Augustino de Cruce, one of Strongbow's knights, acted as a legal witness to a grant by Strongbow (Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke) of lands in Dublin. The Cruise family established themselves in Ireland and held lands in Dublin and Meath, including Naul in north Co Dublin (which included the townland of ‘Hollywood’) and the civil parish of Cruicetown in Co Meath, to which the family gave their name. Like other "old English" families, they continued in the Catholic faith even after the Reformation. In 1641, the Cruise family of the Naul took up arms in defence of the King but they lost out to the English Parliamentary army under Oliver Cromwell and forfeited their lands in north Co Dublin. In 1686, after the Restoration, they were restored to the lands of Cruicetown in Co Meath but their status and their land base was much reduced.

The rebellious streak in Tom's family was also evident amongst the Russell family who were also “old English” settlers, visible in the records from the 1200s. Their main seat was Seatown, situated in present day Malahide in north Co Dublin. In the 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries the Russell family lived in Seatown Castle, fragments of which survive today as part of a modern dwelling. It is highly probable that the Russells engaged in cross-channel trade as the family had amassed significant wealth by the early 1600s and in 1627 they completed a substantial new residence, Drynam House. Like the Cruises, the Russells held fast to their Catholicism and took up arms in the 1641 Rebellion. They consequently lost their lands at Seatown but retained Drynam House and 421 acres surrounding it and it passed by descent in the family until it was sold in the 1920s.

In 1766, the marriage of Bridget Russell “only child and heir at law of Robert Russell of Drynam” to Andrew Cruise united these two families and the children of all subsequent generations adopted the double-surname ‘Russell-Cruise’.

Tom's family history also contains wonderful stories of heroism. Patrick Russell Cruise was born ca. 1799 in Drynam and in 1825 he married Teresa Johnson in Co Meath. The young couple determined that their future was in the USA and they settled in Haverstraw, New York. As a younger son, Patrick Russell Cruise had not inherited the family ancestral seat of Drynam House; however, he had inherited a half share in approximately 500 acres of land in Co Westmeath, comprising the townlands of Paristown and Dardistown. The tenants' leases on these lands were due to expire in 1843. Patrick had promised the sitting tenants that he would ensure they had a preference in renewal “because he felt he was bound in honour and conscience to look to the tenants in possession” but his Dublin-based land agent John Smith evicted the tenants regardless. When news of the evictions reached Patrick Russell-Cruise in America he set sail for Ireland and personally restored his former tenants to the lands. As a vote of thanks, a public dinner was given in his honour in the town of Clonmellon in November 1844. Patrick Russell Cruise died in Dublin in March 1849 without returning to America and he was buried in Donabate in north Dublin.

How Tom came to be known as Tom Cruise Maphother is a story of family tragedy. Tom's great-great-grandmother, Mary Pauline Russell-Cruise, was the youngest known child of Patrick Russell-Cruise, born ca. 1832 in New Jersey. Mary Pauline married Dillon Henry Mapother, the second son of Henry Mapother Esq. of Annadale Lodge, Co Dublin, in September 1858 in the RC Cathedral in Detroit. The Mapother family originated in Dorset in England but were in Ireland by 1588 when Richard Mapother was the Sheriff of Roscommon. By the early 1600s, the Mapothers established their main residence in Kilteevan in Co Roscommon, where descendants remained down to the early 20th century. Dillon Henry Mapother held a degree in civil engineering and had immigrated to New York in 1850 before settling in Louisville, Kentucky, where he established a successful printing business. However, Dillon Henry died between 1873 and 1875 and Mary Pauline remarried, to Thomas O’Mara in 1876. There was only one known child of this second marriage: Thomas O’Mara Jr. born on 29 December, 1876. Sadly, Thomas O’Mara Sr. also died sometime before 1900 and Thomas O’Mara Jr. assumed the combined maiden name of his mother and the surname of his half-brother, becoming Thomas Cruise Mapother. This man was the great-grandfather of the actor Tom Cruise who was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV.

Om Tom Cruise (svenska)

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Tom Cruise's Timeline

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Tom Cruise Talks About His Father

April 3, 2006 / 2:09 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Tom Cruise is talking about what has long been known to be a sore subject.

In an interview with Parade magazine, the 43-year-old actor looks back on two difficult aspects of his early years: his father and bullies at school.

Cruise says his father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III, "was a bully and a coward... the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life - how he'd lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang!"

"For me," Cruise told Parade, it was like, "'There's something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him.' There's that anxiety."

The 5'7" star of the upcoming film, "Mission: Impossible III," also says he was harassed by his classmates while he was growing up.

"So many times the big bully comes up, pushes me," he recalled. "Your heart's pounding, you sweat, and you feel like you're going to vomit ... I don't like bullies."

When Cruise was 12, his mother, Mary Lee, left his father and took Cruise and his sister, Lee Anne, with her, the magazine says. His parents divorced in 1974.

Cruise says he reunited with his father ten years later, when Mapother was "in the hospital dying of cancer, and he would only meet me on the basis that I didn't ask him anything about the past."

"When I saw him in pain, I thought, 'Wow, what a lonely life,"' Cruise says. "He was in his late 40s. It was sad."

Cruise has made a point of staying close to others in his immediate family, including his mother, and one of his three sisters, Lee Anne DeVette, is publicist for both Cruise and his 27-year-old fiancée, Katie Holmes.

Holmes is in the final stages of pregnancy with a baby whose gender has not been revealed – although she and Cruise very likely know the answer to that one. It was widely reported months ago that the excited expectant dad bought an ultrasound machine so he and Holmes could take as many photos as they wanted – at home.

The baby is the first for Holmes and a third child for Cruise, who has two other children from the over ten years that he was married to actress Nicole Kidman.

They split up nearly five years ago but that doesn't mean Cruise is out of the picture when it comes to the kids.

He's on call as dad and four years ago, caught the attention of the evening gown set when he ducked out early from the Academy Awards ceremony, headed home for his turn with the children.

Cruise is similarly focused on the impending arrival of the new baby and recently told interviewers in Germany that he had two pilots standing by, ready to fly him home, if Holmes happened to go into labor.

The two are engaged but haven't yet tied the knot.

They plan to marry this year, Cruise said, in an interview with the German tabloid Bild, after the opening and the promotions for his latest movie, "Mission Impossible III."

More from CBS News

The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Tom Cruise

Fame and fortune bring with them many perks: freedom from want, tickets to anywhere in the world, the adoration of millions, and immense power in one's chosen field. Tom Cruise has enjoyed his fair share of them all. Described by France24 as the last survivor of the age of the movie star, Cruise has retained his status as an internationally beloved actor for decades, and per the Hollywood Reporter , that has translated into a great deal of authority over the movies he stars in. Couple that kind of success with genuine acting talent and endearing good looks even as he enters his 60s, and it's easy to think that Cruise hasn't a care in the world.

But fame and fortune aren't a cure-all. They can't blot out humble beginnings or past tragedies. They aren't a safeguard against heartbreak and loss. In the publicity-mad world of Hollywood, particularly in the age of the internet, fame and fortune can buy some privacy and security, but not enough to blot out controversy. For all that a four-decade career as an actor has brought him, a closer look reveals that Cruise hasn't always lived such a charmed existence.

He grew up poor, nomadic, and abused

During perhaps the most controversial period of his career, in the early 2000s, Tom Cruise gave a lengthy interview to Parade about his upbringing. He was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, with the birth name of Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. His father held the same name, one generation back, and his mother was Mary Lee. With three sisters to care for along with their son, the Mapothers struggled to make ends meet. Mapother III had no luck keeping down a job as an electrical engineer, and the family was often on the move as he sought work. Mary Lee became the primary breadwinner, working up to three jobs at a time to keep the family going.

But if Mapother III didn't provide, he exercised control over his family in other ways. In " Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography ," Andrew Morton suggests that the father's handling of his son crossed the line from tough love into physical abuse more than once. And apart from any life lessons, the actor recalled that when life didn't go his father's way, he took it out on those around him. "[My father] was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you," he told Parade. "He was a bully and a coward."

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services .

He was bullied for his dyslexia

Bullies can latch onto anything to use as an attack, and the young Tom Cruise gave them plenty of ammunition, according to his 2006 Parade interview. He was often the new kid; being part of a family that was always moving, Cruise claimed he went to 15 schools in 12 years (Andrew Morton gives the number as five in " Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography "). Coming from a poor family, he wore the "wrong" clothes. He was on the short side even then – a fact that didn't deter Cruise from fighting back against the bullies who came for him. "I never liked hitting someone, but I know if I don't hit that guy hard he's going to pick on me all year," he recalled.

One of the biggest targets on Cruise's back was his struggles in the classroom. From an early age, he found it impossible to read and ended up in remedial classes, attracting more attention from bullies. He was 7 years old by the time a school-referred psychiatrist diagnosed him with dyslexia. Having a name for the problem didn't immediately solve it, however. Cruise found the experience of being "labeled" upsetting, and he later traced his rejection of psychiatry as a science to this early diagnosis.

He's had to work since he was 8

Lots of kids pick up odd jobs around the neighborhood. Maybe they take them on for a lark, or maybe they aim to pick up a little spending money for candy, games, or outings. For a young Tom Cruise, odd jobs were how he paid for movie tickets, which were a passion of his from age 4 on, according to People (via CNBC ). In the days before home video, YouTube, and streaming, the only way to take in the movies was at the theater, so a portion of Cruise's income from mowing lawns, delivering papers, and other bits of work went to the box office.

Circumstances wouldn't allow him to sink all his earnings into movie tickets, however. Money was so tight for Cruise's household that, on one occasion, they forwent Christmas presents and gave each other poems instead. Cruise's mother attempted to keep up with multiple jobs, but any contribution her children could make was welcome and often needed. So a portion of Cruise's income from his neighborhood tasks went toward the necessities of life.

His dreams of priesthood were undone by vice

These days, Tom Cruise can hardly be mentioned without some reference to the Church of Scientology, of which he is so prominently – and so controversially – a part. But Cruise grew up in a traditional Catholic household, and well into his college years, Catholicism is where he sought spirituality. For a time, according to Andrew Morton's " Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography ," Cruise entertained the idea of becoming a Franciscan priest. To that end, he enrolled in the St. Francis Seminary of Cincinnati, though the appeal wasn't entirely a matter of faith. "We didn't have the money back then, and I went for the education for a year, and it was free," Cruise later explained.

The experience of seminary was apparently a happy one for Cruise. Sports, hobby shops, and even the discipline of boarding school life appealed to him. Maintaining that discipline proved a challenge, however, when there was no shortage of local girls. Cruise, even then, possessed the gift of charm. He would later say that women were too appealing to sacrifice even to the Franciscan order, and he and the seminary have claimed that he left voluntarily. 

But a friend from St. Francis, Shane Dempler, insisted to the Cincinnati Seminal that Cruise's priestly ambitions were genuine. The real end to that dream, said Dempler, came when he and Cruise were caught robbing the Franciscans of their booze.

His father's unhappy end

The abuse that Thomas Cruise Mapother III inflicted on his family came to a head in 1974. This, writes Andrew Morton in " Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography ," is when Mapother's verbal attacks, secret drinking, and instability became too much for his wife Mary Lee. In a momentous decision for a devout Catholic woman of her generation, she took the children, left Mapother, and filed for divorce. It was a significant financial gamble as well as a personal upheaval; Mapother was not prepared to provide child support.

Tom Cruise, 12 at the time, did not mourn his father's absence from home. When Mapother followed his family to Kentucky and attempted to reach out to his son, Cruise firmly rejected him. Morton writes that, when Mapother remarried, Cruise put in a dutiful appearance at the ceremony. Once it was over, he abstained from all contact with his father, his new stepmother, and his stepsiblings.

Some effort at reconciliation was made in the 1980s, after Cruise's acting career had begun. By then, Mapother was gravely ill, wasting away from cancer in his late 40s. He imposed a condition on the reunion: no questions about the past. Cruise accepted his father's terms and met with him in the hospital. Later, he could only describe the final encounter as "sad."

His first marriage was brief but consequential

Tom Cruise hasn't hesitated to defend Scientology , as in an infamous " 60 Minutes Australia " interview. He credits it with helping him overcome his learning disabilities. But as more details of the organization's unsavory practices have emerged over the years, Cruise's membership in Scientology and the role it plays in his life have been fodder for rumor, tabloid gossip, and investigative books and documentaries.

According to The Hollywood Reporter , Cruise joined Scientology during his first marriage, to Mimi Rogers. While he maintains that he didn't join because of Rogers, she did bring him into a family with longstanding ties. Rogers' parents had connections to L. Ron Hubbard himself. As a means to grow his following (per Andrew Morton in " Tom Cruise ") Hubbard developed "Project Celebrity," a targeted recruitment of the famous, once-famous, or soon-to-be-famous. Cruise's star was on the rise when he and Rogers got together in the 1980s, and church head David Miscavige saw the acquisition of such a hot up-and-comer as a coup at a precarious time in Scientology's history (per Morton ).

According to Lawrence Wright's " Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief ," Rogers became a hindrance to Scientology's ambitions for Cruise. While she helped to bring him in, her family was no longer in good standing with the church – not the sort of people to help its profile. The marriage was already troubled, but church "mediators" helped to push Cruise and Rogers apart in 1990.

He almost left the Church Of Scientology

From its very beginning, Scientology has attracted chilling accusations. Ex-member Leah Remini's A&E series "Scientology and the Aftermath" was an often damning insight into many of the charges, including fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice, intimidation of critics, and brainwashing. Remini described Tom Cruise as brainwashed when promoting her series through Variety , though she also stated to The Daily Beast that Cruise is well aware of the truth of the organization.

Cruise has never claimed to be brainwashed and never acknowledged any uncouth practices by his religion. He hasn't spoken of any issues he has with the church either. But according to The Daily Beast , after his first marriage to Mimi Rogers ended and he became romantically involved with Nicole Kidman in the 1990s, Cruise's attachment to Scientology wavered. In part, this was due to his infatuation with Kidman; the attraction had already led him away from his first marriage. Kidman became a Scientologist for Cruise, but when she reached her limit with the church and its leader, David Miscavige, Cruise appeared to follow her lead.

Another factor keeping Cruise away from Scientology was Stanley Kubrick – or rather, the filming of Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut" in England. The record-breaking 46-week shoot meant that Cruise and Kidman were out of easy reach of Miscavige, and away from the household staff who spied on them on his behalf. But Miscavige, who coveted Cruise as a tempting lure for recruits, was unwilling to let him go.

Scientology brought down his second marriage

Tom Cruise was deeply in love with Nicole Kidman when they first met and worked together (per The Daily Beast ) and the Church of Scientology was there to fan the flames. Journalist Tony Ortega is quoted by the Beast as saying that the organization's leaders felt their romance would be a passing fancy, a way to separate Cruise from his then-wife Mimi Rogers and her family of disreputable church members. Cruise becoming so committed to Kidman that he eventually married her was unexpected – and unwelcome.

Like Cruise, Kidman came from a Catholic background and once entertained a lifetime of service within a Catholic order. But Kidman's father was also a prominent psychologist, a profession that is among the great evils inflicting humanity according to Scientology's teachings. Even worse was her stepping into Scientology, leaving, and taking Cruise with her. Sources have claimed that church head David Miscavige personally ordered an operation to sink Cruise and Kidman's marriage and get the star back in the church.

The lengths Scientology went to break up the couple included sending private investigators after Kidman, tapping her phones (allegedly on Cruise's wish), and subjecting Cruise himself to relentless "auditing." This practice, a thorough drilling of a subject on intimate details about their lives, is among Scientology's most powerful tools for retaining control over its members according to HuffPost . The church's efforts came together just as they had in Cruise's relationship with Rogers; he filed for divorce in 2001.

He and Nicole Kidman lost a child

After filing for divorce from Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise insisted to Vanity Fair (via E! News ), "She knows why, and I know why." But according to Andrew Morton's " Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography ," Cruise's request – delivered by a third party – was a shocking turn for his wife. She tried to enter marriage counseling, as offered by the Church of Scientology according to Lawrence Wright's " Going Clear, " but Cruise was not receptive. Complicating matters for Kidman was her learning that she was pregnant with the child of the man so coldly leaving her.

Early on in their marriage, according to Kidman in a Marie Claire interview, she and Cruise were expecting. But it was an ectopic pregnancy, a condition where the fertilized egg attaches outside the uterus. It was a devastating experience for Kidman, and per Morton , doctors suggested that the couple should avoid trying for another baby. Years later, at the end of her relationship with Cruise, Kidman miscarried. Cruise, writes Morton , "sent flowers but did not visit her at the hospital."

Anger and trauma have disrupted his relationships

Divorce and childhood trauma can breed deep unhappiness in people, affecting their ability to emote and connect. Eileen Berlin, Tom Cruise's first personal manager from 1980 to 1983, suspects that to be true of her former client. In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2012, she remembered the Cruise she first met as an explosive young man. Though he could be, in her words, "sweet, respectful, and mannerly to a fault," Cruise was also prone to flying off the handle. As innocuous a gift as a photo album with clippings from fan magazines could set him off.

Cruise's anger didn't always come out fast and hot. Sometimes he made constructive use of it, as in his early role in "Taps." At other times, it manifested as a wall of resistance. "He was so private," said Berlin. "He couldn't show his true feelings. You would get so far and he would close down." For Berlin, who put Cruise up in her apartment for several months in 1980, the most obvious source of this reserve and her client's mood swings was lingering resentment toward his father. It was the same issue, says Berlin, that opened Cruise up to the overtures of Scientology.

His estrangement from his youngest daughter

During their 10-year marriage, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman adopted two children, according to The Daily Beast : Isabella and Connor. After Cruise's divorce from her, Kidman was marked by the Church of Scientology as a "Suppressive Person," those the church regards as antisocial personalities standing in the way of members' spiritual development. Such persons are to be avoided, or "disconnected" from. Not only did Cruise disconnect from his former wife, but his children (who have since been raised as Scientologists) were subjected to "reeducation" to see their mother in that light. For her part, Kidman told the Sun in 2019 that she and her children with Cruise were re-connecting.

Years later, after Cruise's brief and well-publicized marriage to Katie Holmes ended in a filing for divorce by Holmes that caught her husband off-guard, the shoe was on the other foot. In another article for The Daily Beast , Amy Zimmerman reports it was fear of Scientology's potential influence over their daughter, Suri , that helped motivate Holmes to leave Cruise. It was a fact he was reluctant to say aloud during legal proceedings, but he eventually had to concede the point. And despite his claims to the contrary, entertainment reporters suggest that Cruise has often been absent from Suri's life since the divorce.

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Tom Cruise's Mother, Mary Lee South, Dies

Mary Lee South, 80, died peacefully in her sleep last week, say sources

Mary Lee South, the mother of Tom Cruise , has died, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

South, 80, died peacefully in her sleep last week. South, who coped with health issues in recent years, was given a memorial service at her local Church of Scientology this weekend.

The 54-year-old star and his sisters Lee Ann DeVette, 57, Cass Mapother, 55, and Marian Henry, 52, all attended the memorial along with other family and friends.

Born Mary Lee Pfeiffer, the Louisville, Kentucky, native was a special-education teacher when she wed Cruise’s father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. It was from her that Cruise developed a passion for acting.

“I was always interested in theater, but I never did anything with it,” she told Rolling Stone in 1986. “When I was growing up, if you went to Hollywood, that was really risqué.”

The family lived in Syracuse, New York, where Cruise was born, and Ottawa, Canada. When Cruise was young, his mother encouraged him to participate in a local theater group. “I guess I was his greatest audience,” she said. “He had it in him then.” But Cruise’s love of sports took precedence as he grew up.

Her marriage to Mapother was tumultuous. Cruise told PEOPLE in 2006 that his father was “a bully.” Mary Lee ended the marriage in 1974.

RELATED: Why You Need to Watch Jack Reacher: Never Go Back on Blu-Ray

She returned to the United States, and worked a series of jobs to keep her family out of poverty. Cruise helped with money from a paper route. He even massaged his mother’s sore feet after she came home from long days at work.

That close relationship continued when the family relocated to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and Mary Lee wed Jack South in 1978, when Cruise was 16. “He loved my mother so much that he took us all in, all four young people,” Cruise later recalled.

After a knee injury sidelined her son’s varsity wrestling career, Mary Lee encouraged him to try out for a high school production of Guys and Dolls . After the play, Cruise surprised his mother by asking if he could have 10 years to give show business a try. She approved, and with her support, he waited tables in New York City before breaking into the movies.

The close mother-son relationship continued as he became a box-office star.

As for South, she never doubted her son would be a success. When Cruise asked her and her second husband if he could be an actor, “We both wholeheartedly agreed,” she told Rolling Stone . “Because we both felt it was a God-given talent … So to make a long story short, we gave him our blessing — and the rest is history.”

Related Articles

Tom Cruise Family History

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, better known as the actor Tom Cruise, was born on July 3rd, 1962 to Thomas Cruise Mapother III and his wife Mary Lee in Syracuse, New York.

Tom did not have a settled or happy childhood.  He attended fifteen schools in fourteen years.  He would later describe his father as a bully.  In 1974, when the family was in Canada, his mother took Tom and his sisters away from him and back to the United States.

In 1980, at the age of eighteen, Tom Cruise moved to New York to pursue an acting career.  His big break came in 1986 with the release of Top Gun .  After that came The Color of Money with Paul Newman and Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman and his status as a superstar was cemented.  His later role as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series of films confirmed him as an action hero.

Tom Cruise was converted to Scientology by his first wife Mimi Rogers in 1986 and became an advocate for the Church of Scientology in the 2000’s.

In recent years, except when he is publicizing his films, Tom has retreated from public view.  He is reportedly living in England, at Biggin Hill in Kent southeast of London. He did make a cameo video appearance in King Charles III’s Coronation Concert in 2023.

Cruise in Ireland

When Tom Cruise visited Ireland in 2013 for a film opening in Dublin, he was presented with research on his Irish ancestry.  He was told that his Cruise name originated with Augustino de Cruce, one of Strongbow’s soldiers in the invasion of Ireland in the 1170’s.  His descendants established themselves in Ireland and held lands in Dublin and Meath.

In 1766 Andrew Cruise married Bridget Russell and they settled in the Russell home of Drynam House in north Dublin.  Patrick Russell Cruise, born in 1799, was a younger son of this family and thus did not inherit the house, although he did receive some land in West Meath.  After he married Teresa Johnson in 1825, he decided to emigrate to America..

Patrick did return to Ireland in 1843 when he heard that the tenants on his West Meath land were being evicted against his wishes.  He was able to restore these tenants to their lands.  But he never returned to America and died in Dublin in 1849.

Cruise, O’Mara and Mapother

After leaving Ireland Patrick and Teresa had first come to New York and later made their home in New Jersey.  Mary Pauline Russell Cruise, born there in 1841, was the youngest of their children.  She was just a babe when Patrick went back to Ireland.

In 1858 Mary, a lively girl, married Dillon Mapother from a respectable Anglo-Irish family in Louisville, Kentucky.  They raised two children, Dillon and Wible.  But disaster struck in 1874 when Dillon Sr. died of food poisoning and Mary was left to raise the family on her own.

Within a year she married another Irishman and took his name O’Mara as her own.  But when their child came to be born in 1876, the baby was inexplicably given her first husband’s last name – Thomas Cruise Mapother.

Perhaps it was that respectability was being maintained for her son Thomas.  He was able to go to law school and in time became a Jefferson county judge.  One of his sons William also became a lawyer and, like his father, a respected judge.

However, his elder son Thomas – Tom Cruise’s father – had no interest in the law and studied engineering in college.  After college he married and took a job with General Electric.

He was to move around a lot with GE and was in Syracuse, New York in 1962 when his son Tom was born.  The family later went to Ottawa when Thomas took a consulting job with the Canadian Armed Forces.  He died in 1984 without his family at the age of fifty.

Tom Cruise’s Family Tree

• Patrick Russell Cruise (1799-1849) from Drynam House in Dublin m. Teresa Johnson (1805-1876) in Meath in 1825 and they emigrated to America
• – Robert Russell Cruise (1826-1853)
• – Charles Russell Cruise (1832-1892)
• – Fanny Russell Cruise (1833-1906)
• – Mary Russell Cruise (1841-1892)
• Mary Russell Cruise m. Dillon Henry Mapother (1832-1874) in Kentucky in 1858 and rem. Thomas O’Mara (1835-1905) in Kentucky in 1876
• – Dillon Edward Mapother (1862-1933), half-brother
• – Wible Lawrence Mapother (1872-1926), half-brother, died in Panama
• – Thomas Cruise Mapother aka O’Mara (1876-1939)
• Thomas Cruise Mapother m. Anna Bateman (1877-1968) in 1907
• – Thomas Cruise Mapother (1907-1986)
• – Paul Mapother (1911-1978)
• Thomas Cruise Mapother II m. Catherine Reibert (1912-1993) in 1934
• – Thomas Cruise Mapother (1934 -1984)
• – William Mapother (1938-2006)
• Thomas Cruise Mapother III m. Mary Lee Pfeiffer (1936-2017) in 1958
• – Lee Ann Mapother (b. 1959 in Louisville)
• – Marian Mapother (b. 1961 in Louisville)
• – Tom Cruise Mapother (b. 1962 in Syracuse)
• – Cass Mapother (b.1964 in Syracuse)
• Tom Cruise m. Mimi Rogers (b. 1956) in 1987, divorced in 1990; rem. Nicole Kidman (b. 1967) in 1990. divorced in 2001; rem. Katie Holmes (b. 1978) in 2006, divorced in 2012.
• – Isabella (Bella) Cruise (b. 1992), adopted with Nicole, m. Max Parker
• – Connor Cruise (b. 1995), adopted with Nicole
• – Suri Cruise (b. 2006) with Katie

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Written by Colin Shelley

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Tom Cruise’s Sisters Basically Look Like the Actor’s Twins (It’s Freaky…)

Ok, it’s time to get real about Tom Cruise ‘s sisters …

The 54-year-old actor has three siblings, Lee Ann Mapother DeVette, Marian Mapother Henry, and Cass Mapother — and they basically all look like Tom’s twin!

Let’s take a step back in time to learn a bit more about Tom’s family, shall we? The future-actor was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, NY. His parents, Mary Lee Mapother South and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, worked as a special education teacher and an electrical engineer, respectively.

MORE: Tom Cruise Caught Kissing Girlfriend Vanessa Kirby — See the Steamy Pic!

Mary Lee and Thomas welcomed their first child, daughter Lee Ann, in 1959. Two years later, the couple had daughter Marian. Tom’s younger sister, Cass, was later born around 1964.

Tom with his sister Lee Ann in 2004.

Tom and his three sisters unfortunately grew up in near-poverty and their father was abusive. The siblings — who were raised Catholic — later moved to Canada before their parents split in the mid-1970s.

MORE: Nicole Kidman Talks Finding Mega-Fame After Her Divorce From Tom Cruise

In a 2016 interview, Tom’s first-ever girlfriend opened up about his close relationship with his siblings. “I think he grew up too fast but he was very close with his three sisters. One time he said he’s so close with them they taught him how to kiss,” she told the [Daily Mail]( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3453270/Portrait-young-Tom-Cruise-love-fame-money-Scientology.html?ito=social-twitter dailymailceleb)_.

Tom with his sister Marian (left) and late mom Mary Lee (right).

As Tom later shot to Hollywood stardom — thanks to movies like Risky Business , Top Gun , and A Few Good Men , just to name a few! — his eldest sister, Lee Ann, became his publicist in 2004.

MORE: See All the Times Tom Cruise’s Daughter Suri Cruise Made the Same Facial Expression as Her Famous Dad!

A year later, however, Lee Ann was replaced by veteran celebrity rep Paul Bloch . Starting in 2005, Tom’s sister instead worked for the actor’s production company.

Earlier this year, the Mapother siblings’ mother, Mary Lee, sadly died peacefully in her sleep at age 80 in February 2017 . Tom and his three sisters all subsequently attended a memorial service for Mary Lee at her local Church of Scientology.

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Home » Family Tree » Tom Cruise Family Tree Father, Mother Name Pictures

Tom Cruise Family Tree Father, Mother Name Pictures

The American actor and filmmaker, Tom Cruise was born on July 3, 1962 to Mary Lee and Thomas Cruise Mapother III. He began his acting career with film Endless Love in 1981 and gained his first lead role in 1983 film Risky Business. Tom gained wider international fame in 1986 with film Top Gun and has went on to become one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood. Throughout his career, Tom Cruise has starred in numerous critically and commercially successful films such as The Color of Money, Rain Man, Magnolia, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, Jack Reacher, Knight and Day, A Few Good Man, Vanilla Sky, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow and Mission Impossible film series. In his personal life, Tom Cruise has been married three times so far, first with Mimi Rogers, second with Nicole Kidman and third with Katie Holmes, all of which ended with a divorce. He also has three children, two of which are adopted and one biological.

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Given here are complete details about Tom Cruise family tree including his father, mother, siblings, wife and children names and pictures.

Complete Name: Thomas Cruise

Date of Birth: July 3, 1962

Birth Place: Syracuse, New York, United States

Occupation: Actor, Filmmaker

Father Name: Thomas Mapother III

Mother Name: Mary Lee Pfeiffer

Siblings: Lee Ann Mapother, Cass Mapother, Marian Mapother

Spouse: Katie Holmes (m. 2006–2012), Nicole Kidman (m. 1990–2001), Mimi Rogers (m. 1987–1990)

Children: Suri Cruise, Isabella Jane Cruise, Connor Cruise

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Tom Cruise Mother:

Tom Cruise Siblings:

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Tragic Real-Life Details About Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise is known for his perky personality and general likeability, both of which have helped him sustain a successful Hollywood career for more than four decades now. His guy-next-door image is so strong that Cruise has been able to blow through some truly controversial moments, like that Oprah interview where he jumped on a couch or his rant against Brooke Shields and psychiatry, rather easily. His dominance at the box office is matched only by his star quality, and Cruise is nothing short of a screen legend. Though he often maintains a shiny veneer, there is much pain behind Cruise's iconic one-front-tooth smile. His past has included a number of tragic elements, beginning with a chaotic childhood filled with abuse and struggle.

Cruise's screen career began with 1981's "Endless Love," and it did not take him long to become a household name. His "Risky Business" dancing scene sure helped, as did his roles in huge hits like "Top Gun," "Born on the Fourth of July," and "Rain Man." Cruise continued to dazzle throughout the 1990s and 2000s, both in critically lauded movies like "Magnolia" and "Jerry Maguire," as well as action flicks like "Minority Report." Then there is the juggernaut "Mission Impossible" franchise, which is a big reason why Cruise's films have had more than $10 billion in box office earnings. Despite his continued success, Cruise's personal life has weathered many storms, and even mega-stars like Cruise face the occasional professional setback. Here are some tragic real-life details about Tom Cruise.

He was physically and verbally abused by his father

Tom Cruise (or Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, as his birth certificate reads) was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1962. His father, Thomas, was an electrical engineer, while his mother, Mary, was a schoolteacher and aspiring actor. Like far too many Americans, Cruise's home did not provide the actor with the safe space that all kids deserve. His earliest years were spent dealing with verbal and physical abuse at the hands of his father, whom Cruise called both "a bully and a coward" and a "merchant of chaos" in a 2006 interview with Parade . "He was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life — how he'd lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang!," he said in the interview. "For me, it was like, 'There's something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him.' There's that anxiety."

Cruise has not given many specifics about his abuse, but he did confirm that things were sometimes physical in a 2013 Vanity Fair article. "As a kid, I had a lot of hidden anger about that. I'd get hit, and I didn't understand it," he said. Though Cruise was the only family member who was hit, it is not entirely clear if he was the only one who faced verbal abuse. After his mother divorced his father, Cruise remained estranged from his dad for a decade. At 22, they reconnected as the elder was dying of cancer.

His family was extremely poor, and he went to 15 schools in 12 years

Tom Cruise's early life was filled with uncertainty and chaos, and not just because of his father's abusive ways. The Mapother family was extremely poor, and they moved around all the time. Even before his parents' divorce, Cruise's father kept them moving due to his inability to keep a job and his near-constant search for work. Then, after Cruise's mother left her husband, she moved her kids to Louisville, Kentucky, in search of a better life. Both of the star's parents originally hail from Louisville, but they were living in Ottawa, Canada, when the divorce occurred. Cruise later landed in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, after his mother's 1978 remarriage when he was 16. It was there that he finished high school.

Cruise's mother worked three jobs to support her kids — Cruise and his sisters Lee Ann, Cass, and Marian — and did her best to give them a good life. "People can create their own lives, I saw how my mother created hers and so made it possible for us to survive," he told Parade. "She said, 'We're going to get through this.'" Because of all of the moving around, Cruise attended 15 schools over the course of 12 years. This included a Catholic seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Cruise spent a year at age 14 before his desire to join the priesthood waned. Shortly thereafter, a lead role in a school production of "Guys and Dolls" sparked Cruise's desire to be in the movies.

He was bullied by other kids for a variety of reasons

It is always hard to envision Hollywood's biggest stars as anything less than cool, but Tom Cruise has said he was ostracized and ridiculed by his peers as a youngster. There were a multitude of factors positioning him as an outsider at school, starting with the fact that he was consistently the new kid in class. Cruise also could not read, and being placed in remedial classes further isolated him. Moreover, he was too small and too eager for the other kids. "So many times the big bully comes up, pushes me," he told Parade. "Your heart's pounding, you sweat, and you feel like you're going to vomit. I'm not the biggest guy, I never liked hitting someone, but I know if I don't hit that guy hard he's going to pick on me all year."

The scars of childhood bullying often last a lifetime, and perhaps not coincidentally, there have been reports that Cruise can be somewhat of a bully himself. For instance, Leah Remini accused him of shouting at assistants in her memoir, and everyone has heard that 2020 outburst in which he was caught on an audio recording aggressively yelling at his crew over COVID-19 protocols. Furthermore, Cruise's first manager, Eileen Berlin, has claimed he has a "terrible temper" and accused him of throwing an album at her face. "There's contempt, arrogance, frustration, charm, sadness. I saw him in all those moods. What I have never seen is a real display of happiness in Tommy," she told The Daily Mail .

His dyslexia diagnosis caused him a lot of pain

According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity , dyslexia refers to "an unexpected difficulty in reading for an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader," and it occurs due to issues with phonological processing. Given that an estimated 20% of the population has dyslexia, it is no surprise that a fair number of celebrities have been open about how the learning disorder has impacted their lives. This list includes Cher, Stephen Spielberg, Octavia Spencer, Anderson Cooper, and many others, but one of the first big-name stars to open the door to talking about dyslexia was none other than Tom Cruise. Cruise's dyslexia was a massive factor in his early life, contributing to his feelings of self-worth and isolating him from his peers.

Cruise was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was seven, but the diagnosis did not bring him much comfort. "The school took me to a psychiatrist to get tested," he told Parade. "They said, 'Oh, he's dyslexic.' I'm labeled. It instantly put me into confusion. It was an absolute affront to my dignity." Cruise said he struggled to find normalcy after the diagnosis, which is what led him to study psychiatry — which later led to his feud with Brooke Shields over anti-depressants and his infamous 2005 interview with Matt Lauer, in which he went on an anti-psychiatry stance. Cruise's stance is, of course, informed by his membership in the church of Scientology, which he has credited with helping him to overcome dyslexia through their "study technology" technique.

He has three divorces under his belt and one union didn't even make three years

Tom Cruise is good at a lot of things — acting, producing, smiling — but marriage does not seem to be one of them. In fact, he appears to be downright bad at making relationships work, and because he is so famous, fans have had a front-row seat for every romantic failure. Cruise's girlfriends have included Rebecca De Mornay, Penelope Cruz, and Cher, but it is his three wives that we want to highlight. The actor first got married in May 1987, when he was 24 and his bride, Mimi Rogers, was 32. Rogers soon found herself enveloped in Cruise's fast-growing celebrity — "You cease to be an individual," she later told People — but she did not need to worry about it for long. Cruise filed for divorce in December 1989, and the marriage was officially dissolved the following February.

In a 1993 Playboy interview, Rogers claimed her marriage ended because Cruise wanted to be a monk. "At least for that period of time, it looked as though marriage wouldn't fit into his overall spiritual need. And he thought he had to be celibate to maintain the purity of his instrument," she said (via E! Online ). That idea quickly fizzled, since Cruise met his next wife, Nicole Kidman, on the set of "Days of Thunder" only days after his split. He reportedly proposed as soon as the divorce was finalized, and the pair were married on Christmas Eve in 1990. Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001 and went on to have a third failed marriage with Katie Holmes, which lasted from 2006 to 2012.

Anne Rice humiliatingly bashed his casting in Interview With the Vampire

It is a necessity that a celebrity of Tom Cruise's magnitude has thick skin, and Cruise has certainly been the butt of more than a few jokes over the course of his career (especially after jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch). The actor has also faced a lot of criticism, for everything from his religion to his parenting to his exuberance. Even Cruise's appearance has at times been ripped apart, especially his smile, despite the fact that he is widely regarded as a conventionally attractive male. For instance, the Internet had a field day when Cruise was photographed at a baseball game with a mysteriously puffy face in 2021. It quickly went back to normal, but not until after the peanut gallery got their say on social media.

Though critique or ridicule from keyboard warriors is one thing, it is an entirely different ballgame when it is another celebrity doing the bashing. This is especially true if said celebrity is the author of the source material you are set to bring to life, which is what happened to Cruise when author Anne Rice got wind of his casting in the 1994 film adaptation of her novel " Interview With the Vampire ." Not only did Rice denigrate Cruise's casting in a Los Angeles Times article, but she continuously complained to crowds of fans about how Cruise "butchered" her script by removing content to fit his clean-cut image. "When it first hit, it really hurt my feelings, to be candid about it," Cruise told Esquire . "Her venom hurt."

He and Nicole Kidman lost two babies during their marriage

Tom Cruise married Nicole Kidman in 1990, and the two remained married for over a decade, which is an eternity in show business circles. By the time the couple announced their split in February 2001, they were one of Hollywood's most visible power couples. Very few saw the divorce coming, including Kidman herself. "I thought our life together was perfect," she told DuJour . "It took me a very long time to heal. It was a shock to my system." Even though Cruise publicly announced that Kidman was aware of why he initiated a split, the public remains in the dark about what truly happened. The media had a field day, with rumors swirling about pretty much every aspect of the couple's life, including how their film "Eyes Wide Shut" may have impacted the marriage and whether one or both spouses cheated.

One of the most salacious stories concerned an alleged miscarriage, although there were conflicting reports regarding the timeline. Kidman set the record straight after some outlets claimed she had a miscarriage at age 23. "So it's huge news, and it didn't happen," Kidman told Marie Claire . "I had a miscarriage at the end of my marriage, but I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of my marriage. It was incredibly traumatic for me. Sometimes you share your grief." Though the couple did eventually welcome two children to their family through adoption, the loss of two babies no doubt left permanent holes in both Cruise and Kidman's hearts.

He sued Bauer after their tabloids made hurtful false claims about him

Tom Cruise is a rather litigious fellow, especially when it comes to false claims made about him by the tabloids. He once sued a porn star for $100 million after the man, Chad Slater, claimed to have slept with Cruise and been the catalyst for the end of his second marriage. The court awarded him a judgment of $10 million, and that is only one of the multiple lawsuits Cruise has filed regarding rumors of his gay affairs. There have been limited gay rumors in the years since, but that has not stopped shady media outlets from publishing scandalous false or exaggerated reports. Never one to lay back and take it, Cruise went to war with German conglomerate Bauer Media after they made troubling claims regarding his youngest daughter, Suri .

Suri, born in April 2006, is Cruise's daughter with his third wife, Katie Holmes. After Cruise and Holmes split up in 2012, after six years of marriage, rumors swirled for years about Cruise's involvement (or lack thereof) in his young daughter's life. The actor took things to court after Bauer magazines InTouch and Life & Style both published stories alleging that Cruise "abandoned" his daughter after the divorce. Cruise asked for $50 million in damages in the defamation suit, and things got ugly on both sides (Bauer even tried to get Suri's mental health records). The parties ultimately settled in December 2013, although all terms were kept confidential except for the fact that both Cruise and the publisher covered their own legal fees.

He had a bitter 20-year feud with an uber-famous director (and many others)

Even though Tom Cruise has cultivated an everyman, guy-next-door persona, it remains unclear whether his nice guy image is true to his actual attitude and behavior. It was easy to buy into Cruise's "aw, shucks" vibe when he was younger, but as the years have progressed, more and more reports have come out to suggest that Cruise might not be exactly who he seems to be when in front of the camera. One look at Cruise's long list of feuds can make even die-hard fans start to question whether the star is the root of the problem. It does not help matters that many of the celebs with whom Cruise has had beef are not themselves prone to conflict.

Stars such as Mark Wahlberg, Lisa Marie Presley, and Alec Baldwin have all publicly critiqued Cruise, but not in so serious a way so as to create a full-blown feud. Still, the list of people with whom Cruise has ongoing conflict is quite long in itself, and it includes huge celebrities like Brad Pitt , John Travolta, and the Beckhams. There is also former scientologist Leah Remini, who went to war with Cruise upon leaving the church, as well as Paramount CEO Brian Robbins. One of Cruise's bitterest feuds — the one with famed director Steven Spielberg — lasted for a full two decades before the two buried the hatchet at an Oscar lunch in 2023. The conflict reportedly began because Spielberg was angered by Cruise's couch-jumping Oprah Winfrey interview and subsequent public denigration of Brooke Shields's use of antidepressants.

He was partially blamed for two tragic deaths during the making of American Made

Movies are meant to bring entertainment to fans, and though it is typically the stars, and a few select others, who get the credit, there are often hundreds of people involved in the construction of a feature film. Provided nothing awful happens on set, we rarely hear about people who work behind-the-scenes operating the cameras, mixing the audio, finding the props, or doing the makeup. We also rarely, if ever, hear about stunt doubles, despite the dominancy of action flicks at the box office and the widespread use of these professionals in Hollywood productions. Though Tom Cruise makes a habit of performing dangerous stunts himself, even he requires the use of stunt performers to make movie magic.

Cruise found himself embroiled in scandal after two pilots were killed and another injured while filming action scenes for the 2017 movie "American Made." The deaths occurred after a plane crashed in the Colombian Andes, where the film was shot in 2015, and multiple lawsuits were filed against producers (and others) in 2017. Cruise was not himself sued, but court documents obtained by People  made it clear that the families blamed both Cruise and director Doug Liman for cutting corners to save time and money. The families suggested that both put their desire for a "high-risk, action-packed motion picture" above the well-being of the pilots and adherence to safety protocols. They also noted that Cruise himself is a skilled pilot who could have done some of the shots rather than add hours to the stunt performers' schedules each day.

He has gotten really embarrassed over public rejection from other stars

For someone in a career that, by its very nature, includes a lot of rejection, Tom Cruise sure does not take it very well. Then again, it has probably been a very long time since Cruise has had to audition, and since he is such a bankable star, his professional life likely includes very little repudiation. On the personal front, however, Cruise does not always get his way — and personal rejections that happen on a world stage cause him what seem to be extreme amounts of embarrassment. When you are not used to your advances being rebuffed, even the smallest slight can seem like a big deal, which might be why Cruise was reportedly so mortified when Kate Middleton refused his help at the U.K. premiere of "Top Gun: Maverick."

While the princess initially accepted Cruise's hand to walk up the stairs, once she made it up the first flight, she switched her purse to avoid Cruise's aid for the second flight. The moment was captured on video, went viral via TikTok, and allegedly caused Cruise much distress. It is not the only public rejection that has sent Cruise into a tailspin, either. After he unsuccessfully attempted to pursue a romance with singer Shakira, news outlets reported that Cruise was extremely upset by the slight. "It was a huge dent to Tom's ego," an inside source told OK! Magazine , which also reported that Shakira had to "beg" Cruise to stop pursuing her (a quote which could not have helped his embarrassment).

His insistence on doing stunts has led to many painful and serious injuries

There are certain actors who are identifiable primarily because of their presence in action and adventure movies. While Tom Cruise did not start out as one, he has over time shifted his career toward the genre. Cruise appeared in a few films that could loosely be classified as action, such as "Top Gun" and "Days of Thunder," but his first full foray into the genre occurred when he starred in 1996's "Mission: Impossible." Cruise is currently working on the eighth movie in the franchise that turned him into a bona fide action hero. Beyond playing Ethan Hunt, Cruise has also made two "Jack Reacher" films and many other one-off action flicks, such as "War of the Worlds," "Minority Report," and "Edge of Tomorrow."

Whether it is an apocalyptic adventure film like "Oblivion" or an action-comedy like "Knight and Day," the vast majority of Cruise's films now have some sort of action element. A known adrenaline junkie, it is clear that Cruise is especially attracted to films that allow him to do his own stunts, no matter how extreme. The star has spoken about having to convince others to let him tackle certain tasks and has at times put his life at risk in order to score the perfect shot. Among others, Cruise has torn a shoulder, cracked multiple ribs, and injured an ankle at least twice. But considering he has done things like ride a motorcycle off a cliff and hang off the side of an airplane, shattered ankles seem par for the course.

He has been targeted by more than one cruel death hoax

All big celebrities have been subject to rumors, but there are times when the rumor mill gets especially nasty, and death hoaxes fit squarely in the nasty pile. Though they rarely have any kernel of truth and are especially cruel, death hoaxes have become a staple of the Internet age. They can be quite elaborate as well, like the rumor that Russell Crowe fell 50 feet to his death from an Austrian mountain while filming a movie. Many others, including Cher, Jon Bon Jovi, and Johnny Knoxville, have been the subject of death hoaxes, but only a few have found themselves targeted time and time again. Tom Cruise has been falsely declared dead at least four times: in 2008, 2010, 2020, and 2023.

Unlike the 2016 hoax that suggested Cruise was moving back to his birthplace of Syracuse, New York, death rumors are not just playful gossip but problematic and mean lies that can be quite distressing. The first time Cruise was the subject of one was in 2008, when he supposedly fell off a cliff in New Zealand. Two years later, the rumor was that the star died in a plumbing accident. Cruise made light of it at the time, but probably did not think he'd be killed off by the Internet so regularly. The 2023 rumor was so undeveloped that it did not even have an attached cause of death, but the 2020 hoax claimed Cruise perished in an on-set accident, which sounds totally plausible and understandably had fans freaking out.

He wishes he never broke things off with Sofia Vergara

If you totally forgot that Tom Cruise once had a thing with Sofia Vergara, you are definitely forgiven. After all, the Columbian actor was still years away from being cast on "Modern Family" and was thus not super famous at the time. Plus, Cruise has had so many paramours that it can be hard to keep track. In addition to his longer-term relationships, the star has had brief dalliances with everyone from Melissa Gilbert to Cher. The reason Vergara is even a notable ex is because Cruise reportedly expressed an interest in rekindling the romance in August 2023, after Vergara's divorce from Joe Manganiello put her back on the market.

According to Andrew Morton's "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography," Cruise and Vergara first dated in 2005, after the actor gave a list of potential mates to leaders at the Church of Scientology. The couple was reportedly then introduced by Will Smith, who invited Vergara to a pre-Oscars party with the intent of setting them up. It is unclear how long they were together, but there is only one instance where Vergara and Cruise were photographed in public, and they reportedly called it off because Vergara was unwilling to renounce Catholicism for Scientology. That seemingly hasn't stopped Cruise from pining after Vergara, as he reportedly began calling mutual friends as soon as she became single. ""If she bites, he's all set to pounce. He thinks she's exactly what has been missing from his life," an unnamed insider told OK! Magazine .

Tom Cruise, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and ‘Godzilla Minus One’ Among Critics Choice Super Awards Winners

By Clayton Davis

Clayton Davis

Senior Awards Editor

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Superstars Tom Cruise and Pedro Pascal , recent Oscar winner Emma Stone and the legendary “Godzilla Minus One” are among the winners of the 4th annual Critics Choice Super Awards .

The awards, which honor fan-favorite genres in film and television, saw a diverse array of movies and TV shows garnering accolades from international critics and journalists. Leading the cinematic charge, “Godzilla: Minus One” (Toho), “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” (Paramount), “Poor Things” (Searchlight), and “Talk to Me” (A24) each secured two wins, the most of any movies.

On the television front, HBO’s “The Last of Us” dominated, clinching seven trophies in its debut season. This sweep included awards in both the superhero and horror film categories. Stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey won two awards each for their portrayal of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, while co-star Melanie Lynskey was named best villain.

The full list of winners are below.

Film Winners

Best Action Movie: “John Wick: Chapter 4”

Actor in an Action Movie: Tom Cruise – “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning”

Actress in an Action Movie: Rebecca Ferguson – “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning”

Superhero Movie: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”

Actor in an Action Movie: Michael Fassbender – “The Killer”

Actress in a Superhero Movie: Iman Vellani – “The Marvels”

Horror Movie: “Talk to Me”

Actor in an Action Movie: Nicolas Cage – “Dream Scenario”

Actress in an Action Movie: Sophie Wilde – “Talk to Me”

Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie: “Godzilla Minus One”

Actor in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie: Mark Ruffalo – “Poor Things”

Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie: Emma Stone – “Poor Things”

Villiain in a Movie: Godzilla – “Godzilla Minus One”

Actor in an Action Series, Limited Series or Made for TV Movie: Idris Elba — “Hijack” (Apple TV+)

Actress in an Action Series, Limited Series or Made for TV Movie: Zoe Saldaña – “Special Ops: Lioness”

Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: “The Last of Us”

Actor in a Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Pedro Pascal – “The Last of Us”

Actress in a Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Bella Ramsey – “The Last of Us”

Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: “The Last of Us”

Actor in a Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Pedro Pascal — “The Last of Us”

Actress in a Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Bella Ramsey — “The Last of Us”

Science Fiction/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: “Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful”

Actor in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Jharrel Jerome — “I’m a Virgo” and Kurt Russell — “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”

Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Annie Murphy — “Black Mirror: Joan is Awful”

Villain in a Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Melanie Lynskey – “The Last of Us”

Superhero categories also include Comic Book and Video Game Inspired movies and series.

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