Regarded as a Hollywood icon , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] he has received various accolades , including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Golden Globe Awards , in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards. Cruise began acting in the early s and made his breakthrough with leading roles in Risky Business and Top Gun As a leading Hollywood star in the s, he starred in commercially successful films, including the drama A Few Good Men , the thriller The Firm , the horror film Interview with the Vampire , and the romance Jerry Maguire Cruise subsequently established himself as a star of science fiction and action films , often performing his own risky stunts.
He has played fictional agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible film series since One of his cousins, William Mapother , is also an actor who has appeared alongside Cruise in five films. Cruise grew up in near poverty and had a Catholic upbringing. He later described his father as "a merchant of chaos", [ 18 ] a "bully", and a "coward" who beat his children.
He elaborated, "[My father] was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my lifeโhow 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. In total, Cruise attended fifteen schools in fourteen years. He and six other boys put on an improvised play to music called IT at the Carleton Elementary School drama festival.
That year, his mother left his father, taking Cruise and his sisters back to the United States. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati ; he aspired to become a Franciscan priest before leaving after a year. Priests at the seminary have said Cruise chose to leave the school when his family relocated again; however, a former classmate said that they were both asked to leave after getting caught taking liquor.
At age 18, [ 28 ] with the blessing of his mother and stepfather, Cruise moved to New York City to pursue an acting career. He signed with CAA and began acting in films. Cruise was originally supposed to appear as a background actor but his role was expanded after impressing director Harold Becker. Their chemistry won praise among critics with The Washington Post writing, "One of the subtle achievements of both Cruise's and Newman's performances is that you feel that both of them are genuinely top-notch pool hustlers".
