Tom Cruise on any given day.
 
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Tom Cruise
Forecourt Ceremony held on Monday, June 28, 1993
 
Born: Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York
Age at the time of the ceremony: 30
 
Love him or hate him, Tom Cruise is a movie star. Headlining films since he was 21, Cruise has never worked anywhere except feature films. We are willing to bet that even if you are not crazy about the guy, that there are at least a couple of performances of his that you treasure.

Tom Cruise Mapother III, was, according to his son, Tom Cruise, an abusive man. Growing up without much money, the family moved to Ottawa, Canada in 1971, where young Tom began acting in the fourth grade. A good athlete, Cruise had to relocate with his sisters to the US after their parents divorced. Tom attended a string of schools, nearly always getting into minor trouble while acting in school productions.

Director Franco Zeffirelli was looking for young unknowns to put in his film Endless Love (released in July 1981) with Brooke Shields, and Cruise was on his way. 1983 became a big year for Cruise. In that year, director Francis Ford Coppola cast Cruise in the ensemble of The Outsiders (released in March 1983), with Matt Dillon; director Paul Brickman had the good sense to have Cruise dance in a shirt and his underwear in Risky Business (released in August 1983), with Rebecca De Mornay — it made him a star — and director Michael Chapman starred Cruise in All the Right Moves (released in October 1983).

By now, directors were looking to get some of that million-dollar star wattage for their own films. First in line was director Ridley Scott, who put Cruise in Legend (released in December 1985). The film kinda tanked, but has since been re-evaluated.

Top Gun (which played the Chinese in May 1986), directed by Ridley's brother Tony Scott, was such a whopping monster hit, that everyone wanted Cruise to be in their movie. Martin Scorsese brought Cruise in to play the lead in his sequel to The Hustler (released in September 1961): The Color of Money (released in October 1986), with Paul Newman.

A film which utilized Cruise's modern-day bombast effectively was Rain Man (released in December 1988), with Dustin Hoffman, directed by Barry Levinson; while Born on the Fourth of July (released in December 1989), directed by Oliver Stone, put Cruise's sincerity front and center.

Then — disaster. A rare misstep in Cruise's career came with Days of Thunder (which played the Chinese in June 1990), with Nicole Kidman. The film was widely seen as an object lesson in how not to make a Tom Cruise movie.

Cruise fared much better in the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men (released in December 1992), with Jack Nicholson, directed by Rob Reiner, and also in Cruise's visit to John Grisham land: The Firm (released in June 1993), directed by Sydney Pollack. Fans were insensed when Cruise was cast by fiat as Lestat in the film of Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (released in November 1994), with Brad Pitt, but Cruise turned in a very credible performance and won his detractors over.

A similar groan went up when Cruise was announced to play IMF Agent Ethan Hunt in the film of Mission: Impossible (which played the Chinese in May 1996), with John Voight, directed by Brian De Palma, but Cruise won 'em over to such an extent that four sequels have been made with another in the works.

Jerry Maguire (released in December 1996), with Cuba Gooding, Jr., directed by Cameron Crowe, is in many ways the character-defining Tom Cruise movie: an arrogant bastard becomes a mensch. Cruise more than holds Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (which played the Chinese in July 1999), with Nicole Kidman, together. He fits in beautifully in the ensemble cast of Magnolia (released in December 1999), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Back in mega-movie-land, Cruise did Mission: Impossible II (which played the Chinese in May 2000), directed by John Woo, then did Minority Report (released in June 2002), directed by Steven Spielberg, and played the title role in the historical film The Last Samurai (which played the Chinese in December 2003), with Ken Watanabe, directed by Edward Zwick, a flawed, but fascinating work.

More hits followed: War of the Worlds (which played the Chinese in June 2005), directed by Steven Spielberg, followed by Mission: Impossible III (released in May 2000), directed by J.J. Abrams. Cruise did an extended cameo as a studio exec in Tropic Thunder (released in August 2008), with Robert Downey, Jr., directed by Ben Stiller, and returned in Mission: Imposible: Ghost Protocol (released in December 2011).

Taking a break from action pictures, Cruise took part in the musical Rock of Ages (released in June 2012), then launched another action series: Jack Reacher (released in December 2012). The dystopian sci-fi flick Edge of Tomorrow (which played the Chinese in June 2014), was a quasi-hit, along with Tom's other action franchise, Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation (which played the Chinese in July 2015).

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (which played the Chinese in October 2016), directed by Edward Zwick, The Mummy (released in June 2017), and American Made (released in September 2017), and Missiion: Impossible - Fallout (which played the Chinese in July 2018), and starring in the biggest hit of 2022, Top Gun: Maverick (which played the Chinese in May 2022), and starring in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (which played the Chinese in July 2023) round out what Cruise has been doing lately.
 
 
Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Tom Cruise Forecourt block. Executed by Unknown, Monday, June 28, 1993. 58 x 38 inches.
Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Tom Cruise Forecourt ceremony, Monday, June 28, 1993. Tom Cruise gives the cameras a grin while signing his name in the cement.
 
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