Tom Cruise

He married actress Mimi Rogers in May 1987. Rogers introduced Cruise to Scientology and he went on to become an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology. The marriage ended in February 1990.

His second marriage was to actress Nicole Kidman in December 1990. The couple adopted two children. This marriage also ended in divorce.

He tied the knot for the third time with Katie Holmes with whom he also has a daughter. This marriage too did not last long and ended in 2012.

He was born as Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in Syracuse, New York, as the son of Mary Lee and Thomas Cruise Mapother III. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother worked as a special education teacher. He has three sisters.

He had a difficult childhood and grew up in near-poverty. His father was an abusive man who often used to beat young Tom at the slightest pretext.

The family moved to Canada when his father got a job with the Canadian Armed Forces. However, his parents broke up within a few years and Tom Cruise returned to the U.S. with his mother and sisters.

He became involved in drama as a school student and was encouraged by his teachers who sensed that the boy was naturally gifted with acting abilities. As a teenager he briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati on a church scholarship and aspired to become a Catholic priest.

During his late teens he gave up the idea of becoming a priest and decided to try his hand at an acting career. He moved to New York and was successful in bagging a small role in the 1981 film ‘Endless Love’ as a 19 year old.

After playing small roles in some more films, he portrayed Joel Goodson in the romantic comedy ‘Risky Business’ in 1983. The film became a big hit, and Tom Cruise, with his chocolate-boy good looks became the heart-throb of millions of American girls.

In 1986, he appeared in the action drama film ‘Top Gun’ in which he played Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. This movie too became a huge success, cementing his reputation as a superstar.

His streak of success continued over the late 1980s with films like ‘The Color of Money’ (1986), ‘Cocktail’ (1988), ‘Rain Man’ (1988), and ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ (1989).

In the early 1990s he shared the screen often with actress Nicole Kidman who he had married in 1990. The real-life couple co-starred as lovers in films like ‘Days of Thunder’ (1990) and ‘Far and Away’ (1992).

The war drama film ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ (1989) is one of his best known movies. His portrayal of Ron Kovic in the movie earned Cruise an Academy Award nomination. The film was both, a critical and commercial success.

Tom Cruise is most famous for playing secret agent Ethan Hunt in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ films, a series of action spy thriller film based on the television series of the same name. The series is the 17th-highest-grossing film series of all time with over $2 billion worth of worldwide gross, and has helped maintain Cruise’s superstar status over the years.