The 80s - Tom Cruise Appreciation #1 - He Was the Teen Heartthrob of the 80s!

**Melis** · 06-26-2010, 09:14 PM

Tom Cruise Appreciation Thread

Bio
If you had told 14 year old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be considered one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in July 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become Tom Cruise, one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history. The only son (among four children) of nomadic parents young Tom spent his boyhood eternally on the move and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the US and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Though below average height and not particularly handsome in the traditional sense, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top grossing films of the decade including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s and 2000s he was one of the highest paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), and Jerry Maguire (1996) - for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth.

Notable 80s Films

Risky Business

All the Right Moves

Cocktail

Top Gun

**Barrybgb** · 06-27-2010, 08:39 AM

Can't believe there wasn't a Tom Cruise thread already!.

He's done a lot of good work.

**Melis** · 06-27-2010, 10:06 AM

Same here! I loved Tom in the 80s. He's become a little too weird for me now.

Anyone have a favorite Tom movie?

**Barrybgb** · 06-27-2010, 01:42 PM

There was a time there when I couldn't stand him a few years back. I've softened back up on him a little bit.

Favorite film?. Well, Risky Business of course. I was never a fan of Top Gun, to be honest. Honestly, some of the best, most incredible stuff he has done lately has been as Les Grossman, the bald, fat, hairy, foul mouthed movie producer who likes to dance to hip hop music in "Tropic Thunder". Lol.

**Melis** · 06-27-2010, 02:35 PM

I can understand.

I don't think I've seen that. Sounds interesting.

**Melis** · 09-13-2010, 04:14 PM

I watched Cocktail recently.

**Barrybgb** · 09-14-2010, 08:52 AM

I only saw that one once 20 years ago. Lol.

**Melis** · 09-14-2010, 03:13 PM

I was obsessed with it even though I didn't watch the movie. My parents didn't want me to see it since it was R. They did buy me the soundtrack because I loved the songs.