Staying as youthful at 63 years old is not an impossible mission for Tom Cruise. Today, on June 3, he celebrates his birthday without any desire or intention to retire. On the contrary, in his latest movie Mission Impossible: Final Sentence, he is seen performing the same stunts without stunt doubles that he has been doing since the beginning of his action movie career.
Tom Cruise knows both the contemplative life and high risks. Born in Syracuse (New York), his family constantly moved due to his father's struggles to maintain a stable job. They even lived in Canada. Things got worse with his parents' divorce, leading him to live alone with his mother and two sisters in Kentucky.
Having difficulties studying due to dyslexia and the sadness from his family situation, he found refuge in his Catholic education. As a teenager, he decided to join a seminary. Despite his faith and frequent church attendance, a mischievous act of drinking communion wine in a nearby forest with a friend led to his expulsion from the Franciscan institution. Although not explicitly expelled, they sent a letter to his family.
However, Cruise was already interested in pursuing a different path. From a young age, he performed acrobatic jumps among trees, heights, and rooftops, shaping his action star persona. Later, theater classes in school further refined his calling: he was going to be an actor and needed to try his luck in Hollywood.
The American landed his first role in Endless Love in 1981, a very small part. Five years later, success came when he was chosen as the lead inTop Gun. During the filming of this movie, he began developing his obsession with learning to pilot all kinds of vehicles and perform stunts with them.
Currently, he holds licenses for driving cars, motorcycles, boats, commercial airplanes, fighter jets, private jets, and helicopters. He also has a skydiving license. Although his penchant for high-risk stunts in movies has resulted in several injuries, he always bounces back to work as he knows best. This is why he is one of the highest-paid actors with an estimated net worth exceeding 600 million dollars.
At times, this passion has transcended his professional life to impact his personal life. In 1996, he rescued a hit-and-run victim. In 1998, he also saved a woman being mugged in London. That same year, he saved French millionaire Jacques Lejeune whose yacht was on fire in the Mediterranean.
To maintain the physical shape required for his roles, Cruise follows a diet low in sugar and abstains from alcohol. He wakes up at 5:30 in the morning to do functional training. Just him with and against his body. No weights or machines.
Regarding his love life, he doesn't seem to have the same success. Few stable relationships are known about him. Between 1987 and 1990, he was married to Mimi Rogers. She introduced him to the Church of Scientology, a belief he continues to practice today.
That same year, Cruise married actress Nicole Kidman. The couple adopted two children, Connor and Isabella, who are now 29 and 25 years old. They split a decade later and divorced in 2001.
In 2006, he remarried actress Katie Holmes. The union ended in 2012.