Tom Cruise

Some Lesser Known Facts About Tom Cruise

• Tom Cruise grew up in a financially struggling household.

• He moved to Ottawa, Canada, with his family in late 1971 because his father got a job as a defence consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces. They lived in Beacon Hill for a few years.

• Tom had an abusive father, whom he has called a “bully” and a “coward.” He described him as a “merchant of chaos” who often hurt his children; his father died of cancer in 1984.

• Tom used to play floor hockey during his school days.

• In 14 years, Tom Cruise attended 15 schools.

• Tom Cruise first got into acting in fourth grade, guided by his teacher George Steinburg. He and six classmates performed an improvised play called ‘IT’ at the Carleton Elementary School drama festival, which impressed organiser Val Wright.

• Tom was in sixth grade when his mother left his father and moved back to the United States with him and his sisters. In 1978, she married Jack South.

• Tom attended St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati on a Catholic church scholarship, hoping to become a priest. However, after a year, he left. While some say he left because his family moved, a classmate claimed they were asked to leave after being caught with alcohol.

• At 18, Tom moved to New York to pursue a career in acting, with support from his mother and stepfather.

• Tom Cruise started as a busboy in New York before heading to Los Angeles to pursue television opportunities. There, he signed with CSS and started his film career.

• From 1980 to 1981, Tom was in a relationship with actress Diane Cox, who was 17 at the time. The duo got engaged when Cruise was 18, but their relationship ended after she cheated on him as his career began to take off.

• In 1981, Tom dated actress Melissa Gilbert when she was 16 or 17, and he was a struggling actor using his birth name, Tom Mapother. In an interview, Gilbert mentioned their relationship was innocent, and she even bought him his first set of dishes.

• In 1981, Tom appeared as ‘Cadet Captain David Shawn’ in a supporting role in the film ‘Taps.’ He was initially cast as a background actor; however, director Harold Becker was so impressed by his work that he decided to expand his role.

• Tom Cruise went on a date with actor Heather Locklear after they met at an audition early in 1982. During their night out at a club, Cruise surprised her by performing his famous splits from the film  ‘Risky Business.’ The date, however, did not lead to anything serious.

•  In 1983, Tom and actor Rebecca De Mornay began an intense relationship by working together on the film ‘Risky Business.’ Their romance lasted around two years before they eventually broke up.

• In 1985, Tom had a fling with actress Cher, who called him one of her top five lovers during a 2013 appearance on Watch What Happens Live. The two had met at Sean Penn and Madonna‘s wedding and later reconnected at a casual event at the White House.

• Tom briefly dated Patti Scialfa, a singer, songwriter, and guitarist from E Street Band, in 1985.

• Tom met actress Mimi Rogers in 1986, and they got married in May 1987. The duo divorced in 1990 as Mimi struggled with being known only as “Tom Cruise’s wife.”

• Cruise met actor and film producer Nicole Kidman during the making of the film ‘Days of Thunder.’ They married in 1990 and adopted two children, Isabella in 1992 and Connor in 1995. The duo, however, got divorced in 2001 due to their busy schedules.

• Tom met Spanish actor Penélope Cruz while filming ‘Vanilla Sky.’ They started dating in 2001 but broke up in 2004 due to their busy schedules and time apart.

• Tom dated Nazanin Boniadi, a British actor, from November 2004 to January 2005. Years later, a Vanity Fair article claimed that the Church of Scientology set them up, but the church denied it.

• Tom briefly dated Colombian-American actress Sofía Vergara in 2005. According to author Andrew Morton, Sofía was on a list of women Tom was interested in, but the relationship ended because the Church of Scientology required her to convert and leave her Catholic faith if they were to continue.

• Tom and actress Katie Holmes, also known as “TomKat,” met in 2005 and attracted a lot of media attention when they began dating. They got married in 2006 and later had a daughter named Suri. The duo divorced in 2012, and Katie got full custody of Suri.

• In December 2012, Tom met Cynthia Jorge at her restaurant, Beauty & Essex, where she gave him her card. The next day, Tom called and they went on a date at Le Baron nightclub in Manhattan. However, their romance was short-lived.

• In 2014, Tom Cruise was rumoured to be dating American actress and television director Laura Prepon, but she denied it.

• Tom and British-American actress Hayley Atwell were rumoured to be dating while working together on Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One in 2020, but they never confirmed it. The rumours continued till June 2022, when reports claimed they had split.

• Tom met singer and songwriter Shakira at the Formula 1 Grand Pix in Miami in May 2023. Sources claim that he was interested in dating her but Shakira kept turning down his advances.

• Tom and the Russian socialite Elsina Khayrova met through mutual friends in London’s social scene and started dating in late 2023. Their relationship became public in December 2023, but they broke up in early 2024 due to incompatibility.

• He does everything with his left hand, except writing, which he does with his right hand.

• He had never allowed his images to be used in action figures and video games.

• He has been nominated for an Oscar three times but never won one.

• His most successful films are the ‘Mission: Impossible’ series. The first film, released in 1996, made history as the first US feature film to debut in more than 3000 theatres.

• He is a promoter of Scientology and has campaigned for it to be recognized as a religion in Europe.

• Japan declared October 10, 2006 as “Tom Cruise Day” because he has made more trips to Japan than any other Hollywood celebrity.

• Tom Cruise often smokes cigarettes.

• He does not consume alcohol.