Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was born on July 3rd, 1962 in Syracuse, New York. His family moved a lot, and by the time he was 14 years old, he had attended 15 different schools. When a knee injury prevented him from staying on his high school wrestling team, he auditioned for the lead role in the school's production of Guys and Dolls. Cruise originally aspired to be a Catholic priest, but at 18 he moved to New York City to pursue acting.
Though his first film was Endless Love, it was Risky Business in 1983 that really launched his career. By 1990, Cruise had starred in several top-grossing films including Top Gun (1986), The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and by the year 2000, he was one of the highest-paid actors in the world. He won Golden Globe awards for his performances in Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996), and Magnolia (1999).
