Slaylebrity Tom Cruise, with an illustrious career spanning four decades (and an equally entertaining personal life spanning just as long), Cruise has become more than a mere household name—he’s become an international icon. An ageless wonder. And a one-man wow factory, especially when it comes to performing his movies’ epic stunts.
We took a look behind the headlines to present you the strangest, most mind-boggling facts about Tom Cruise we could find. So read on to learn more about one the biggest Slaylebrity movie stars to ever walk the earth.
Disney modeled a certain beloved character after Cruise.
If you’ve ever spotted a slight similarity between Tom Cruise and Aladdin from the Disney film with the same title, then it might be because the animators at Disney actually borrowed features from Cruise’s face and hair to make the character more likable. True story!
He divorced all his wives when they were 33 years old
Cruise has three ex-wives: Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes. In a crazy coincidence, they were all 33 years old at the time of the split. (Cue the eerie music now…)
He’s credited with saving the sunglasses company Ray-Ban.
It’s hard to believe it now, but in 1981, the sunglasses company Ray-Ban was in trouble. The now-ubiquitous Wayfarer sold only 18,000 models that year. But, as it turns out, with the help of a little product placement paid for by Ray-Ban, Cruise singlehandedly saved the entire business, thanks to the shades’ prominent cameos in Cruise’s films Risky Business, Top Gun, and Rain Man. In fact, the year Top Gun was released (1986), Ray-Ban enjoyed a 40 percent increase in sales.
He improvised the risky business dance
In a scene that took half a day to film, Cruise showed off his best moves by completely improvising the famous dance after following this simple piece of instruction in the film’s script: “Joel dances in underwear through the house.”
Cruise could’ve been Iron Man
Before Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Tony Stark in the kickoff to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man, the part was first offered to Cruise, who declined the role.
Some say Cruise believes he has healing powers
According to Tony Ortega, editor of the Scientology watchdog blog The Underground Bunker, Cruise, after reaching the Operating Thetan VI level in the Church of Scientology, claimed that he’d gained the power to heal sprained joints, colds, sore throats, and more—all with just a simple touch. In a leaked Scientology propaganda video, Cruise said, “When you drive past an accident, it’s not like anyone else. If you drive past, you know you have to do something about it because you know you’re the only one who can really help.
Cruise refuses to be an action figure
Since the beginning of his action movie days, Cruise has vehemently and repeatedly denied requests for his likeness to be made into video games and action figures (though it appears this one slipped through the cracks). Sorry, but Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt will not be popping up on your PlayStation any time soon.
Cruise can hold his breadth forever
While filming for Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Cruise ended up holding his breath underwater for more than six minutes. “I have done a lot of underwater sequences. But we wanted to create a suspense underwater sequence without cuts. So doing that sequence was really interesting,” Cruise told USA Today.
Cruise treats the World as his gym
As reported in Men’s Health, Cruise prefers to head into the great outdoors to train for his grueling stunts. “Sea-kayaking, caving… fencing, treadmill, weights… rock-climbing, hiking… I jog… I do so many different activities,” said Cruise.
Cruise is very friendly to fans
According to Men’s Health, Cruise is no Grinch when it comes to his fans. He normally spends more than two hours interacting with them at events. “People are really kind to come out, so I want to say hello,” he explained. Cruise—a nice guy!
Cruise eats like Beckham
According to reports, Cruise has remained lean well into his 50s by following the Beckham diet, a strict diet regimen named after soccer star David Beckham, who is known for his 1,200-calorie-a-day diet that consists mostly of vegetables and lean proteins.
Cruise started acting as a result of an injury
Though Cruise enjoyed wrestling on his high school’s team, a knee injury left him unable to play, which sent him looking for another way to spend his time—and it inevitably lead him to audition for the school’s production of Guys and Dolls.
Cruise learned to dance watching soul train
As a kid, Cruise memorized routines he saw on the television show Soul Train after noticing how other boys used their dancing skills to woo the ladies.
Cruise loves tall women
At only 5-foot-7-inches tall, Tom Cruise is shorter than just about every woman he has ever wooed. Another fun fact: According to Vanity Fair, Nicole Kidman was once asked what she looked forward to after her marriage to Cruise ended, and she replied, “Wearing high heels again.” Burn!
Cruise couldn’t read till he was an Adult
Until Cruise was introduced to the Church of Scientology in the late ’80s, Cruise claims that he could barely read due to a debilitating case of dyslexia. “All through school and well into my career, I felt like I had a secret,” he once told People. “When I’d go to a new school, I wouldn’t want the other kids to know about my learning disability, but then I’d be sent off to remedial reading.”
Cruise nearly died filming Last Samurai
During the filming for The Last Samurai, Cruise narrowly avoided death when one of the mechanical horses used for the fight scenes malfunctioned. It caused his co-star, Hiroyuki Sanada, to swing his blade around at just the wrong time, barely stopping before hitting Cruise’s neck. “I just managed to stop my sword an inch from his neck,” Sanada described afterward.
Cruise has never won an Oscar
Maybe it’s because it feels like he’s been around forever, but we find it surprising that Cruise has never actually gone home with an Oscar. In fact, he’s only been nominated three times, for Magnolia, Jerry Maguire, and Born on the Fourth of July.
Cruise brother plays a surgeon in Lost
As it turns out, his brother, William Mapother, is also an actor. He appeared on the television show Lost, in which he played a surgeon who was also a sinister villain. Mapother has also had supporting roles in such films as The Zodiac, Lords of Dogtown, and the Cruise-helmed Born on the Fourth of July.
Cruise bought his first motorcycle before he could drive
In an appearance on The Jay Leno Show in 2013, Cruise admitted to purchasing his first of many motorcycles when he was only 10 years old. He ended up hiding it from his mother, which was probably wise, as he crashed his new bike shortly after purchase.
He didn’t want to be an actor
Cruise was raised in a devout Catholic household. In fact, his first career aspiration at age 14 was to be a priest.
He has a pilot license
In 1994, he received his pilot’s license and often flies himself wherever he needs to be. Today, he owns a Gulfstream G450 that cost him upwards of $38 million.
He showed up in drag to accept an award
The Hasty Pudding Man of the Year is an annual award given by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard University. In 1994, Cruise was presented this award for his outstanding work—and promptly accepted this honor dressed to the nines in a bra and heels.
Cruise hates his teeth
Believe it or not, Cruise was, for much of his life, terribly self-conscious of his appearance. Specifically, it was a front tooth that he’d chipped during a game of floor hockey when he was a kid. By 2002, however, he’d had enough, and apparently got braces.
He helped chase down a mugger
In 1998, Cruise, along with his bodyguards, chased down thieves in London who nearly stole away with $153,000 worth of jewelry from his then-neighbor, Rita Simmonds. Cruise “sped to the rescue” after hearing the screams of the woman from down the road, where she was being mugged as she exited a car.
He once paid a woman’s hospital bill
Just two years before he was chasing down muggers in the streets of London, the off-screen hero took Heloisa Vinhas, a 23-year-old Brazilian-born aspiring actress, to the hospital after witnessing her being struck by a car in Los Angeles. After finding out that she had no insurance to cover her bill, he paid the $7,000 bill in full.
He achieved a crazy box office milestone
Beginning with A Few Good Men in 1992, and ending with Jerry Maguire in 1996, Cruise became the first actor ever to appear in five consecutive movies that each grossed over $100 million in the United States.
He plays fencing in his spare time
According to Glamour, Cruise enjoys fencing so much that he has an entire room dedicated to the sport in his mansion. He even encouraged fellow actor Will Smith and friend David Beckham to join in on the fun. “We don’t get enough time for hanging out, just us three guys, so this is his way of getting together and bonding,” says Smith.
He’s had two weddings with the same best man
At his weddings to Nicole Kidman, in 1990, and Katie Holmes, in 2006, Cruise’s “bromance” with the controversial leader of the Church of Scientology, David Miscavige, was put on display as Miscavige took the role of best man at both ceremonies. Since the ’80s, Cruise and Miscavige had, as reported in the Daily Mail, developed a deep bond over their love of the church, often speaking in a secret language and gambling together in Las Vegas.
Katie Holmes always had a thing for him
Cruise was on Holmes’ radar far before they ever laid eyes on each other in real life. When she was a teenager, Holmes plastered posters of the Top Gun star on her bedroom walls in Toledo, Ohio, dreaming of the day she would get to marry him. “I think every little girl dreams about her wedding. I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise,” she told Seventeen magazine. Well, lucky for Holmes, her teenage heartthrob dream marriage came true—at least for a short time.
No one loves Tom Cruise like Japan loves Tom Cruise
On October 10, 2006, the Japan Memorial Day Association announced that they would begin celebrating every October 10th as “Tom Cruise Day” in Japan, since he had made more trips (nearly two dozen) to the country than any other Hollywood star at that time.
MTV created an award for him
In 2005, Cruise accepted the first-ever Generation Award—given to “an artist who has shown us a variety of impressive roles, a personal and professional flair, and of course, an awesome level of talent”—at the MTV Movie Awards.
He’s a pamphlet passer
During the filming of the 2005 remake of War of the Worlds, Cruise stayed busy between takes by handing out flyers and information packets about the Church of Scientology from a tent that he set up just outside the set.
He doesn’t see his daughter much
Though it’s been reported recently that Cruise is leaving the clutches of Scientology to be with his family (namely, his daughter Suri, pictured above), he didn’t always put his family first in matters of the church. After it was reported that Cruise was suing In Touch for $50 million over a cover story claiming he “abandoned” Suri, a court deposition revealed that he had in fact not seen her in over 100 days.
The Church set up his first date with Katie Holmes
According to Vanity Fair, the Church of Scientology set up the first date between Cruise and Holmes. In fact, the church allegedly held auditions for years in order to find “Kidman’s replacement.”
The author of interview with a vampire apologised to Tom Cruise
When the casting for the 1994 big-screen adaptation of her book, Interview with a Vampire, was announced, Anne Rice publicly criticized Cruise in the role of Lestat, claiming that his performance would be nothing short of mediocre. However, after she saw the film, she changed her tune, and purchased a two-page ad in Daily Variety for a cool sum of $7,740 to apologize to Cruise. The ad stated that, “from the moment he appeared, Tom was Lestat for me.”
He got injured on the set of outsiders
According to Andrew Morton, author of Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, the rumble between the Greasers and the Socs in the film adaptation of The Outsiders became so violent—yes, truly violent—that Cruise ended up breaking his thumb. Fellow actors Emilio Estevez and Tom Howell also got roughed up in the fake fight gone wrong.
He dangled himself from the side of a plane
Not only does Cruise hold his breath for an impossible amount of time underwater, but he also took these daredevil tendencies into the stratosphere with this insane stunt for Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, in which he dangled himself off the side of a plane in the opening scene. (With a safety harness, of course.)
And a sky scraper
In Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, one scene required him to repel 163 stories down the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai—the tallest building in the world. As you can see from the behind-the-scenes video, he barely broke a sweat.
And a canyon wall
If you watch this maneuver through the canyons in Dead Horse, Utah, you’ll have a greater appreciation for Cruise’s fearlessness.
He runs in basically every movie
No matter the film and no matter the storyline, Tom Cruise is always running—either toward or away, doesn’t matter—some evil danger, still managing to precariously balance precariously handsome athleticism and sheer terror. In this video, you can catch a glimpse of every single one of Cruise’s terror-stricken flees. The popularity of that video inspired Cruise to add this to his bio on Instagram: “Tom Cruise: Actor. Producer. Running in movies since 1981.”
He was a bully magnet
Cruise has admitted that he was severely bullied for being “different” in school.
He grew up with an abusive father
Throughout his childhood, Cruise was beaten and bullied by his father, who deserted the family when he was young. “He was a bully and a coward,” he told Parade magazine. “He was the kind of person where if something goes wrong, they kick you.”
He switched schools a lot
In just 12 years of school, Cruise attended 15 different schools, spanning the country from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Cincinnati, Ohio. Unfortunately for Cruise, this only made it harder for him to create any lasting relationships with his peers.
He held many odd jobs to help his mom pay bills
Growing up, Cruise took several odd jobs to help make ends meet. “No job was too dirty or difficult for Tommy, as long as it paid money to help his mom out,” Cruise’s neighbor Bill Lewis was quoted saying.
He has a knack for languages
He can speak English & Spanish very fluently. Actually, English is his native language because he was born in Syracuse, New York, United States BUT about the Spanish language speaking ability we have no idea how & when he learned it.
Slaylebrity Networth Stats
Social Fans: 5.9 Million +
EST Net Worth: $600 Million +
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Source Best Life Online
An ageless wonder. And a one-man wow factory
Tom cruise brother played a surgeon in lost
Tom Cruise worked off jobs to help his Mom pay her bills
