July 03
Thomas Cruise
Mapother IV's
Birthday
 |
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, better known as Tom
Cruise, was born on July 3, 1962. He suffered a difficult childhood with an
abusive father before joining the seminary with the intention of becoming a
priest.
Fortunately for Hollywood and the Roman Catholic Church, he decided instead to pursue a career in acting. He first started landing major roles in the early eighties, most notably with 1983’s Risky Business. The movie, about a college-bound high-school student who dabbles in running a brothel, launched Cruise to stardom and instigated the grand tradition of sliding around floors in socks while listening to Bob Seger.1986’s Top Gun firmly cemented Cruise’s leading-man status, and despite a few notable missteps (looking at you, Cocktail), for most of the late eighties and early nineties Cruise starred in successful films like Rain Man, Interview with the Vampire and Mission: Impossible.
Listing all of Cruise’s career highlights would take a while. The man has starred in many of the most iconic movies of the past thirty years. In recent years, however, Cruise has become known for some of his more, shall we say, eccentric moments. Around the turn of the century Cruise developed a reputation for being rather litigious. He sued the Daily Express for calling him gay, he sued a gay porn star for calling him gay, sued a cybersquatter for holding TomCruise.com, and even tried to sue a magazine for placing him on their “Most Loathsome” list. In 2005, during an appearance on Oprah while discussing his new girlfriend, actress Katie Holmes, Cruise jumped around the set, stomped on the couch, and generally made a fool of himself.
These days, Cruise mostly makes headlines for his outspoken and off-putting support of the Church of Scientology. Cruise ranks high up in the organization’s arcane hierarchy, and acts as its primary public spokesperson. This affiliation, along with the aforementioned incidents, likely contributed to Cruise’s sharp decline in public opinion, culminating in his being voted thecelebrity people would least like to have as a friend.
One of Cruise’s most memorable roles was Frank Mackey in Magnolia, a sleazy “self-help” guru who teaches men how to seduce women. So on his birthday, cut off a slice of Magnolia Dream Cheesecake for this immensely talented actor and deeply weird little man.