Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise began his acting career in 1981 with a small role in Endless Love, followed by a supporting role in Taps that same year. In 1983, he appeared as Steve Randle in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders, alongside Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, C. Thomas Howell, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio and Patrick Swayze. His other film credits that year included All the Right Moves and Risky Business. He starred in Ridley Scott's Legend in 1985 and appeared in The Color of Money opposite Paul Newman in 1986. He followed these films with Cocktail (1988) and Rain Man (1988), co-starring Dustin Hoffman.

In 1989, Cruise portrayed Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July. His performance earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, a Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, a People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture Actor and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Cruise's film credits in the 1990s included Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), The Firm (1993) and Interview with the Vampire (1994), in which he starred alongside Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas and Christian Slater. In 1996, he portrayed Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible, the first installment in the film franchise, and starred in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire as a sports agent. His performance in Jerry Maguire earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

In 1999, Cruise co-starred with Nicole Kidman in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut and played motivational speaker Frank T. J. Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. His performance in Magnolia earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), earning an MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance. His subsequent films included Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003) and Collateral (2004). He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for The Last Samurai. In 2005, he starred in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds and received the MTV Generation Award.

In 2006, Cruise reprised Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible III. The following year, he appeared in the political drama Lions for Lambs (2007), alongside Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. In 2008, he played Les Grossman in the comedy Tropic Thunder, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and portrayed Claus von Stauffenberg in the historical thriller Valkyrie.

Cruise starred opposite Cameron Diaz in the action comedy Knight and Day (2010) and returned as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011). In 2012, he played Stacee Jaxx in the musical film Rock of Ages and starred as Jack Reacher in the film adaptation of Lee Child's novel One Shot. He reprised the Jack Reacher role in the subsequent film series. His other credits included Oblivion (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and The Mummy (2017).

In 2015, Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which he also produced. He reprised the role in Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), which became the highest-grossing film of his career at the time. In 2022, he returned as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick, serving as a producer as well as the film's star. The film grossed more than $1 billion worldwide. Cruise subsequently starred in and produced Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and reprised Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025). He also stars in Digger, a black comedy directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Cruise began producing films through Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he co-founded with Paula Wagner in 1993. His first producing credit was Mission: Impossible (1996). Other films produced by the company included Without Limits (1998), Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), The Others (2001), Vanilla Sky (2001), Shattered Glass (2003), The Last Samurai (2003), Narc (2002), Elizabethtown (2005), Ask the Dust (2006) and Mission: Impossible III (2006). Cruise also produced Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and several installments of the Mission: Impossible franchise.

In November 2006, Cruise and Paula Wagner took over United Artists, with Cruise serving as a producer and actor and Wagner as chief executive. The studio's first film under their leadership was Lions for Lambs (2007), followed by Valkyrie (2008). Wagner stepped down from her position in 2008. Cruise later resumed his partnership with Paramount Pictures on Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) and collaborated with Wagner on the Jack Reacher films. In January 2024, TC Productions, Cruise's production company, announced a strategic partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to develop and produce original and franchise films.