Tom Cruise
American actor and film producer (born 1962)
Dramatic range and a long-running action franchise
From debut to leading roles
Tom Cruise entered films in the early 1980s and drew attention with Risky Business in 1983. Top Gun made him a major leading actor in 1986, but his next choices were not confined to that film’s aviation spectacle. He appeared in The Color of Money and Rain Man before playing Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July.
Drama and franchise cinema
During the 1990s, Cruise played a lawyer in The Firm, a sports agent in Jerry Maguire and a supporting character in Magnolia. In 1996 he also began portraying Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible. The series became a recurring strand of his career while he continued to take roles in films outside it.
Later screen work
Minority Report and Collateral offered science-fiction and crime-film roles in the 2000s. Cruise returned to the pilot character of Top Gun in the 2022 sequel and continued the Mission: Impossible films into the 2020s. His action work is closely associated with elaborate stunts, alongside a filmography that also includes dramatic performances.