How Tom Cruise Overcame Childhood Struggles to Become a Hollywood Megastar

 

Tom Cruise is one of the biggest stars in the world. Having starred in countless blockbuster movies, with a host of awards and accolades, he has millions of fans around the globe.

With his movie-star looks, successful film career, and string of high-profile romances, it seems that Cruise's private life is as public as can be but while you might think you know everything there is to know about this Hollywood dreamboat, there’s actually a lot more to this household name than meets the eye.

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Read on to find out the truth of Tom Cruise’s amazing life story and secrets that were left untold.

Humble Beginnings

Cruise was born in Syracuse, New York, on July 3, 1962, as Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, one of four children, and the only boy. His father worked as an electrical engineer and his mother was a special education teacher.

Cruise did not have the easiest of starts in life. Growing up in Syracuse, New York, his family struggled with poverty, his parents working tirelessly to try and provide for him and his three sisters.

Even from a young age, Cruise dreamed of leaving his life of poverty behind and heading for bigger and better things.

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But no one could imagine just what a huge star he would turn out to be.

Struggling Student

But it wasn’t just financial woes that had Cruise struggling as he was growing up.

The young superstar-to-be had a very difficult time in school, finding it hard to keep up with his peers at the same speed as everyone else.

Cruise, an intelligent and capable young boy, was very frustrated with his difficulties, until at age 7 he was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disability that effects the brain’s ability to digest words and letters.

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But Cruise wouldn’t let anything stand in his way of his dreams of superstardom.

To Canada and Back

In 1971, when Cruise was nine years old, his family moved to Canada, where his father had taken a job with the Canadian Armed Forces. It was there that Cruise began to show his aptitude for performing, organizing an improvised musical play with six of his classmates.

Cruise and his family lived in Canada for three years, until his parents split up when he was around twelve years old.

After the split, the young Cruise returned to the U.S. with his mother and sisters, where they moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Money was even tighter now, and things were only going to get harder for the Mapother family.

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Having already seen so much in his young life, Cruise had no idea what was in store for him—and how fast he was about to have to grow up.

Mother Superior

Cruise has spoken candidly about his mother’s hard work and incredible attempts to keep the family supported on her own.

“My mom could have sat there every morning and cried and cried,” Tom said to his neighbor Bill Lewis. “She didn’t. My mom was very proud. She had dignity. She’s going to work hard.”

Unfortunately, a mishap was about to befall the family that no amount of hard work on Mary Lee Mapother’s part could put right.

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It would be down to Cruise to save the day.

Looking After His Mother

Working three jobs to support her family, Mary Lee Mapother was stretched to breaking point. And when an employer instructed her to move a washing machine on her own, that’s exactly what happened.

Mapother slipped a disk in her back, and was left bedridden for eight months.

It fell to the young Cruise, now the man of the house, to take up the burden and look after his mother and family.

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Cruise stepped up to the challenge and began providing for the family, as well as caring for his mother.

The Acting Bug

Despite his hardships at home, Cruise never forgot the thrill of capturing an audience onstage. He knew that acting was what he wanted to do, and he stayed focused on his dream even when his family struggles were so intense.

Cruise juggled his jobs, looking after his mother, and taking care of his sisters, with regularly performing in drama classes and school plays.

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It seemed clear to everyone that Cruise was on his way to a career in showbiz—which is why everyone was so surprised with what happened next.

Holy Order?

With Cruise’s love for performing and his talent for drama, everyone assumed that his career choice for the future would be one in acting. That’s why his friends and family were so surprised when Cruise, at the age of 14, enrolled in a theological seminary in Ohio, and declared his intention to become a priest.

Cruise went to the seminary after hearing Father Ric Schneider give a talk at St. Raphael the Archangel school. But it seems that he was still serious about becoming an actor and as Schneider later shared, he probably enrolled in the seminary education purposes only.

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"It was pretty obvious," Schneider said. "I think he went there to get an education. I didn't get a sense he was serious about the priesthood or the religious life."

Guys and Dolls

Before he graduated from high school, Cruise had one particular role in a school production that would see him well and truly bitten by the acting bug.

It was as the star of the school’s performance of Guys and Dolls, that the young actor realized that he could not escape his destiny. He graduated from high school later that year, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do next.

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Now it was time to announce his dramatic change in plans to his family, and what it would mean for all of them.

The Big Apple

After graduating from high school, Cruise announced that he had decided to move to New York to pursue an acting career. Cruise’s mother had just remarried, and she and her new husband were supportive of the decision.

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“Tom said, ‘Let me see. I really feel that this is what I want to do,’” she said to CBNC. “And we both wholeheartedly agreed, because we both felt it was a God-given talent, and he should explore it because he was so enthused about it. So to make a long story short, we gave him our blessing – and the rest is history.”

Big Break

So, the young Cruise headed to New York City, waiting tables, working as a busboy while going on as many auditions as possible.

And it didn’t take long for this talented guy to get his big break. Less than five months after moving to the Big Apple, he secured his first role, a small part in the 1981 Brooke Shields movie Endless Love.

Screenshot from "Endless Love"

It was only a small role, but Cruise knew that this meant he was on his way. Sure enough, what happened next served to propel him to superstardom.

Rise to the Top

Cruise started getting more and more parts in different movies. As time went on, he slowly began making his name within the industry as a talented actor, and before long he was going for roles as the leading man.

Cruise didn’t lose sight of his dream, and went on audition after audition, until finally, his hard work and determination paid off. He landed the lead part in the now-iconic movie Risky Business.

Screenshot from "Risky Business"

The movie landed Cruise firmly on the Hollywood map—but it was his next film that would cement him as a superstar.

Top Gun

Cruise’s next movie, Top Gun propelled him from popular actor to bona fide superstar.

Released in 1986, it was the highest-grossing movie of the year, and cemented Cruise firmly as Hollywood royalty.

It received a wide range of critical acclaim and was notably nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one. It also won a Golden Globe.

Not bad for a poor kid from Kentucky who struggled in school—Cruise had soared to the top of the showbiz industry. He had well and truly made it.

Screenshot from "Top Gun"

And soon enough, it would be his personal life that would catch the headlines.

Ladies’ Man

Of course, a heartthrob like Tom Cruise received his fair share of female fans—both on and off screen.

Cruise has been well known for his various high-profile romances, starting off his career as a ladies’ man with dalliances with some of the most famous women of the times—and often several years older than him.

After starring in Risky Business together, Cruise had a romance with actress Rebecca De Mornay, three years his senior.

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But this wasn’t the only famous fling that Cruise would engage in during his time on set.

True Romance

Cruise also famously had a romance with American singer and songwriter Patti Scialfa. Scialfa had just come off from tour with Bruce Springsteen, who she would later to go on to marry.

But neither Cruise now Scialfa knew that at the time, of course, and dated each other for a few months.

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Scialfa was nine years older than Cruise, but that clearly didn’t bother either of them—after all, when there’s a true connection, age is nothing but a number.

Love After Love

It may surprise you to learn that Cruise also had a dalliance with legendary diva Cher, back in the late eighties.

Cruise first met Cher, 16 years his senior, in Malibu in 1986 where they were both attending Sean Penn and Madonna’s wedding.

They later bonded at an event at the White House, where they had both been invited to a fundraiser for sufferers of dyslexia. They bonded over their shared condition and shared a romance that Cher remembers fondly even to this day.

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Only about 20 years later it was confirmed by the two that they actually were dating and in 2018, Cher opened up about their relationship in an interview with Times and said that the two are still friends.

Marriage Material

As well as the well-known women he has dated, Cruise has in fact also been married a total of three times. You may be more familiar with his later marriages, but there’s an earlier one you may not know about.

In 1987, Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers, probably best known for her role in the 1991 religious’ drama The Rapture.

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Though they seemed blissfully happy at first, the couple’s marriage had broken down by the end of 1989, and they split up in 1990.

Stable Career

After the success of Top Gun, Cruise went on to star in a number of successful Hollywood movies. Now well-known for his typical roles as the action superhero, while of course also always playing the heartthrob, Cruise became a well-regarded fixture on the Hollywood circuit.

The next most high-profile films Cruise starred in were The Color of Money in 1986, and then the iconic Cocktail in 1988.

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The latter was a massive box office success—but it was the next movie that had a huge impact on his acting career and status in Hollywood.