LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A diminutive, ageing action hero who is clean-cut but controversial, world-famous yet utterly secretive: Tom Cruise’s reign as the world’s top movie star has long defied time, expectations and – when stunts are involved – gravity.
The daredevil star, who famously insists on doing his own leaps, chases and plunges, abseiled from the roof of the Stade de France at the climax of the Paris Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday, leaving the country to reluctantly bid farewell to a Games hailed as one of the most successful in history.
Cruise descended on a wire in front of 71,500 spectators, grabbed the Olympic flag and jumped on a motorbike, to the delight of athletes and fans.
In a preview of what the world can expect when the Games head to Los Angeles in 2028, the Mission Impossible star was then shown boarding a plane and skydiving into the Californian city before adorning the iconic Hollywood sign with the Olympic rings.
The 62-year-old actor rode a motorbike off a cliff for last year’s Mission: Impossible installment, and still runs rings around Hollywood’s young pretenders when it comes to action sequences.
Cruise first emerged as one of the bratty young stars of 1980s Hollywood with The Outsiders and Risky Business.
The fiercely intense and ambitious actor embarked on one of the all-time Hollywood hot streaks with hits like Top Gun, Rain Man, A Few Good Men and Jerry Maguire. Despite standing at just 5’7″, he successfully pivoted toward action films with 1996’s Mission: Impossible.
But while rival stars of his generation have waned, Cruise still churns out action blockbusters in which he – not any superhero or franchise – is the big draw. His biggest hit came just two years ago with Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise flew his own planes for the film, skimming dangerously low above the Earth’s surface and enduring intense G-forces. Cruise “always wanted to go lower”, Director Joseph Kosinski told AFP.
“I guarantee you’ll never see anything quite like it ever again… he was always pushing.”
Born Thomas Cruise Mapother in New York on July 3, 1962, Cruise had an unsettled childhood. His father left home when he was 11. Cruise is reported to have attended 15 schools in 12 years.
He got the acting bug after a high school production of the musical Guys and Dolls. His film debut came in 1981 romance Endless Love. But Risky Business (1983) – in which Cruise famously lip-synced to Old Time Rock and Roll – marked him as a future star.
Cast as fighter pilot Maverick in 1986’s smash hit Top Gun, Cruise swiftly ascended to leading man status, and never looked back. Steven Spielberg last year said Cruise and his hit Top Gun sequel “might have saved the entire theatrical industry” from the coronavirus pandemic, bringing fans back into theatres.
Critical acclaim has been less forthcoming. Despite four nominations – three as an actor – Cruise has never won an Oscar.
And since those mid-2000s missteps, remarkably little has been revealed about Cruise’s personal life. He is rumoured to have homes in Florida and England.
Each Christmas, he mails white chocolate coconut cakes to his most favoured celebrity acquaintances.
But beyond trademark blockbuster stunts, Cruise closely guards his mystique.
His silence is “a bet that just his being Tom Cruise, offering no further details about what that might entail, is enticement enough for people to watch his movies”, said a recent New York Times article.
“Lately, more often than not, he has been right.”
