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Tom Cruise Mapother IV was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York. A troubled childhood led to a year in a Franciscan monastery at the age of 14, and he took up acting after an injury put paid to his high school wrestling ambitions. Wrestling and the priesthood's loss proved to be acting's gain - at 18 Cruise landed his first movie role in Endless Love. By 1983 he was a lead actor and after famously saucing Rebecca de Mornay (on the train, on the stairs and on his dad's leather chair) in classic 80s hit Risky Business, he hit the superstar league as Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in Top Gun. Oscar nominations followed as he took on more mature roles. In 1990 he took up scientology, and says it cured his dyslexia. To date, he's been nominated for three Academy Awards.
