Tom Cruise’s life feels like the kind of blockbuster story he stars in. Before he became one of the world’s biggest action heroes, he was just a young boy with a dream never imagining he would one day hang off planes, climb skyscrapers, or become the face of some of the most famous movies ever made.
Over the years, he has surprised fans with his fearless stunts, unusual talents, and the curious little stories that happened behind the scenes. And the more you learn about him, the more you realize there’s so much more to his journey than what we see on screen.
In this article, we’ll tell you some fun and interesting facts about Tom Cruise that make his journey even more fascinating.
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Tom Cruise’s real name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV and he dropped it to distance himself from his father.
The famous American actor was born as Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3rd, 1962, to his father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III and mother Mary Lee Pfeiffer. He has publicly described his childhood as difficult, saying his father was abusive. In a 2006 interview, he called his father a bully and a coward.
According to multiple reasons, one of the reasons Cruise adopted the shorter name professionally was to distance himself from his painful childhood memories and the last name Mapother. Besides the personal reasons, using a shorter name also suited the entertainment industry.
2. The “Mission: Impossible” actor struggles with dyslexia.
Tom Cruise has publicly said he was diagnosed with dyslexia at about the age of seven. He described having serious difficulties in school such as when he tried to read, by the time he reached the end of the page, he often remembered little or nothing. In addition, reading made him feel anxious, frustrated, and even physically uncomfortable.
Because of this, when he finished high school (in 1980), he admitted that he was functionally illiterate. Further, working as an actor made reading scripts even harder: memorizing lines, reading, and understanding, all of this was a struggle at first.
The actor has credited the Church of Scientology (and specifically a learning method from its founder, L. Ron Hubbard) with helping him overcome his difficulties with reading and comprehension. He said that this “Study Technology” taught him how to learn differently. Instead of reading in a traditional way, he learned to create mental pictures and use visual thinking to understand written words.
3. Tom Cruise attended 15 different schools in 14 years.
The actor moved around a lot as a kid because his family struggled financially and his father frequently changed jobs. As a result, he ended up attending 15 different schools in just 14 years of his childhood. This unstable school life is one of the reasons he struggled academically, especially after being diagnosed with dyslexia.
4. He wanted to become a priest before becoming an actor.
Tom Cruise grew up in a Catholic family. As a teenager, he enrolled at St. Francis Seminary in Cincinnati, a training ground for young men interested in the priesthood. For a short time, the idea of becoming a priest seemed possible to him, but after about one year, he left the seminary. According to a later interview, he said, “I was interested in spirituality, but I decided being a priest was not for me.”
Also, a friend from the seminary has said that Cruise was asked not to return when a group of boys, including him, were caught with alcohol. This incident reportedly ended his short stay at the seminary.
After leaving the seminary, during high school, he got involved in school plays. He discovered he felt comfortable on stage and realized acting was his real passion.
5. Tom Cruise did many early auditions with a chipped tooth.
The 63-year-old actor had a visibly chipped tooth during many of his early auditions and film roles. The chip was the result of a hockey injury he sustained as a youth. For his role as Steve Randle in the 1983 film The Outsiders, he famously removed the dental cap that covered the chip to make his character look more authentic.
Also, while auditioning for Risky Business, he appeared dirty, with a chipped tooth, a tattoo, and an accent, yet still landed the role, showing that he didn’t hide the dental flaw.
6. Tom Cruise helped support his family while he was young by doing jobs like cutting grass.
As mentioned earlier, Tom Cruise grew up in a financially struggling family, especially after his parents divorced. His mother worked several jobs to support her four kids, even selling electrical appliances. Cruise once said that things were so tight that one Christmas, they couldn’t afford gifts so the family wrote poems for each other instead.
To help out, he started working when he was about 8 years old. He did all kinds of small jobs, such as raking leaves, cutting grass, delivering newspapers, and selling Easter and Christmas cards. He said he used the money both to support his family and to save up for movie tickets, which eventually helped inspire his dream of becoming an actor.
7. He is known around the world for doing most of his stunts on his own.
Tom Cruise has a long-standing reputation for performing many of his own stunts rather than relying solely on stunt doubles.
Over the years, he has pulled off some of the most daring scenes in Hollywood, including hanging off a plane in Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation, climbing the Burj Khalifa in Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol, jumping between rooftops in Fallout, and performing real helicopter maneuvers in Mission: Impossible- Fallout.
In a talk at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Tom Cruise said that he genuinely loves doing his own stunts even though they can be dangerous. He compared it to classic Hollywood star Gene Kelly, saying, “No one asked Gene Kelly why he danced or why he did his own dancing.”
8. The Top Gun actor once had braces.
In the early 2000s, as an adult, Tom Cruise did wear braces. He was in his early 40s and briefly used clear, ceramic braces for a short period to help correct the alignment of his teeth. At the time, he was already a major Hollywood star and he openly talked about fixing his smile while still working on films.
He even appeared at public events, including the 2002 premiere of Minority Report, wearing the braces, which helped normalize adult orthodontic treatment.
9. Tom Cruise is a licensed pilot who has had his license since 1994.
Tom Cruise is widely described as a licensed pilot, having earned his private pilot’s license reportedly in 1994 and later obtained a commercial and instrument rating, which allowed him to fly both planes and helicopters. His interest in flying is said to have started while he was working on the original Top Gun.
Over the years, the actor is said to have become an experienced pilot at times flying himself to film sets and even performing aerial stunts in movies, such as the Mission: Impossible series (and later Top Gun: Maverick). He reportedly owns several aircraft, including a vintage P-51 Mustang, a Bombardier Challenger 300, a Gulfstream IV and a HondaJet.
Cruise’s interest and involvement in flying have also been recognized publicly, reportedly including his induction into the Living Legends of Aviation for his contributions to aviation.
10. Tom Cruise saved a fan from being crushed by a crowd in 1996.
In 1996, during the Mission: Impossible premiere in London, the actor actually helped save a young fan from being crushed by the crowd. He noticed a 7-year-old boy, Laurence Sadler, getting pinned against a barrier and immediately called the police for help. Once the officers pulled the child to safety, Cruise comforted him and even gave him his autograph.
This wasn’t the only time he stepped in to help someone. He has also been reported to assist a hit-and-run victim, rescue a family from a burning boat, and help a man who was pushed by a paparazzi.
11. Tom Cruise held his breath for over 6 minutes while shooting an underwater scene for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.
Tom Cruise really did hold his breath for more than six minutes while filming an underwater scene for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. To prepare, he trained with a professional free-diving coach who taught him a technique called static apnea, which helps the body relax and slow the heart rate so you can stay underwater longer.
After weeks of training, Cruise was able to hold his breath for 6 minutes and 6 seconds, allowing him to shoot the difficult underwater sequence in 1 continuous take without using any special breathing equipment.
12. Tom Cruise is known for gifting a white chocolate coconut cake every holiday season.
The actor is famous in Hollywood for sending a special white chocolate coconut bundt cake to his friends every holiday season. The cake comes from Doan’s Bakery in California and has become so popular that many celebrities call it “the Cruise Cake”
Stars like Kristen Dunst, Angela Bassett, Glen Powell, Rosie O’Donnell, and Jimmy Fallon have all talked about how delicious it is and how they look forward to it every year.
13. Tom Cruise was the first actor to star in 5 consecutive movies that grossed over $100 million.
Tom Cruise became the first actor in Hollywood to star in 5 movies in a row that each earned more than $100 million at the U.S. box office. This streak was a big achievement at the time and showed how popular his films were.
The movies in this run were: A Few Good Men (1992), where he played a military lawyer; The Firm (1993), a legal thriller; Interview with the Vampire (1994), where he played the vampire Lestat; Mission: Impossible (1996), the 1st part of his famous action series; and Jerry Maguire (1996), the romantic sports drama that earned him major award nominations.
14. Tom Cruise once paid the hospital bill of a stranger.
In 1996, the actor helped a woman named Heloisa Vinhas after she was injured in a hit-and-run accident in Los Angeles. Cruise saw the accident happen and immediately called for paramedics. He then followed her to the hospital to make sure she was okay. When he found out she didn’t have insurance and had a broken leg, he paid her hospital bill, which was about $7000.
15. Tom Cruise once helped catch thieves in London after they stole jewelry worth about $160,000 during a robbery.
In 1998, Tom Cruise helped chase down thieves in London after they stole nearly $160,000 worth of jewelry from his neighbour Rita Simmonds. Cruise was living in London at the time while working with Stanley Kubrick and he rushed outside with his bodyguards when he heard his neighbor screaming for help.
The actor and his team ran after the thieves and their quick reaction scared the attackers off before they could get away. Although the men escaped, Cruise’s intervention helped stop the situation from getting worse.
16. Tom Cruise earned the U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award.
The actor received the U.S. Navy’s highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Public Service Award, for supporting the Navy and Marine Corps for many years. He received it from Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro at a ceremony in London in December 2024.
The Navy said his movies, especially Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick, helped more people understand and appreciate service members and even inspired many young people to take an interest in the Navy.
