Tom Cruise has achieved unprecedented success as an actor and producer in a career spanning over two decades. He is a three-time Academy Award® nominee and a three-time Golden Globe winner whose films have broken numerous records at the box office.
Cruise is credited with bringing one of the most widely loved and successful franchises to the big screen with the Mission Impossible series. He has had the opportunity to collaborate with director Steven Spielberg, on two films including “War of the Worlds” which achieved worldwide acclaim.
Through Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he founded in 1993 with his partner, Paula Wagner, Cruise moved seamlessly into the broader role of producer, bringing a range of diverse projects from new and established talents to the screen. The first film released under the C/W banner was the international hit “Mission: Impossible,” and in 1997 resulted in the company being honored with the Nova Award for Most Promising Producers in Theatrical Motion Pictures. The company went on to produce the critically acclaimed films “Without Limits,” “Shattered Glass,” “Narc,” and the period thriller “The Others.” The last marked Cruise’s first collaboration with director Alejandro Amenabar, whose film “Abre Los Ojos” became the basis for the C/W production “Vanilla Sky,” under the direction of Cameron Crowe. Cruise and Wagner then produced Cameron Crowe’s “Elizabethtown,” starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, which was released in 2005.
Cruise made his feature film debut in 1981 at the age of 18 in the romantic drama “Endless Love,” followed by the critically acclaimed “Taps,” co-starring Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders.” His breakout performance in “Risky Business” earned him his first Golden Globe nomination in 1983. The role of Maverick in Tony Scott’s “Top Gun” catapulted Cruise to international stardom as the film went on to become the highest grossing picture of 1986.
He next starred opposite Paul Newman in Martin Scorsese’s “The Color of Money” and opposite Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson’s Oscar®-winning “Rain Man,” which marks the last time Cruise teamed up with the original United Artists. In 1989, Cruise received his first Academy Award® nomination and earned the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his portrayal of Vietnam veteran and anti-war activist Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July,” which received a Best Picture nomination.
His performance in Rob Reiner’s “A Few Good Men,” opposite Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, led to a third Golden Globe nomination, and, in 1997 he received his second Academy Award® nomination and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in Cameron Crowe’s “Jerry Maguire.”
In 1999, Cruise received critical acclaim for his powerful performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s ensemble drama “Magnolia,” earning a third Academy Award® nomination and his third Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. That same year, he starred in Stanley Kubrick’s final film, the psychological thriller “Eyes Wide Shut.”
His additional screen credits include Ron Howard’s epic “Far and Away,” Sydney Pollack’s legal thriller “The Firm,” and Neil Jordan’s “Interview with the Vampire,” based on the bestselling novel by Anne Rice. He also starred in the critically acclaimed box-office hit “Collateral” for director Michael Mann.
Cruise has been the recipient of numerous awards and tributes, reflecting both critical and commercial recognition within the industry and the broad popular support of audiences worldwide. Cruise received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for excellence in film from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts. The producing team of Cruise and Wagner was honored with the UCLA/Producers Guild of America, Vision Award in 2004. Cruise received a David di Donatello award for lifetime achievement in 2005. He was recognized by the Chicago Film Festival as the “Actor of the Decade” and earned the NATO/SHOWEST Meritorious Achievement Award.
Cruise and Wagner recently joined the ranks of studio owners when they formed the revitilized United Artists. Their first film was the Robert Redford directed “Lions for Lambs” in which Cruise co-starred with Redford and Meryl Streep. Next up is the highly anticipated Bryan Singer directed “Valkyrie” starring Cruise.
In May 2007, Greensburg, Kansas was leveled by one of the largest tornados in U.S. history. Very few structures remained in the aftermath of the deadly EF5 tornado, and the town lost everything. Inspired by the desire of the townspeople to rebuild ‘green,’ Planet Green, along with executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio, is chronicling the rebuilding of Greensburg into an environment-conscious town. The epic docu-series is a mixture of compelling human stories and amazing feats of green building and engineering that will give the people of Greensburg a new home and a new town built for the future. GREENSBURG will premiere on Planet Green on Sunday, June 15 at 9:00 PM ET/PT and will air every Sunday for 12 additional weeks.
