In 1976, if you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be Tom Cruise, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to join the priesthood. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become one of the highest paid and most sought after actors in screen history.
Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has German, Irish, and English ancestry.
Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, Tom wanted to become a priest but pretty soon he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends.
He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.
With handsome movie star looks and a charismatic smile, within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top-grossing films of the 1980s including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s he was one of the highest-paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Jerry Maguire (1996), for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor.
Tom Cruise’s biggest franchise, Mission Impossible, has also earned a total of 3 billion dollars worldwide. Tom Cruise has also shown lots of interest in producing, with his biggest producer credits being the Mission Impossible franchise.
In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth to become one of the biggest movie stars ever.
Below are all the screenplays available online. If you find any of his missing screenplays please leave the link in the comment section.
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(NOTE: For educational and research purposes only).
LEGEND (1985)
Screenplay by William Hjortsberg – Read the screenplay!
TOP GUN (1986)
Screenplay by Warren Skaaren – Read the Screenplay!
BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY (1989)
Screenplay by Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic – Read the Screenplay!
A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin – Read the screenplay!
THE FIRM (1993)
Screenplay by Robert Towne and David Rayfiel – Read the screenplay!
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (1994)
Screenplay by Anne Rice – Read the screenplay!
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996)
Screenplay by Robert Towne and David Koepp – Read the screenplay!
JERRY MAGUIRE (1996)
Screenplay by Cameron Crowe – Read the screenplay!
EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael – Read the screenplay!
MAGNOLIA (1999)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – Read the screenplay!
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II (2000)
Screenplay by Robert Towne – Read the screenplay!
VANILLA SKY (2001)
Screenplay by Cameron Crowe – Read the screenplay!
MINORITY REPORT (2002)
Screenplay by Scott Frank – Read the screenplay!
THE LAST SAMURAI (2003)
Screenplay by John Logan – Read the screenplay!
COLLATERAL (2004)
Screenplay by Stuart Beattie – Read the screenplay!
WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)
Screenplay by Josh Friedman and David Koepp – Read the screenplay!
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III (2006)
Screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Robert Orci and J.J. Abrams – Read the screenplay!
TROPIC THUNDER (2008)
Screenplay by Ethan Coen, Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux – Read the screenplay!
VALKYRIE (2008)
Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie & Nathan Alexander – Read the screenplay!
KNIGHT AND DAY (2010)
Screenplay by Patrick O’Neill – Read the screenplay!
JACK REACHER (2012)
Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie – Read the screenplay!
OBLIVION (2013)
Screenplay by William Monahan – Read the screenplay!
EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)
Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie – Read the screenplay!
THE MUMMY (2017)
Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and David Koepp – Read the screenplay!
TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022)
Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie – WILL POST ONCE AVAILABLE!