HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM CRUISE: There are only a few actors that have the star power and charm that Hollywood’s icon Tom Cruise has. From being a heartthrob to being an action-packed hero, the actor has done it all. Beginning his career in 1981, the Mission: Impossible star has given some of the most heart-thumping hits over his career. It is all thanks to his magnetic charism and undeniable talent that he has been able to pull off an unmatched career of blockbusters.

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As the Hollywood superstar turns 61, let us celebrate the day by looking back on his life. There might be facets you did not know about. Here are 61 facts about Tom Cruise:

1. The birth name of the Hollywood star is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV.
2. Tom Cruise had spent some years of his life living in Ottawa when he was younger. This is because of his father’s job as a defense consultant. He moved back to the U.S. after his parents divorced.
3. The actor has been through 15 different schools in the span of 14 years.
4. Tom Cruise helped his mother out financially as a young boy. He did so by taking up jobs like cutting grass and selling Christmas and Easter cards.
5. The first movie he ever acted in was Endless Love in 1981. However, his success came with Top Gun because of his first major action blockbuster in 1986.
6. The first time he starred in Mission: Impossible films was in 1996.
7. Talking about movies, TomCruise was considered for the leading role of Neo in The Matrix. However, fate had other plans for him.
8. Another almost-happened opportunity for him was playing Tony Stark for Iron Man. Marvel considered him during the early stages of the movie.
9. Rather than being an actor, Tom Cruise could have been a priest. That was his preferred career choice at the age of 14. He was influenced after being born and raised in a religious Catholic family.
10. He thanks the Church of Scientology which was able to help him read. Tom Cruise has shared that he could not read up until his adulthood due to a case of dyslexia.
11. Even though he is one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, Tom Cruise has never won an Oscar. Though he has been nominated three times.
12. Talking about the Oscars, the actor has not had any nominations since 2000.
13. The Hollywood icon has coincidentally divorced all three of his wives when they turned 33 years old. This includes Nicole Kidman, Katie Holmes, and Mimi Rogers.
14. Tom Cruise found his interest in acting due to a knee injury. Unable to wrestle for his high school’s team, he gave a try for the school’s production of Guys and Dolls.
15. The highest-grossing film for the actor is Top Gun: Maverick. It surpassed $1 billion at the box office.
16. Tom Cruise has won three Golden Globe awards. These are for the movies Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia.
17. The actor has returned his three Golden Globe Awards in a protest against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. This is for the lack of racial diversity and alleged moral misconduct.
18. Tom Cruise has never acted on television until now.
19. The only television credit he has under his name is as a director for an episode of the anthology series Fallen Angels.
20. Tom Cruise earned his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 16, 1986.
21. The actor performs a majority of his own stunts.
22. He has actually scaled the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, during Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
23. Tom Cruise owns the aircraft model Gulfstream G450.
24. He also has a pilot licence that he received in 1994.
25. The Hollywood star’s hobbies include skydives and scuba dives.
26. Tom Cruise received MTV’s first Generation Award in 2005.
27. The actor is the founder of the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project.
28. Disney modelled Aladdin after Tom Cruise. This included features from Tom Cruise’s face and hair.
29. The iconic dance scene from Risky Business was actually an improvisation by the actor himself.
30. Tom Cruise has repeatedly denied any requests for him to be made into video games and action figures
31. For Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, the Hollywood star held his breath underwater for more than 6 minutes.
32. He is the first actor to star in five consecutive films that made $100 million in the box office. These movies include A Few Good Men (1992), The Firm (1993), Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), and Jerry Maguire (1996).
33. Tom Cruise learned to dance by watching the television show Soul Train.
34. The Hollywood icon nearly died during the shooting of The Last Samurai. Due to one of the mechanical horses, his co-star Hiroyuki Sanada swung his blade at the wrong time.
35. Partnering with his former talent agent Paula Wagner, the duo founded the Tom Cruise/Wagner Productions in 1993.
36. People are already aware of the actor’s love for motorcycles. But did you know he purchased his first motorcycle at the age of 10?
37. At 5 feet 7 inches, most of Tom Cruise’s leading ladies in the movies have been taller than him.
38. Tom Cruise is also a huge fan of the sport known as fencing.
39. The actor helped the sales of Ray-Ban Wayfarers skyrocket after wearing them in Risky Business.
40. Tom Cruise has been the one Hollywood celebrity who has visited Japan more times than any other celebrity.
41. Due to this, in 2006, Japan named October 10 as Tom Cruise Day. No one loves the actor more than the country of the rising sun!
42. In the opening shot of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, the man you see dangling off the side of a plane is actually the actor himself.
43. Tom Cruise follows legendary footballer David Beckham’s diet. He only consumed 1,200 calories per day and it mostly consists of vegetables and lean protein.
44. His first celebrity crush was Ingrid Bergman as Alicia Huberman in Notorious.
45. Tom Cruise could not attend his high school graduation because he was performing in a production of Godspell.
46. The Hollywood star has shared that he was severely bullied during his school years for being “different”.
47. Paul Newman and Tom Cruise became good friends after they met while filming Colour of Money in 1986. It was Newman that got Cruise to race Nissan 300ZXs in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) competitions.
48. The actor admitted that he paid for his sister’s college tuition fee.
49. Tom Cruise is also a real-life hero. He helped chase down robbers who stole nearly $160,000 worth of jewellery in London.
50. He also came to the aid of a woman who was in a hit-and-run case. The actor paid her hospital bills.
51. Katie Holmes had a long-time crush on Tom Cruise beginning when she was a young girl.
52. He proposed to her the actress on the top of the Eiffel Tower.
53. Tom Cruise shares a daughter named Suri with Katie Holmes.
54. The actor also has two adopted children named Connor and Isabella.
55. Tom Cruise did not have an easy childhood. Talking to the Parade magazine, he has admitted that his father used to beat and bully him.
56. It comes as no surprise that the actor has done all of his stunts himself in the movie Edge of Tomorrow.
57. The actor was converted to Scientology by his first wife Mimi Rogers in 1986.
58. It was the church that had brought them two together. The actress later blamed the church leaders for the break-up of their marriage.
59. Tom met his second wife Nicole Kidman on the set of their film Days of Thunder. The duo got married on December 24, 1990.
60. The actor filed for divorce from Kidman while she was unknowingly pregnant. The pregnancy, however, ended in a miscarriage.
61. Paramount Pictures and Tom Cruise ended their 14-year partnership in 2006.