Jumping from helicopters, scaling towering skyscrapers and putting his body through the pressure of G-Force, Tom Cruise has pretty much seen it all as an action movie star. Known and loved for his commitment to performing his own stunts, there are few names in Hollywood that burn quite as bright as the one Cruise.

While the likes of Top Gun and Mission: Impossible will always be related to Cruise, he’s no slouch in dramatic roles either, as proven by his performances in Eyes Wide Shut, Rain Man and A Few Good Men. Simply, Cruise epitomises the kind of excellence that makes American cinema what it is.

Remarkably, though, especially considering his Scientologist leanings, long before Cruise decided to cut his teeth in the ruthless world of entertainment, he had actually been training to become a Catholic priest. As a teenager, the iconic Hollywood actor had attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cruise had been allured to the school after witnessing a rousing speech by Father Ric Schneider. In a feature by the New York Daily News, Schneider remembered, “Tom was instantly hooked. I think he wanted a good education. With his parents going through a divorce, it was tough on him; that’s maybe one of the reasons why he came here.”

The Top Gun star had befriended young Shane Dempler during his time at the seminary, who recalled the reason that both he and Cruise had sought out a religious career. “He had a very strong Catholic faith,” Dempler said. “We went to Mass, spent time in the chapel and enjoyed hearing stories from the priests. We thought the priests had a great lifestyle, and we were really interested in the priesthood.”

However, Dempler also admitted that he and Cruise were “too young” to make such a decision so early in their lives. This sense of immaturity was also Cruise’s downfall, and both he and Dempler were expelled from the seminary after being caught stealing alcohol from the priests and then getting drunk in the nearby woods.

“The school wrote a letter to our parents saying they liked us both but would prefer if we didn’t return,” Dempler remembered. “So we weren’t kicked out, just preferred not to go.” It wasn’t long after Cruise left the seminary that he appeared in the film Taps, making the first strides into his excellent acting career.

Nowadays, Cruise is best known for his commitment to Scientology, but there was a time before his name was lit up in lights when he was devoted to the Catholic faith, so much so that he very nearly became Father Tom Cruise, a man of the cloth as opposed to a leading man of the silver screen.