With the press often focusing on his love life and his religious beliefs, it might be easy to forget that Tom Cruise has remained a consistent actor. Ever since he danced his way into movie history with Risky Business almost 30 years ago, Cruise has starred in classics like Rain Man, Jerry Maguire and the Mission: Impossible franchise. At 50 years old, he’s currently Hollywood’s highest-paid actor, earning $75 million last year.
In honor of his latest film Oblivion hitting theaters on Friday, we present some little-known facts about the actor you may have been oblivious to: 30 Things You Didn’t Know About Tom Cruise.
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Before Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Tony Stark, Cruise was lined up to play Iron Man.
Originally, Disney drew Aladdin to resemble another actor of the moment, Michael J. Fox, but the cartoon was then drawn to look like Cruise, who was believed to be more attractive to females.
Since 2006, October 10 has been recognized as Tom Cruise Day in Japan, honoring the fact that he's visited the country more than any other Western actor.
His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was a special education teacher.
At 7 years old, Cruise was diagnosed with dyslexia, which he claims he overcame with Scientology.
With his savings, he bought his first motorcycle when he was 12.
He missed his high school graduation ceremony because he was acting in a production of Godspell.
To help his mother and three sisters after his father walked out on them, he cut grass, raked leaves and sold Easter and Christmas cards door-to-door.
The first Christmas after his parents' divorce, his family couldn't afford gifts. Instead, a month before Christmas, Cruise, his mom and three sisters picked each other's names out of a hat, and did favors for that person until revealing themselves on Christmas Day.
In high school, he was a wrestler who sang on the side. It was only when he injured his knee wrestling that he decided to audition for the lead in a school production of the musical Guys and Dolls.
When Cruise first arrived in L.A., Sean Penn picked him up. The two friends found the homes of Cruise's future co-stars Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson, but didn't dare to knock on the door.
When he was 14, he attended the St. Francis Seminary School in Cincinnati, where he was considering becoming a Catholic priest. According to a former classmate, he was kicked out for stealing liquor from the priests.
Growing up, he attended 15 different schools.
In 1994, he was awarded man of the year by Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club, known for its production featuring Harvard men in drag. Accordingly, he accepted the award wearing a bra and heels.
Despite getting older, each of his wives has been 11 years younger than the one before, with Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes being born in 1956, 1967 and 1978, respectively.
Before marrying Cruise, ex-wife Katie Holmes had a poster of him on her wall as a teen. Months before they met, she told Seventeen magazine in 2004, ''I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise.''
In 1998, he saved a woman being mugged in London, chasing the attackers away with his bodyguards.
In 1996, after Cruise witnessed a woman get struck by a car, he accompanied her to the hospital. After learning that she didn't have insurance, he paid her emergency room bill of $7000.
Tropic Thunder co-star Ben Stiller credits Cruise with conceptualizing Les Grossman, including his baldness and penchant for dancing. He also chose to play the movie exec with big prosthetic hands.
In his memoir The Time of My Life, Patrick Swayze, his co-star in The Outsiders, revealed that Cruise was so insecure about his teeth that he avoided photo shoots.
The baboon in Rock of Ages was his idea. When he was preparing for his role as Stacee Jaxx, he asked director Adam Shankman for a monkey, who he named "Hey Man" after watching the baboon's audition tape.
He improvised the iconic Risky Business scene where he dances in his underwear. Shot in half of a day, the scene started with only one line in the script: "Joel dances in underwear through the house."
During the late '80s, Cruise, with Julia Roberts, was approached to be the leads in an adaptation of John Carter of Mars, which eventually became the box office failure starring Taylor Kitsch.
Author Anne Rice publicly criticized the casting of Cruise as Lestat in the 1994 big-screen adaptation of her book Interview with the Vampire. However, after seeing the film, she bought a two-page ad in Daily Variety for $7,740, commending his performance and apologizing to him.
During production of War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise had a Scientology tent set up with volunteers, where Scientology materials were distributed.
At Matt Damon's 42nd birthday in London last year, a cross-dressing hostess reportedly spanked him and Damon.
Noticing how guys who danced would get attention from girls, he learned how to dance watching Soul Train.
Mark Ronson, who was the DJ at his and Katie Holmes' wedding, said the couple "went crazy" on the dance floor when he played "Gold Digger" by Kanye West.
Although he didn't have a pilot's license playing Maverick in Top Gun, he later earned one in 1994.
He refuses to lend his likeness to action figures or video games.
