Tom Cruise Timeline Trivia Quiz

It only lasted a year, but in 1978, prior to graduating high school, Tom was enrolled in a Cincinnati Catholic seminary to become a priest. After only a year, Tom left the seminary. Some say he was kicked out for having alcohol and being underage. Cruise and his family moved and Tom left the seminary to move to New Jersey.

Tom Cruise's movie career started with "Endless Love" in 1981. The film starred Brooke Shields as Jade Butterfield. In the film, Brooke's character is a teenager who finds her first love with a boy named David with a troubled past. The dramatic film showcased the roller coaster emotions of a first relationship. Tom Cruise was not the lead love interest but played Billy, a friend of the lead male character, David Axelrod.

Many regard "Risky Business" as the film that launched Tom Cruise's career to superstar movie actor. The film was one of the top selling movies of 1983. Tom played Joel Goodson, a high school student who meets a prostitute played by Rebecca de Mornay and damages his dad's Porsche while his parents are out of town. Joel has to throw a wild party to try to come with the money to fix the car before his parents return.

A dance scene to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" is an iconic scene many remember from the teen classic.

Mimi Rogers was an actress who starred in film, television, and best known for her role in 1987's "Someone to Watch Over Me". She was also an auditor with the Church of Scientology prior to meeting Tom Cruise. They fell in love and married in 1987. The Church became a major influence on Tom's life for the decades to follow. Their marriage only lasted three years.

Cruise's portrayal of Vietnam veteran, Ron Kovacs, in "Born On The Fourth Of July" became a commercial and award winning success. The semi-biographic film showed a paralyzed Kovacs coming home from the Vietnam War and finding that his country was unsympathetic to its veterans.

The dramatic performance wowed audience and critics, and Tom was nominated for his first Oscar for his lead role in the film. Although Tom did not win the Academy Award, he was also nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA, and a New York Film Critics Circle award for the role.

With a budget of fifty million dollars, "Jerry McGuire" came in with high expectations at the box office. The 1996 film grossed over five times this amount in the U.S. Tom played the lead role of a sports agent who falls in love with Renee Zellweger's character, Dorothy, in the film.

In the flick, Jerry sets off to start his own sports agency and only Dorothy believes in him enough to join his firm. As their business is growing, their personal feelings for each other grow too.

Tom Cruise met Nicole Kidman while filming "Days of Thunder" in 1990. They married later that year, and appeared in films like "Far And Away" and "Eyes Wide Shut". They adopted two children together, Isabella and Connor. Citing the difficulties of their constant distance due to filming locations and time apart, they decided to peacefully separate. Cruise and Kidman filed for divorce in 2001.

Tom Cruise's third wife was Katie Holmes, a much younger actress known for her role in "Dawson's Creek". Tom Cruise enthusiastically announced to the world in 2005 that he loved Katie after jumping on talk show host Oprah Winfrey's couch. Oprah was shocked by the enthusiasm and knew this was a different side to Cruise than what she had seen before.

The couple was nicknamed Tomkat in the press. Differences in Tom's belief in Scientology, led to disagreements over parenting styles and lifestyle choices.

They divorced in 2012 after a six year marriage.

Tom Cruise made a career of doing his own stunts in many of his films. Car racing, skydiving, motorcycles, and sprinting down the street were just a few of his stunts. The action star shocked the Paris Olympic crowd in 2024 by rappelling from the top of the Stade de France stadium in the closing ceremony. The dramatic move was an homage to his "Mission Impossible" roles.

Beginning with 1996's "Mission: Impossible", Tom Cruise starred in one of the most lucrative franchises in movie history. By the final installment in 2025, "Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning", there were eight studio releases of the series. In the finale, a rogue AI has the ability to kill all mankind and Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team attempt to thwart the attempt.