BIOGRAPHY AND PERSONALITY OF A FAMOUS CANCER: TOM CRUISE

Actor. Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, USA. In 1986, Cruise's star status was confirmed with the release of Top Gun, the biggest-grossing film of 1986. Cruise followed up on the tremendous success of Top Gun with a string of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including The Color of Money (1986), costarring Paul Newman, Rain Man (1988), costarring Dustin Hoffman, and director Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989), for which Cruise received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

On Christmas Eve, 1990, Cruise and actress Nicole Kidman were married in Telluride, Colorado, after a whirlwind courtship.

Cruise and Kidman spent much of 1997 and 1998 in England, shooting Eyes Wide Shut, director Stanley Kubrick's final film before his death in 1999. In 2000, Cruise starred in the long-awaited smash hit Mission: Impossible 2. In 2002, projects included Vanilla Sky, his second collaboration with director Cameron Crowe, and Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg. Cruise began 2003 with a trip to Australia to shoot the $100 million The Last Samurai. In 2005, he teamed with Steven Spielberg for the mega-hit War of the Worlds.

On February 5, 2001, Cruise and Kidman announced their separation after 11 years of marriage. Following the divorce, Cruise dated his Vanilla Sky costar, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, followed by a much-publicized relationship with actress Katie Holmes.