Tom Cruise

Born: 3 July 1962
Where: Syracuse, New York

The former Franciscan trainee priest is now one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood with a string of top-grossing films under his belt.

The three-times Oscar-nominated star (for Magnolia, Jerry Maguire and Born on the Fourth of July) is reputed to have walked away with $75m from Mission Impossible 2.

The only son (among four children) of nomadic parents young Cruise spent his boyhood eternally on the move and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the US and Canada.

He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband and, while in high school, developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest.

He dropped out of school and aged 18 headed for New York and onto Los Angeles where he met his career guide agent Paula Wagner.

After making his feature debut in a small role in Franco Zeffirelli's notorious Brooke Shields-starrer Endless Love, he gained attention in a showy supporting role as an increasingly lunatic gung-ho cadet in Taps.

He next landed his first starring role opposite "older woman" Shelly Long in Losin' It and then persuaded Francis Ford Coppola to cast him in a small role as a tough guy in The Outsiders.

He gained celebrity in the superior teen sex satire Risky Business and performed in a more naturalistic mode in All The Right Moves, a sober high school football drama.

Cruise next grew his hair long and made the wrong move donning green tights for Ridley Scott's colossal fantasy flop Legend but recaptured the limelight with the gung-ho, politically incorrect Top Gun.

Not content to be a matinee idol, Cruise crafted his career carefully, teaming with talented directors and co-stars for The Color Of Money (as a pool hustler opposite Paul Newman).

Oliver Stone's extremely anti-war Born On The Fourth Of July countered his contribution to the jingoistic Top Gun and he broadened his range in Barry Levinson's Rain Man opposite Dustin Hoffman.

Days of Thunder introduced him to future wife Nicole Kidman but little else while Far And Away, also starring Kidman, was no more than a syrupy romance.

He was back on firmer ground in Rob Reiner's courtroom drama A Few Good Men opposite Jack Nicholson in 1992 and followed that with John Grisham's The Firm.

Cruise then raised eyebrows - and more than a few hackles - by accepting the central role of the vampire Lestat in David Geffen's lavish production of Neil Jordan's Interview With The Vampire.

He was all but omnipresent in the media as he aggressively promoted his feature producing debut, the post-Cold War espionage movie Mission: Impossible.

The sweetly offbeat romantic comedy Jerry Maguire, in which he played the eponymous, shallow, back-stabbing sports agent, provided a sort of mid-career breakthrough for Cruise.

Cruise took himself out of the game at the height of his career to work with Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut, starring opposite Kidman for the first time since Far And Away.

Following the arduous shoot and the mixed critical and box office reaction, Cruise took on a pivotal role in Paul Thomas Anderson's ensemble drama Magnolia.

Playing a cocky sex guru who runs seminars designed to empower men, the actor offered a charismatic turn that was alternatingly chilling and humorous.

He segued back to leading parts in more high profile mainstream work reprising his role as Ethan Hunt in the big-budget, special effects laden "M:I-2" (Mission: Impossible 2), directed by John Woo.

Cruise reunited with his Jerry Maguire helmer Cameron Crowe for an American remake of the perception-bending 1997 Spanish film Abre los ojos aka Open Your Eyes.

During the making of the confused Vanilla Sky, Cruise endured a very public and acrimonious split from his wife Kidman and began a relationship with co-star Penelope Cruz.

The actor got the opportunity to work with Spielberg on Minority Report, a sci-fi thriller expanding on Phillip K. Dick's premise of a future where police use precognitives to prevent murders before they happen.

Cruise turned in one of his more nuanced performances for director Ed Zwick in The Last Samurai, playing Capt. Nathan Algren, an alcoholic veteran who travels to Japan to help Westernise the Imperial army.

In January 2003 Cruise and Cruz ended their 3 year relationship and he is now engaged to actress Katie Holmes.

In 2004, Cruise went against type to play the villain as Michael Mann looked to recreate the success of Heat in hitman-on-a-mission thriller, Collateral.

Recent work includes the lead role in the Spielberg-directed adaptation of HG Well's War of the Worlds.