Tom Cruise - Actor

Cruise was born to Thomas Cruise Mapother III and Mary Lee Pfeiffer in Syracuse, New York. His great-great-grandmother Mary Cruise married twice. Her first husband was Dillon Henry Mapother, by whom she had six children. After Dillon's death, She remarried Thomas O'Mara. Their son Thomas O'Mara, enumerated as such in the 1880 Census, was later known as "Thomas Cruise Mapother". The reason(s) for him changing his name are not entirely clear. Thus, from his and his wife Anna Stewart Bateman, he has Irish and Colonial English ancestry, respectively. His maternal ancestry is half Irish and half German (including Alsatian). Anna Stewart Bateman's great-grandfather was a third cousin of President George Washington and descended seven times from King Jean de Brienne of Jerusalem, once from King Louis VIII of France, once from King Henry III of England, twice from King Edward I of England and three times from King Edward III of England.

When Cruise was twelve, his mother left his father, taking Cruise and his sister Lee Anne with her. Cruise's father reportedly would not pay child support after this estrangement. Cities in which Tom lived included Ottawa, Ontario (where he attended Colonel By Secondary School), Louisville, Kentucky, Winnetka, Illinois and Wayne, New Jersey. In all, Cruise attended eight elementary schools and three high schools. He briefly attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati and aspired to become a Catholic priest. He eventually graduated from Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey in 1980.

Cruise started acting after being sidelined from his high school's wrestling team due to a knee injury.