Tom Cruise
The price of his triumph
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Unbelievable – Tom Cruise turns 60. He is more celebrated than ever – but privately he remains alone. Why is that?
It’s perfect: every movement on the plane, the legendary pilot’s leather jacket, the Ray Ban, riding his favorite plane into the sunset with a pretty woman on the back seat who has won his heart. Anyone who sees “Top Gun: Maverick” believes they have been catapulted back to their own youth. That’s how much Tom Cruise, 59, resembles his youthful self 35 years after the sequel to the cult film that made him a global star.
Tom Cruise: He has achieved everything in his career
The success proves him right: The film is his biggest hit at the box office, cracking the billion dollar mark just a few weeks after it was released. A satisfaction for Tom Cruise – and a belated triumph, the culmination of his hard work. In the past, he never wanted to make a Top Gun sequel, but he became all the more obsessed with making it happen. It goes without saying that a perfectionist like him did the flights in the jet himself. Cruise is a trained pilot. And he showed the young actors how he thinks it’s done.
It’s his signature role: Tom Cruise as Pete Maverick in “Top Gun” in 1986 at the age of 25. The pilot drama sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, has already grossed over $900 million.
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A top 60th birthday gift that Cruise is now celebrating with David Beckham, 47, and other stars. Stepping down isn’t on his agenda – he’s going full throttle. That’s what’s so fascinating about him. For a film length he pretends that we can be like him, stronger than time. Because through training, diet and a lot of discipline, Tom Cruise has created the perfect self for him that never ages – and never gives up, no matter how hard the fight may be. A self in control. Or? Cruise has achieved everything in the film business.
Scientology destroys his relationships
But how does it look inside? Ever since he fell in love with his older colleague Mimi Rogers, now 66, daughter of a Scientology pastor, in 1986, he has felt a part of the controversial religious community and is considered its most prominent supporter. However, it is this same passion for the teachings of Scientology that destroys any serious relationship in his life. Nicole Kidman, 55, divorced him in 2001 because the sect was too influential. His third wife Katie Holmes, 43, feared for the salvation of their daughter Suri, now 16, in 2012 and fought for sole custody.
His wives: In 1987 he married Mimi Rogers, in 1990 Nicole Kidman. With her he has two adult adopted children. From 2006 to 2012 he was married to Katie Holmes, daughter Suri is 16. While filming “Mission Impossible 7” (2023 in cinemas) he is said to have flirted with Hayley Atwell for a while.
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Since then, Cruise has not had a close relationship, even moving to West Sussex, England, very close to the headquarters of Scientology leader David Miscavige, 62. The loose liaison with his “Mission Impossible 7” colleague Hayley Atwell, 40, also broke up recently.
Tom Cruise: How happy is the world star really?
When Tom Cruise, the $50 million a year superstar, comes home from set at night, there’s no one to hug him and ask how his day was. Is Tom Cruise unable to love because he sees his destiny as a perfect human according to Scientology beliefs, an immortal soul called a “thetan”? A thetan is said to be omnipotent, a creator of his own reality. Just like Cruise when he rappels down from the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, or travels into space as the first actor for a shoot.
He always smiles brightly. Even as an drama student, Tom Cruise could snap that smile brighter than the others. It made the pain of his parents’ separation and his father leaving him and the three sisters without a word more bearable. He has perfected this smile over the decades. And only he knows what it really looks like behind it.