Tom Cruise

Profession: Actor
Place/Date of Birth: New York, USA, 03 July 2020
Associated with: Katie Holmes, Nicole Kidman

Mr Knopp was referring to a video recording of a sermon Tom delivered to Scientology members four years ago that surfaced on the YouTube website this week.

The Mission Impossible star asks fellow members of the church: "Should we clean this place up?"

Mr Knopp said it was bound to remind Germans of Goebbels’ notorious speech in Berlin on February 18 1943 when he asked the audience: "Do you want total war?".

Mr Knopp said: "It may be the case that Cruise’s delivery style is not uncommon in certain religious movements in the US.

"But for Germans with an interest in history, that scene where he asks whether the Scientologists should clean up the world and everyone shouts ’yes’ is inevitably reminiscent of Goebbels’ notorious speech."

Tom’s portrayal of Nazi resistance hero Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, an aristocrat who led a failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, caused unhappiness in Germany because of the actor’s links to Scientology.

The movement is often described in Germany as a sect that exploits its members financially. In December, regional ministers agreed to investigate the possibility of banning it.

Tom Cruise Scientology video leaked - Jan 16 2008
A four-year-old video of Tom Cruise talking about his belief in Scientology has been leaked on the internet.

The nine-minute video’s release comes as Andrew Morton published a book about the Hollywood star, alleging that the 45-year-old actor ranks second in command in the Church of Scientology.

Cruise is shown in the video speaking in great detail about the religion.

He discusses his faith while the soundtrack to his Mission: Impossible films plays in the background.

"It’s rough and tumble, and it’s wild and woolly and it’s a blast," he says. "It’s a blast. It really is fun, because... there is nothing better than... going out there and fighting the fight and, suddenly you see, things are better."

"Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it’s not like anyone else; as you drive past, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one that can really help."

British author Morton, who shot to fame with the publication of Diana: Her True Story, has defended his book as a "fair, even-handed treatment of Tom Cruise’s life".

The church responded with a 15-page statement, calling Morton’s book Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography "a bigoted, defamatory assault replete with lies" and saying Cruise "is a Scientology parishioner" with no official position.

Rogers and Cowan, the publicity firm that represents Cruise, issued a statement criticising Morton for not interviewing "one person who has known or worked with Tom" in the past 25 years.

The statement also derides Morton for writing "outlandish and malicious lies to sell books".

Tom plans romantic surprise - Nov 5 2007
Tom Cruise revealed he is planning a romantic surprise for wife Katie Holmes on the couple’s upcoming first wedding anniversary.

"I got something special, don’t worry," Tom told Extra at the Hollywood premiere of his new film Lions For Lambs, for which Katie arrived wearing a stunning black dress. "She looks fantastic," he added.

Tom spent an hour talking to fans on the glittering red carpet of his film which opened LA’s AFI festival.

"It’s fun, it’s nice," he said. "They come out to say hello to me and I like saying hello to them.

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Biography

New Yorker Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3 1962) may have reached the heights of the heart throb-o-meter in the eighties but since his split with Nicole Kidman has ruined many a young woman’s fantasy with increasingly bizarre behaviour. So where did it all go wrong for the sofa leaping strange one?

Born in Syracuse Tom grew up in relative poverty following his father’s departure from the family, the actor has since claimed that he suffered abuse before the split. While Thomas III refused to pay child support, Tom’s mother Mary Lee Pfieffer moved her son from city to city, eventually settling in New Jersey where Tom, who once aspired to become a Catholic priest, then a Wrestler, took up acting. His first role was as lead in a High School production of Guys and Dolls.

1981 saw Tom take his first acting role, alongside Brooke Shields in Endless Love. He followed this up with increasingly important roles before in 1983 appearing in Risky Business, the underpanted lip syncing scene of which brought him to the attention of movie goers worldwide as well as to Director Jerry Bruckheimer who asked Tom to star in his next project. Rumour has it that the actor turned down the role of fighter pilot Maverick in Top Gun but in 1986 there he was on our screens, ready to become a cinematic icon.

As the 80s rolled on The Colour of Money, Cocktail and Rain Man ensured Tom’s place at the top of the Hollywood A list, taking him in to the nineties able to demand huge pay cheques for his work and earning him Academy Award nominations (for Born on the Fourth of July). In 1990 he met Australian actress Nicole Kidman on the set of Days of Thunder who he would soon work with again on the less successful Far and Away. Fresh from his divorce from Mimi Rogers, whom he had married just three years earlier, Tom whisked Nicole up the aisle before embarking on a roll call of more ’serious’ film work from The Firm to A Few Good Men and Interview With The Vampire.

1996 proved a successful year for Tom. He began a long relationship with the Mission:Impossible franchise and earned himself another Oscar nomination for the unforgettable Bruckheimer release Jerry Maguire. But this time seemed to mark a turning point for America’s most personable lead man. In 1999 he and Nicole took on the bizarre and controversial Kubrick movie Eyes Wide Shut which he closely followed with the Oscar nominated Magnolia which saw a further move away from his usual ’arrogant nice guy’ roles.

In 2001 the Cruise/Kidman van screeched to an unexpected halt. The couple, who had two adopted children - Isabella and Connor - were divorced just before their tenth wedding anniversary. Nicole, three months pregnant, later miscarried. Tom was soon in love again, this time with Vanilla Sky co-star Penelope Cruz with whom he was linked until 2004. He continued to create box office successes, from a second Mission Impossible movie to Collateral and Minority Report.

Following his split from Penelope Tom became ever more vocal about his beliefs as a Scientologist. The controversial religion was expected to affect his 2005 outing, War of the Worlds, however whilst the film still managed to net millions, Tom’s religious ramblings coupled with his unexpected relationship with Dawson’s Creek and Batman Begins actress Katie Holmes, sixteen years his junior, saw his own popularity wane.

Tom’s pro-Scientology and anti-psychiatry comments, a very public battle with Brooke Shields and some truly over the top, overacted protestations of love signalled the end of Tom’s relationship with Paramount pictures with whom he had worked as a Producer. Paramount weren’t the only ones to go off the actor either. The newspapers and magazines who not so long ago loved him and his movies turned against him, branding him a laughing stock and turning up the volume on the gay rumours which have plagued Cruise for so many years.

Tom and Katie carried out their fast forward relationship under the glare of the press - first bringing baby daughter Suri in to the world in April 2006 just a year after they first met, then marrying in November of the same year.
upated December 2006
February 2008