Tom Cruise filmography

Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who made his film debut with a minor role in the 1981 romantic drama Endless Love. Two years later he made his breakthrough by starring in the romantic comedy Risky Business (1983), which garnered Cruise his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1986, Cruise played a fighter pilot in the Tony Scott-directed action drama Top Gun (the highest-grossing film that year), and also starred opposite Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama The Color of Money. Two years later he played opposite Dustin Hoffman in the Academy Award for Best Picture-winning drama Rain Man (1988), and also appeared in the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture-winning romantic drama Cocktail (1988). In doing so Cruise became the first and only person as of 2014 to star in a Best Picture Oscar winner and a Worst Picture Razzie winner in the same year. His next role was as anti-war activist Ron Kovic in the drama adaptation of Kovic's memoir of the same name, Born on the Fourth of July (1989). For his performance Cruise received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 1992, he starred opposite Jack Nicholson in the legal drama A Few Good Men, an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name also written by Aaron Sorkin. Cruise next appeared in The Firm (1993), a film adaptation of the John Grisham legal thriller of the same name, and in the same year also made his directorial debut by directing an episode of the anthology television series Fallen Angels. Three years later Cruise starred as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the action spy thriller film Mission: Impossible (1996), the first film project of his production company Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he had co-founded with Paula Wagner in 1993. As of 2018, Cruise has appeared in five more films in the Mission: Impossible franchise: Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), and Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018).

He played the titular role in the Cameron Crowe-directed comedy-drama Jerry Maguire (1996), which garnered Cruise the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and his second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1999, Cruise starred in the Stanley Kubrick-directed erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut opposite his then wife Nicole Kidman, and also appeared in the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed drama Magnolia. For the latter he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise reteamed with Crowe on the science fiction thriller Vanilla Sky (2001), which earned him a Saturn Award for Best Actor. The following year he starred in the Steven Spielberg-directed science fiction thriller Minority Report (2002). In 2005, he collaborated again with Spielberg on the science fiction thriller War of the Worlds and received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film from BAFTA Los Angeles. Three years later he appeared in the satirical action comedy Tropic Thunder (2008) and played Claus von Stauffenberg in the historical thriller Valkyrie (2008). Cruise played the eponymous role in the action thriller Jack Reacher, and appeared in the romantic musical comedy Rock of Ages (both 2012). His next films Oblivion (2013), and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) saw him return to the science fiction genre.