Tom Cruise
National Space Society Board of Governors
Tom Cruise has achieved unprecedented success as an actor and film producer in a career spanning over two decades. He is a three-time Academy Award nominee and a three-time Golden Globe winner whose films have broken numerous records at the box office. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world’s most powerful celebrity in 2006.
His extensive filmography is only briefly highlighted here. His breakout performance in Risky Business (1983) earned him his first Golden Globe nomination, and his role in Top Gun (1986) catapulted him to international stardom as the film went on to become the highest grossing picture of the year. For Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Cruise received both an Academy Award nomination and the Golden Globe for Best Actor.
In 1993, Cruise partnered with his former talent agent Paula Wagner to form Cruise/Wagner Productions, which went on to produce a range of films grossing over $2.9 billion at the box office. Among these were the three highly successful Mission Impossible films (1996, 2000, and 2006), in which Cruise both starred and produced.
Cruise received two more Academy Award nominations and two more Golden Globes for his roles in Jerry Maguire (1996) and Magnolia (1999).
In November 2006, Cruise/Wagner Productions teamed with MGM to create a revitalized United Artists, with Wagner as CEO. Cruise will star in as well as produce films for United Artists and will also be available to appear in film projects for other studios.
Cruise has been the recipient of numerous awards and tributes, reflecting both critical and commercial recognition within the industry and the broad popular support of audiences worldwide. Cruise received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for excellence in film from the British Academy of Film & Television Arts. The producing team of Cruise and Wagner was honored with the UCLA/Producers Guild of America Vision Award in 2004. Cruise received a David di Donatello award for lifetime achievement in 2005. He was recognized by the Chicago Film Festival as the “Actor of the Decade” and earned the NATO/SHOWEST Meritorious Achievement Award.
