If you haven’t heard of Tom Cruise, you’ve probably spent much of your life living with your eyes and ears wide shut.
But Thomas Cruise Mapother IV doesn’t ring the same sort of showbiz bells, and little wonder, given the screen icon ditched his birth name before establishing himself as a Hollywood star.
Indeed, Cruise sought to abbreviate his name in a bid to distance himself from a volatile childhood in a strict Catholic household with father Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer, and mother Mary Lee Pfeiffer, a special education teacher.
Born in Syracuse in 1962, Cruise grew up with his three sisters in near-poverty before moving to New York City when he was 18 to embark on an acting career that would ultimately turn him into one of the world’s biggest, and wealthiest stars.
Mapother III passed away following a battle with cancer in 1984, with Cruise later describing his biological father as a ‘bully,’ a ‘coward’ and a ‘merchant of chaos’ who would frequently intimidate and beat his four children.
Speaking to Parade magazine in 2006, he recalled: ‘[My father] was the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you. It was a great lesson in my life – how he’d lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang!
If you haven’t heard of Tom Cruise , you’ve probably spent much of your life living with your eyes and ears wide shut
But Thomas Cruise Mapother IV doesn’t ring the same sort of showbiz bells, and little wonder, given the screen icon ditched his birth name before establishing himself as a Hollywood star
‘For me, it was like, “There’s something wrong with this guy. Don’t trust him. Be careful around him.” There’s that anxiety.’
The actor’s mother divorced Mapother III in 1974, when the actor was 12-years old, and Cruise lost touch with him for a decade before reuniting at his hospital bed shortly before his death.
‘When I saw him in pain, I thought, “Wow, what a lonely life,”‘ he said. ‘He was in his late 40s. It was sad.’
While millions of fans across the world know him only as Cruise, the actor is understood to retain his full surname among friends and family members.
Conversely, Cruise’s cousin, William Mapother – also a successful actor whose screen credits include hit TV show Lost and Hollywood blockbuster Zodiac – has maintained his birth-name throughout his career.
Cruise has previously credited Scientology with helping him overcome his childhood dyslexia.
Speaking in 2009, the Mission: Impossible actor told Spanish magazine XL Semanal that he was diagnosed with the learning disability when he was seven years old.
The hardline Scientologist said he was often anxious, frustrated and bored as a youth and couldn’t concentrate in class.
Conversely, his actor cousin, William Mapother (right, with Cruise) has maintained his birth-name throughout his career and has starred in a range of successful TV shows and films
Tom Cruise as a child. The hardline Scientologist has previously admitted he was often anxious, frustrated and bored as a youth and couldn’t concentrate in class
Cruise explained he was ‘functionally illiterate’ when he graduated from school in 1980, but learned to read perfectly as an adult through Scientology technology.
He told the publication: ‘I asked myself if I was normal or an idiot. I would try to concentrate but I felt anxiety, frustration, boredom.
‘When I graduated from high school in 1980 I was functionally illiterate.
‘Nobody gave me a solution and I wanted to know why the system had failed. Finally, as an adult I learned to read perfectly through the method of (Scientology founder) L. Ron Hubbard.’
