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Exclusive: Tom Cruise's high school friend reveals his past as a teenage wrestler

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 00:51 EDT, 25 September 2013 | Updated: 01:51 EDT, 25 September 2013

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Today he's one of the most powerful action men in Hollywood.

And MailOnline can reveal that as a teen Tom Cruise was already a stunt man in training, as he excelled as a teenage wrestler.

Newly-discovered pictures of Tom at Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey show that Tom's early years on the wrestling team provided great training for his career in the action genre.

In control: Tom Cruise as a teenage wrestler during a High School bout; the caption from the time reads 'Tom Mapother has full control over Jefferson Township wrestler in his JV match'

And former wrestling captain Tom Jarrett, who goes by TJ,had only good things to say about his onetime friend.

Part of the team: Cruise in 1979

'He deserves all his success. He was always a real go-getter, but a good guy. I’ve not got a bad word to say about Tom,' said TJ.

Tom and his three sisters – Cass, Marian and Lee Ann – moved to New Jersey from Louisville, Kentucky, when his mum Mary Lee got remarried.

It was tough for Tom, TJ said, as he joined Glen Ridge High School as a freshman at 15.

TJ explained: ‘I think wrestling gave him some focus and a way of dealing with his aggression.'

‘He saw Kentucky as his home, not New Jersey and this was his coming of age. He never felt part of the community, a bit like how I always felt as I was from out of state.

'He had times where he was struggling to be accepted. With wrestling, you made your own mark at school, he certainly felt like that. It wasn’t a popularity contest, but we both were looking to make our own mark.

‘He really wanted to achieve but didn’t know what to achieve in. I think his disabilities like dyslexia held him back, so acting and wrestling were perfect for him. 

However, it has been previously revealed that when recovering from a wrestling injury, Tom decided to audition for the lead in the school production of the musical Guys and Dolls.

It was taking part in the musical that made Tom decide to become an actor.

Top of his game: Wrestling was a great leveller for Tom, as it involved only ever fighting someone your own weight and size, and he was naturally smaller than most other boys

Youth: Cruise joined Glen Ridge High School at 15 and took to wrestling instantly

Star in the making: Cruise, third from front left, with his teenage friends

Pictured: Former wrestling captain Tom Jarrett, who goes by TJ.

But before that it seems that the sport was a great leveller for Tom, as it involved only ever fighting someone your own weight and size, and he was naturally smaller than most other boys.

‘He didn’t start until later than all the other wrestlers. He’s not a big guy, he was about 5ft 5in and 130lbs. To be a wrestler you had to be in great shape and physically strong.

‘We would tone down our food intake. Most people stopped eating for a couple of days to achieve the drastic weight loss.

‘It was a perfect fit for him – wrestling helped to control your body and mind. You have to be in perfect shape and it’s one-to-one combat. It was very popular at the time in the Midwest with boys.'

TJ, now an eminent urology doctor in Washington DC, and Tommy grew close on the wrestling team – and TJ’s father would take all the photos for their bouts.

Making friends: Cruise, front left, was also a member of the school choir

Youthful hi-jinks: Pictured in 1979 dressed as a woman with freckles and a long haired wig, left, and in his Glen Ridge wrestlers sweatshirt

‘My father was a surgeon and took pictures of all our matches, but he didn’t really approve of Tom, he didn’t think he’d come to anything. He said to me: “Stop hanging out with that guy. He’s not doing anything with his life.” Now look at him!

‘I ran into his mum the year after I left school and she said: “You’ve got to speak to Tom as I want him to go to Duke University [in North Carolina]. She looked up to me and really wanted to get a nice environment for him. Thank God I never spoke to him, as he’s now making $20 million a movie.

‘You can see in his film roles the influence wrestling had especially in his earlier career, the rolls and stunts he makes. He always had a wrestling scene in his first movies and, from what I know, he asked them to put it in there.’

World famous: Tom Cruise pictured at Comic Con earlier this year

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Being a New York City lifer isn’t a choice.

The asphalt got in my bloodstream at an early age: I walked to my school in Brooklyn Heights. Dinner was takeout. By the time I was a teenager, my father gave up the family car.

It meant that any fantasies I might have entertained about a very fine house with two cats in the yard were quickly dispelled. (I’m also allergic to cats, but nobody can blame that on NYC.) Still, the pull of suburbia can be strong. You get a lot more house for your money. The public schools are rumored to be excellent. And my wife — another native New Yorker — gets excited every time we set foot outside the five boroughs.

But where does a die-in-the-wilderness (maybe literally) New Yorker go if the suburbs are calling? “There are over 500 towns to move to within commuting distance [of NYC], each with their own personality,” says Alison Bernstein, president and founder of Suburban Jungle , which is one part real estate matchmaker, one part relocation company.

It’s not enough to find a roomy Colonial at a decent price. There are all the other considerations that NYC refugees can’t overlook: Commute time. Schools. Restaurants. Elks Clubs. Suburban Jungle — which is free, and only collects a fee from a seller if you buy a house — tries to hone your search, town-wise.

“There are a handful of brand-name towns, but so many under the radar,” says Bernstein. Her mission became to be “personality-driven rather than house-driven” in finding the ideal town for clients.

The first step is filling out Suburban Jungle’s questionnaire covering the basics: How much money can you put down; the longest commute time you’d tolerate; playroom needs, etc.

Second is a telephone interview with your client coordinator. (In my case, Bernstein herself.) Before the questions start, I begin with a fair word of warning: “I don’t know how to drive. My wife doesn’t, either.”

There is a brief moment of silence.

I add that I’m currently taking lessons. But for now, my wife and I are useless behind the wheel. “If you move out to the suburbs, you’ll need to drive,” Bernstein states flatly.

I also explain that we’re close to our parents (all New Yorkers), that we dine at hot restaurants, that I’m allergic to the vast majority of trees in the Northeast, and that my wife hates the idea of a commute over 40-minutes.

“We might end the process saying that you’re better off staying in the city,” Bernstein says. Nevertheless, two days later, I receive a 12-attachment e-mail with three towns for a city creature who wants the suburbs.

Town 1: Irvington

This is one of the river towns of Westchester (the collection of settlements along the Hudson River, north of Yonkers), and from the get-go, it should appeal to foodies: A stone’s throw from the train station is MP Taverna, a Greek eatery from one of the culinary stars of New York, Michael Psilakis.

The main drag is as cute as you’re liable to find in Westchester. The Irvington Town Hall Theater is a 100-plus-year-old restored venue (it’s on the National Register of Historic Places), and there’s the Washington Irving Memorial, a tribute to the creator of Rip Van Winkle (and the person from whom the town gets its name).

The median sales price is $1.1 million — a huge uptick from late 2012, when the median was $748,000.

The commute is 50 minutes at rush hour via Metro-North.

Bottom line : Close enough to our 40-minute commute time; nice housing, but slightly pricey. Very good dining options. If we came into a windfall, we could afford Irvington.

Town 2: Pelham & Pelham Manor

We’re not talking about Pelham Bay, which residents of The Bronx will no doubt recognize, but Pelham and Pelham Manor, a town (and a village within a town) that is on the southernmost edge of Westchester, hugging up against The Bronx.

New Yorkers will no doubt plotz when they see the Wolf’s Lane Delicatessen — not necessarily because of the food (run-of-the-mill), but the extremely cool neon sign that looks straight out of the 1950s. They’ll also get excited about the town’s New York Athletic Club, a 30-acre temple to the good life, offering its own yacht club, tennis courts and private island.

The rest of the real estate ain’t bad, either.

Since last July, the median sales price was $607,000 in Pelham; in Pelham Manor, it was $729,500 and the houses (a mix of Colonials, Tudors and you-name-its) are on generous lots and aesthetically beautiful.

The commute is 31 minutes at rush hour via Metro-North.

Bottom line : Well situated; excellent housing and at an affordable price; but dining options leave something to be desired.

Town 3: Glen Ridge/Montclair, NJ

Many New Yorkers shy away from New Jersey, but you see the fallacy of this when you set foot in Glen Ridge, a modest collection of houses — or so one thinks, until you hear the names of the architects: Stanford White, John Russell Pope and Frank Lloyd Wright are all represented. (It also has the cachet of being the site of Tom Cruise’s childhood home, which inspires a few pilgrims per year.)

Glen Ridge might appear a little bare in terms of stuff to do — however, a trip (of about three or four minutes) by car into Montclair dispels this idea. The Wellmont Theater on Seymour Street advertises shows by Cheap Trick and Emblem3. Around the corner is Raymond’s, a coffee shop (with some seriously good hot cocoa), bookstores and clothing boutiques (some big names, some less so).

The median sales price in Glen Ridge was $840,000 this January (a big jump from a year ago, when it was $675,000 in the fourth quarter of 2012).

The commute is about 44 minutes from Glen Ridge at rush hour via New Jersey Transit.

Bottom line : Close enough to the city (although there were delays on NJ Transit when visiting); very good housing stock at a reasonable price; a pretty thriving downtown Montclair. But you need a car if you plan to go back and forth from Montclair.

The bottom bottom line : Irvington probably looked most attractive as a community; Pelham had the real estate that appealed most to me; and Glen Ridge split the difference between the two. But in the postmortem with Bernstein, she confirmed what I already knew — proving, perhaps, that honesty is the most valuable commodity of all. “We would recommend that at this point in your lives, careers and social life, you STAY where you are!” Maybe after the Grosses pass their road tests.

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Where Did Tom Cruise Grow Up?

Though he would eventually become one of the biggest movie stars in history, Tom Cruise had a complicated and busy life long before he was a big-screen superstar. He grew up in multiple locations and never called just one city his home. 

Tom Cruise was born in the city of Syracuse, New York on July 3, 1962. Cruise grew up in different cities across North America. After his childhood in New York, Cruise and his family moved to Canada then eventually back to the U.S. in various cities.

Cruise’s journey through his youth was winding and often troubled but it eventually led to the fame and fortune that made him a Hollywood legend. 

Cruise’s Early Years

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was the son of Mary Lee, a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. Born in Syracuse, New York, Cruise was just one of four children; he has three sisters named Lee Anne, Cass, and Marian. 

Aside from his sisters, Cruise also has a cousin, William Mapother . William is an accomplished actor who has appeared in Lost , In the Bedroom, and other projects. 

How Tall Is Tom Cruise? Exact Height Revealed

What is tom cruise’s daily routine, where does tom cruise live.

Growing up, Cruise’s family didn’t have it easy and the actor has stated that they lived in near-poverty for much of his youth. 

His home life was also hard because of his abusive dad. The actor has repeatedly referred to his late father as a “bully” and “coward.” Their relationship was incredibly strained right from the beginning. 

Because of his low income and constant relocating, Cruise was frequently bullied as a kid. The actor has said he grew up without friends and was ridiculed for everything from his choice of shoes to his accent. 

His father took a job as a defense consultant with the Canadian Armed Forces in 1971 so nine-year-old Cruise and his sisters and mother moved to Beacon Hill, Ottawa. He attended Robert Hopkins Public School for elementary school and it was in fourth grade that he first became involved in theater, thanks to his drama teacher George Steinburg. 

Cruise attended several other schools in Canada around that age, including Henry Munro Middle school in Ottawa. His interest in acting continued to grow throughout this time in his life. 

Cruise was also becoming a budding athlete at that young age and excelled at floor hockey. Sadly, during a hockey game Cruise fell hard and chipped a front tooth, something that is quite noticeable in early photos of the star. 

Return to the U.S. 

In 1974, when Tom was in sixth grade, his mother Mary Lee left his father and took Tom and his sisters back to the United States. It was there she would remarry after meeting Cruise’s stepfather Jack South. 

Tom would have little-to-no contact with his dad until his death years later.  

After his mother remarried, Cruise’s family wound up moving around America a lot without ever fully settling. His family lived in various locations, including his mother’s home state of Kentucky . All told, Tom was enrolled in 15 schools during this time in his life. 

Eventually, Cruise planted roots in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he received a church scholarship and attended a seminary school while briefly considering a career as a priest. He left Ohio, however, and his family traveled to the east coast. 

Tom ended his schooling career in Glen Ridge, New Jersey where he graduated from Glen Ridge High School. 

As Tom graduated from high school, his interest in acting had blossomed even more. His final years saw him starring in multiple high school productions including Guys and Dolls .

Growing Up and Moving On

After high school, Cruise was intent on pursuing his career in acting. At the young age of 18, he moved from his family in New Jersey and started his acting quest across the river in New York . 

Cruise worked hard to achieve his goals and would soon relocate across the country to Los Angeles where he secured an agent and began to land bit parts. In just a few short years, Cruise went from small roles in films like Endless Love to career-making turns in Risky Business and All the Right Moves. 

After that, Tom Cruise’s career skyrocketed to heights that few have reached. From Mission: Impossible to Top Gun and War of the Worlds , Cruise is certifiably one of the largest names in Hollywood history. 

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AirBnb: Protect Home Sharing in New Jersey

We strongly support efforts to craft sensible regulation that considers both economic opportunities for families as well as the health and safety of communities..

Fresh off of their victory in the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army led by George Washington, encamped in Morristown for the winter of 1780. For the months that the army rested, a widow named Theodosia Ford opened up her home to General Washington, his family and his aides, who used her home as military headquarters until the war could resume.

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Mrs. Ford’s decision to share her home was not unusual at the time. In fact, from the time of the Revolution and the growth of summer vacation rentals on the Jersey Shore in the 20th century to Portuguese immigrants helping one another find a home and build a community in 21st century Newark, home sharing has a long and storied history in the Garden State.

That is why we are so alarmed by a new bill introduced by Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle, which would force municipalities to impose onerous restrictions on middle class New Jerseyans who use home sharing through platforms like AirBnb (ABNB) to earn extra money, pay for their mortgage, medicine, and student loans, or save money for retirement or a rainy day. In fact, last year, the typical host shared their home for fewer than four days a month, bringing in $6,200 to help make ends meet.

At its core, this bill is a “one size fits all” mandate from Trenton on an activity that demands a localized approach. Indeed, as Airbnb’s Community Compact makes clear, we are committed to working with big cities and small towns, coastal vacation markets and suburban neighborhoods, to tailor regulation to their unique needs. Many municipalities are already grappling with these issues, and are doing so in a thoughtful manner without the heavy-handed guidance of State-level politicians.

While a handful of Garden State municipalities have banned short-term rentals, the majority that have considered regulations have either left in place existing laws that allow short-term rentals, as in Toms River, or have passed forward-thinking legislation that creates a regulatory structure that suits their community, as in Jersey City.

We strongly support efforts to craft sensible regulation that considers both economic opportunities for families as well as the health and safety of communities. Furthermore, we have worked closely with legislators to ensure that the Airbnb community can pay its fair share in taxes to support critical public services.

This month, Assemblywoman Annette Quijano will introduce innovative legislation to allow Airbnb to collect and remit hospitality taxes on behalf of our guests. This collaborative approach to lawmaking will help fill the Garden State’s budget gap, while maintaining the ability of municipalities to regulate— or not regulate— short-term rentals as they see fit.

While New Jerseyans look to Trenton to promote economic opportunity, Assemblywoman Huttle’s bill threatens to strangle a new and innovative source of supplemental income with heavy-handed, statewide regulations. We hope that her colleagues in the Assembly recognize that home sharing is a longstanding tradition that has helped shaped the history and character of New Jersey, and reject laws that will impede its progress and saddle cities and towns with yet another round of red tape.

Josh Meltzer is Head of Northeast Public Policy for Airbnb.

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JERSEY FOOTLIGHTS

By Margo Nash

• Aug. 22, 2004

The C-Files

Glen Ridge, founded in 1895, is rich in history; the Leni Lenape and Yantecaw peoples lived there, and the town, once part of Newark and then Bloomfield, still has its gaslights. But when people ask for a file from the Glen Ridge Historical Collection at the Glen Ridge Free Public Library -- if they are not looking for information about a house -- they are usually asking for ''The Tom Cruise File.'' Such requests become even more common when a new Cruise movie like ''Collateral'' comes out, according to John Sitnik, the library's director.

The BBC, CNN and other networks have also turned up over the years to look over the file. It includes Mr. Cruise's Glen Ridge High School yearbooks along with photos donated by local residents and articles chronicling the career of the actor whose name was Thomas Cruise Mapother IV when he lived in Glen Ridge with his family from about 1978 to 1980. Mr. Cruise had his first acting experience at Glen Ridge High, playing ''Nathan Detroit'' in ''Guys and Dolls.''

Heartaches by the Numbers

Could love = mc2?

What if you could turn emotions into mathematical equations? Lorenzo Clayton, an artist from Edgewater, gave it a try. Mr. Clayton, who teaches printmaking at Cooper Union in Manhattan collaborated with George Sidebotham, a colleague who teaches engineering, and they did the math. The results are on display on long blackboards in an installation called ''Inner Equations'' at the Jersey City Museum through Jan. 2.

''I'm not a mathematician, but I love the language,'' Mr. Clayton said. ''It's a handle on God, like being in God's mind.'' Information: (201)413-0303.

Mr. Gillespie, of Englewood

The spirit of Dizzy Gillespie just may be giving the Bergen Performing Arts Center a hand, to hear Eva Bornstein, the new center's executive director, tell it. Ms. Bornstein, a veteran producer and performing arts center coordinator arrived in Englewood a few months ago to start work on the debut season at the center, which is the cultural heir to the old John Harms Theater. First things, first, she met with her board of directors, got to work on programming and hung a plaque from her old friend Gillespie on the wall: it says, ''To Eva, with love, Dizzy.''

Ms. Bornstein first met the late jazz trumpeter when he performed at the University of Western Ontario, when she was director of the performing arts center there. ''He was a good spirit,'' Ms. Bornstein said of Gillespie, who lived in Englewood for many years until he died in 1993. And, she adds, she appealed to her departed friend for help when she got to Englewood -- as in: ''Dizzy, I'm home. You better look out for me.''

Smokey, and the Bluegrass Bears

The bluegrass band Railroad Earth comes home to New Jersey to play at the opening night of the three-day Knowlton Riverfest on Friday. The band's third album, ''The Good Life'' (Sugar Hill), was released in June. ''The Black Bear Sessions'' (Bos Music), the band's 2001 debut album, was named for the bears who live in the Stillwater woods where the lead vocalist, Todd Sheaffer, also lives.

''They're in my backyard quite a bit, and we like them,'' Mr. Sheaffer said. ''They don't scare us. They feel like neighbors. They might be nicer than the neighbors.''

Railroad Earth will perform at 10 p.m. Yerba Buena, the Black Widow Blues Band, Wolfe, Peter Karp and the Roadshow are among the many other bands performing night and day at the free festival Friday through next Sunday.

Information: www.knowlton-fest.com. Margo Nash

Tom Cruise: Winging It

By Christopher Connelly

Christopher Connelly

H e can feel it coming. Then again, maybe any 12-year-old who’s moved around as much as Thomas Cruise Mapother IV would’ve developed a sixth sense about these things. The little town outside Ottawa, Canada — what is it, the fourth, the fifth town he’s lived in? He’s always trying to fit in, trying to make friends, to explain himself to his new neighbors and classmates, and always ending up alone. Through it all, he’s at least had the love and support of his family: his mom to comfort him, his dad to stick up for him when things got especially rough. But he knows that something’s up.

On this day, his parents sit their four children down — Marian, Lee Anne, Tom and Cass — and tell them what Tom has suspected all along: their marriage is breaking up. Around the room, the flow of tears is uncontrollable. It was, Tom would remember, like someone had died.

Later Tom’s father takes him outside to hit a few baseballs. But how can he forget what’s just taken place? Tom cries so hard that he can’t even breathe. His father is leaving — this time for good — and one great fear echoes through his mind: What’s going to happen to us now? What next?

A n Ashen Jerry Lee Lewis, looking like he’s just back from a stop at the embalmer’s, is belting a surprisingly vital “Great Balls of Fire” onstage at the Lone Star Cafe in New York — while Tom Cruise, who does his own yelping version of the tune in his new movie, Top Gun , bobs appreciatively to the beat in the packed balcony. Once the set’s over, Cruise quickly retreats to an out-of-the-way table and nurses a Diet Coke. Though he’s unfailingly genial and polite, he’s not much for crowds. Besides, it’s 11, and he’s got a big day tomorrow — Good Morning America , a photo session, that sort of thing — so maybe he’d best be moseying along. . .  .

“Hey, Tom,” interjects a club official. “You’re looking pretty inconspicuous back here. Wanna see the iguana?” (The roof of the club is dominated by a sculpture of an iguana.)

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“Let’s do it,” Tom says, leaping up from the table and bounding up the stairs. He’s three inches shy of six feet but prodigiously muscular, thanks to a rugged training program and more than the usual quotient of self-discipline. His crisp good looks — jet-black hair and bushy eyebrows cutting across a wide, open face — are accentuated by his everyday attire: bomber jacket, T-shirt, black jeans and boots, which take the stairs three at a time. A small crowd dribbles out of the dressing rooms that open onto the roof and starts to flock around Cruise. He accepts a host of how-are-yas and then is asked, Would you pose for a picture with the iguana? Well, sure. Coke glass still in hand, he climbs up the struts that support the iguana, jumps onto a small ledge, turns and — omigod! — falls face forward onto the roof, about five feet down, landing with a gruesomely vivid thud.

Suddenly, a dozen hands are on him, pulling him back up to his feet, asking him how he is. He’s shaken, but intact — “I’m all right, I’m all right” — but you sense that what he mostly needs is to be outta here, so it’s down the stairs and out on the street and. . . “Hey, Tom, willya sign this, please?”

Well, sure, he will. “Thanks. My daughter really loved you dancing to that Bob Seger thing.”

Right, the Bob Seger thing. Ron Reagan Jr. parodied it on Saturday Night Live . Campbell’s soup ripped it off for a commercial. It started as one line in Paul Brickman’s Risky Business script: “Joel dances in underwear through the house.” But when Cruise’s Joel Goodsen cranked up the stereo and slid out in a button-down shirt and B.V.D.’s to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll,” he kicked off a memorable one-minute sequence of sexy air-guitar strutting and mock-macho hilarity that endeared Cruise to film audiences.

An uncommonly stylish loss-of-virginity movie, Risky Business made $65 million in the theaters. It was equally popular on cable, and its witty takes on entrepreneurship and getting into Princeton made it the Easy Rider of the MTV generation. After his next starring role, in All the Right Moves , Cruise was that much more able to write his own ticket in the movies — at an estimated price of $1 million per picture. Instead, he disappeared in ’84 and ’85. What happened?

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In a word: Legend . Director Ridley Scott’s rococo fairy tale kept Cruise in London for what turned out to be more than a year, playing — yuck — Jack o’ the Green, a long-haired agent of goodness possessing all the emotional depth of Luke Skywalker; Cruise himself characterized his role as “another color in a Ridley Scott painting.” The film’s considerable production difficulties were dramatically augmented midway through when its set was destroyed by fire, but it was finally given a U.S. release in April. It took a year out of Cruise’s life, and 89 minutes out of its audience’s.

So it was clear enough, right? Legend was just one of those mistakes that an actor can make — “I’ll never want to do another picture like that again,” says Tom — and Top Gun was just the thing to put him on track again: a high-flying saga of elite navy fighter pilots. It might not be a movie for the critics — who are likely to be troubled by the film’s go-get-’em attitude toward foreign aircraft — but provided Sly Stallone’s Cobra doesn’t bazooka it out of the box office, Top Gun is poised to make itself a fair piece of change this summer. Simple, right?

Well, surely not. It was hard for Cruise to explain, but the year he spent in London making Legend was really important to him. The isolation of the set, the disruption of his personal life, even the profound innocence of the character he played — each of these seemed to rekindle some of the pain and fear of his childhood and enabled him to develop new strength. He learned to be patient: not to worry if something didn’t get done that day, or that month, or this year. He found out how to ask the same questions that he asked when his father left — What’s going to happen to us now? What next? — and be filled not with horror but with hope. He now had the ability to say goodbye to something precious — a romance, a career opportunity, even a parent — and come out of it stronger.

It was all a little hard to convey, you know? So maybe it wasn’t time to go home after all. Maybe it was time to take a long walk uptown and talk it through.

D on Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, the producers of Beverly Hills Cop , were first drawn to the Top Gun project after they saw a story in California magazine on the elite flying school at San Diego’s Miramar Naval Air Station. “These guys were rock & rollers in the sky,” says Bruckheimer. “They looked like American Stings: these guys with these shocks of blond and black hair, with nicknames like Yogi and Possum and Radar. And it was all real.” And casting the lead was a cinch, according to Bruckheimer. “From the first time we went down to Miramar — even before the script was written — we said, ‘These guys are Tom Cruises.'”

The pair went to the Pentagon and obtained the full cooperation of the navy. A script was commissioned and sent to Cruise, still hanging in there with Legend .

“I liked it,” Cruise recalls, “but it needed a lot of work. I was worried.” After a meeting with Simpson and Bruckheimer, though, he was more encouraged. “They seemed like they had that fighter-pilot spirit — the top gun, the best of the best.”

Cruise made an unusual offer to the pair: he wanted to work on the script with them before deciding to commit to the project. “I said, ‘After two months, if I don’t want to do it, the script’s gonna be in good enough shape, and you’ll have more of a sense of what you want to do. And there are other actors.’ I think they were kind of taken aback at first, [but] after coming off Legend , I just wanted to make sure that everything was gonna go the way we talked about it.”

Simpson and Bruckheimer agreed to the deal, and today Simpson has nothing but raves for Cruise. “He was terrific,” says Simpson. “Tom would show up at my house, grab a beer, and we’d work five or six hours on the script. Sometimes we’d act scenes out. The guy doesn’t see things from just a couple perspectives — he can really wrap his arms around something and see it from all angles. We had a lot of fun.”

Cruise headed off to Miramar to study and fly with the pilots — “These guys took one look at me and they said, ‘We are going to kick your ass ‘” — and spent a lot of time working on the script.

One of the problems was Cruise’s love interest, played by Kelly McGillis. Originally, the character was to be a gymnast, but everyone agreed that she should be more integral to the pilots’ world — hence she became an instructor at the school.

But the key problem was Cruise’s character: Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a spiky-haired rogue whose antics are too reckless for his fellow flying aces. From the beginning, the role showcased Cruise’s ineluctable energy and, at least occasionally, his handsome face (the flyers wear masks for much of the film). The chief worry was the asshole factor — how could Maverick be ultracompetitive and still be likable? Toward that end, Cruise and company created scenes in which Maverick reveals his self-doubts to his flying buddy. And a subtext for Maverick’s actions was established — his need to prove himself and to discover something about his father, lost mysteriously on a mission over Southeast Asia in the Sixties.

A guy who’s lost his father? Yes, Tom Cruise could portray that.

W hat Tom Cruise wants right now is some ice cream, only it’s not so easy to find at this late hour, even in Greenwich Village. He walks up to one stand that’s just closed, waving a dollar bill at the people cleaning up inside. “Look!” he yells to them, a big smile on his face. “I have money.” But it’s no-go.

Finally, he tracks down a Haagen-Dazs, gets a coffee-chip cone, and we start to trek toward his uptown hotel.

Though it’s been months since filming wrapped on Top Gun , he’s still charged up over the experience. “I felt total support from Simpson and Bruckheimer that whatever wasn’t right, we were going to make right,” says Cruise. “No matter if they had to lie, cheat and steal Paramount out of the money, it was going to get done.” And what of his involvement with the structure of the film’s story — specifically of the details about the family? Cruise pauses for a moment. “Well, obviously, my father wasn’t a fighter pilot and he didn’t die a hero, but I think a lot of the gut-level, emotional stuff — the love of the father and the conflict in that — is in there. And the love of my mother, also.”

H is father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III, was an electrical engineer, something of an inventor, born in Kentucky and a graduate of the University of Louisville. His mother, Mary Lee, was a vivacious, outgoing, religious woman who was a talented actress. “I was always interested in theater, but I never did anything with it,” she recalls. “When I was growing up, if you went to Hollywood, that was really risque. I would have lost my religion, my morals, all those things that young girls thought of back then.”

Thomas and Mary Lee had four children: Tom, their third, was born in Syracuse, New York, on July 3rd, 1962. The family moved to a handful of cities, wherever Dad’s job took him. Once settled in, Mary Lee would find a way to get involved with a local theater group. And according to her, young Tom showed an early theatrical aptitude. “He used to create skits and imitate Donald Duck and Woody Woodpecker and W.C. Fields when he was just a tiny tot. I guess I was his greatest audience. He had it in him then. But as he got older, he was more into sports, and it stopped completely.”

For Tom, sports provided an outlet for his natural aggressiveness, gave him a good way to make friends quickly in a new town and lent him some self-esteem — esteem he didn’t usually get in the classroom because of his dyslexia. He began at an early age with baseball, and when the family moved to Canada, his father noticed that, by golly, Tom could skate backward as well as those Canadian boys who’d been doing it all their lives. Here, also, Mary Lee — with a little help from Thomas III — helped to found an amateur theater group in an Ottawa neighborhood.

But their family bliss was short-lived; Mary Lee refers to the divorce today only as “a time of growing, a time of conflict.” It was also a time of poverty. With precious little income, she and the children returned to Louisville and tried to start their lives again. “You know, women have dreams of having careers and being whatever,” Mary Lee says. “I had a dream of raising children and enjoying them and having a good family life.”

Mary Lee worked a series of jobs to keep the family afloat: hosting electrical conventions, selling appliances, anything. One Christmas there was no money to buy gifts, so the family wrote poems to one another and read them out loud.

Tom’s involvement in athletics continued. He played hockey over the Kentucky border in Indiana, with kids older and bigger than he. “He was so fast they couldn’t keep up with him,” remembers Mary Lee. “One guy finally got so exasperated that he picked Tom up by the scruff of the neck and the seat of his pants and moved him outside the boundary. I laughed!”

Tom pitched in financially with his paper route — occasionally swiping Mom’s car for the purpose — and helped out in other ways, too. “Every night I’d come home, bathe my feet and sit in the family room, and Tom would massage my feet for a half-hour,” recalls Mary Lee. “This went on for six weeks, then Easter came and went, and the Monday after Easter I came home from work expecting the same treatment. And he said, ‘Hey Mom — Lent’s over.'”

A fter a divorce, you feel so vulnerable,” says Tom, tossing his ice-cream cone away as he crosses 14th Street. “And traveling the way I did, you’re closed off a lot from people. I didn’t express a lot to people where I moved. They didn’t have the childhood I had, and I didn’t feel like they’d understand me. I was always warming up, getting acquainted with everyone. I went through a period, after the divorce, of really wanting to be accepted, wanting love and attention from people. But I never really seemed to fit in anywhere.”

School became a horror show of close-minded teachers and rigid cliques, a place to do time as painlessly as possible. “I remember walking to school one time with my sisters and saying, ‘Let’s just get through this. If we can just get through this somehow. . .’

“I look back upon high school and grade school and I would never want to go back there. Not in a million years.”

M ary Lee met Jack at an electronics convention; Jack worked in plastics. They got married when Tom was 16. “In the beginning, I felt threatened by my stepfather,” Tom remembers. “There’s a part of you that’s in love with your mother. But he is such a wise, smart man. He loved my mother so much that he took us all in, four young people. We’d bet on football games, and he was a terrible bettor, so I’d make lots of money.”

The family settled down in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. By senior year, though, Tom was still unfocused; after graduation, he planned to travel for a few years before entertaining any thoughts of college. When a knee injury terminated his varsity wrestling career in the winter, there seemed little to look forward to. He’d never been great at anything, not even athletics: he was hyperenergetic to compensate for his lack of skill and tended to flit from sport to sport. He would tell himself, “If I could just focus in and do something, I know I’ve got the energy and creativity to be great.” Then, on the advice of his glee-club instructor, Tom decided to audition for his high school’s production of the musical Guys and Dolls and nabbed the leading role of Nathan Detroit.

Mary Lee still remembers opening night. “I can’t describe the feeling that was there. It was just an incredible experience to see what we felt was a lot of talent coming forth all of a sudden. It had been dormant for so many years — not thought of or talked about or discussed in any way. Then to see him on that stage. . .”

But the bigger surprise was yet to come. “After the show,” says Mary Lee, “Tom came home and said he wanted to have a talk with my husband and me. He asked for 10 years to give show business a try. Meanwhile, my husband’s thinking, ‘What’s this gonna cost me? Ten years of what?'” She howls with laughter. “It’s kind of a joke in the family. Sort of a joke and not a joke. At any rate, Tom said, ‘Let me see. I really feel that this is what I want to do.’ And we both wholeheartedly agreed, because we both felt it was a God-given talent, and he should explore it because he was so enthused about it. So to make a long story short, we gave him our blessing — and the rest is history.”

T om skipped his graduation, shortened his name and moved to New York City. Cruise tore into the struggling performer’s life: busing tables by night, hustling to auditions by day, catching workshops at the Neighborhood Playhouse when time permitted. He may have been raw, but he was handsome, and those who saw him then recall an urgency in his performing that was hard to dismiss.

Within five months of moving to New York, Cruise bagged a small role in the film Endless Love . Before a year had passed, Cruise had fired his manager — “She had me doing errands for her” — and had been cast in a minor part in Taps .

Cruise was to play a sidekick of the hotheaded military cadet David Shawn. But the actor playing Shawn wasn’t hitting on all cylinders. “Cruise was so strong that the other guy didn’t have a chance,” remembers Sean Penn, who costarred with Timothy Hutton in the film. “Very intense, 200 percent there. It was overpowering — and we’d all kind of laugh, because it was so sincere. Good acting, but so far in the intense direction that it was funny.”

Director Harold Becker offered the role of Shawn to Cruise, who reacted with horror. “Tom told the producer, ‘If this isn’t all right with the other actor, I don’t want to do it,'” says Penn. “To the end he was like that. He really was a total innocent. Talk to Hutton, he’ll tell you the same thing.” His naiveté about the film business soon cost him, in the form of Losin’ It , a first-time-in-Tijuana teen titillater that he starred in with an equally embarrassed Shelley Long. “That’s an important film for me,” says Tom. “I can look at it and say, Thank God I’ve grown.’ I thought anyone could make a great movie, all you had to do was just knock yourself out. I didn’t know anything about anything.”

By this time, Cruise had met agent Paula Wagner and outlined his career plans to her: to grow as an artist, to work with the best people and not to care about money. She took him on — and he went on to do The Outsiders , with Francis Ford Coppola at the helm. And that’s where Cruise — who had already distinguished himself by mooning the camera during Losin’ It and sawing up lawns in a jeep during Taps — made a real name for himself as a prankster. He scrawled “Helter Skelter” onto Diane Lane’s hotel mirror and smeared honey on her toilet seat. For which he was rewarded with a bag of guess-what on his doorknob, courtesy of Emilio Estevez. And then came Risky Business. . .  and then came everything else.

At 21, Tom Cruise was a movie star.

P enn recalls a night out with Cruise at a New York club after Risky Business was released. “The group of people we were with was amazing, you know? De Niro, Mickey Rourke, Joe Pesci. All these girls were coming over. And this really pretty girl came up to Tommy and started talking to him. And he realized that she wanted him for his body. And he screamed at her, ‘I have a girlfriend I’m in love with!’ And the girl said, ‘You should have told me that five minutes ago!'”

That girlfriend was his Risky Business costar, Rebecca De Mornay. Despite their incendiary love scenes, they didn’t start dating until after the film’s release in late summer of 1983. In the first months of their relationship, De Mornay, also 21, noted that she and Cruise had a lot in common. “We have very similar backgrounds, with all the moving around and stuff, except that mine was through Europe and his was through the United States.

“He really is a pure person,” she said at the time. “There’s something earnest and virtuous about him that’s quite rare. There’s definitely something different about kids who come from broken homes. They have this sort of searching quality, because you’re searching for love and affection, if you’ve been robbed of a substantial amount of time with your parents. I think that’s true of Tom.”

Tom’s stardom — and the intrigue of his relationship with De Mornay — turned up the flame of public interest. People asked him and Rebecca to pose for a cover; paparazzi stalked them outside their New York hotel; Rona Barrett tracked Tom down for an interview. The public started discovering how wholesome, gracious and kind he could be. But there were still areas of his life he hadn’t yet come to terms with.

The voice on the phone was hale sounding, robust with good humor, but it wasn’t coming easily. It was late 1983 — when Risky Business was a hit and All the Right Moves had just been released — and Thomas C. Mapother III, Tom Cruise’s father, was very ill. “I’ve just had a cancer operation,” he told me. “It was pretty serious, and I’ve still got cancer other places, so it is still kind of a serious problem.”

At first, he was extremely reluctant to speak about his son: “Tom and I are not in contact. I can’t take any credit for his success. I’m the last person who’ll ever criticize him. Maybe that’s one favor I’ve done for him.”

But there was something he wanted to say. “All four of my children showed up at the hospital, and all I could do was cry. That’s how bad the strain has been because of the divorce situation. It had been about four or five years — a long time, at least to me.”

His voice thickened with emotion. “I couldn’t believe it when he walked into the room. I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t see my son, because I’d seen a lot of the pictures in the paper and the publicity shots. And that wasn’t my son. He walked into the room. . .and I knew who he was.” He began to weep. “What those kids did for me, I could never explain. . .  .”

T om was in Los Angeles, about to go to London for Legend , when the phone rang. “You know how sometimes the phone rings and — ping! — you just know?” He knew. His father was dead. “It cleared up a lot of kind of fog that I had about the man,” says Tom of his final meetings with his father, as he walks along 5th Avenue. “I think that he felt remorse for a lot that had happened. He was a person who did not have a huge influence on me in my teens; the values and motivation really came from my stepfather. But he was important. Really important. It’s all sort of complex. There wasn’t one thing I felt.”

Cruise had decided to do Legend just before his father died. “After what I was going through emotionally, facing death and all of that,” he says, “somehow it was important for me to try to get back to the innocence within my own soul.” He sighs. “I’m just glad I had acting then. I don’t know what I would have done without my work. It gave me a place to deal with all those emotions.”

I t is 1984, and Tom is in London, cut off from his support system: his family, Rebecca, the U.S. moviemaking community. To pass the time, he hangs out on the set for hours on end. He takes long walks by himself around Hyde Park.

Midway through filming, he throws his back out and walks around the following day bent over like Quasimodo. Paula Wagner and her husband are on their honeymoon and have come to have lunch with him. It is the first time she’s visited Tom on the set of a movie. While they are eating, someone tells Tom that Legend ‘s multimillion-dollar set — the fantasy world that is at the heart of director Ridley Scott’s elaborate vision — is engulfed in flames. The destruction is almost total. Weeks of work have been rendered fruitless; many more will be needed to finish the movie. Tom turns to Paula. “I hope you’ll understand,” he says, “when I ask that you never visit a set of mine again.”

I really had to make a choice,” he says, even more intensely than usual, as he recalls his reaction to the fire. “When the set burned down, it was like, ‘What are we going to do now? Where does this take us?’ I said, ‘I can sit here and feel shitty and wallow in my frustration, or I can just come in every day.’ Instead of getting frustrated and banging your head against the wall, you say, ‘Okay, that happened, now what do we do? Let’s go ahead.'”

He had learned how to do that the hard way. “I mean, I always had that ability to just deal with things. My whole life has been like that: ‘Okay, what do I do now?'”

O f course, not every problem responds to determination and resolve. Sometimes, says Tom, you have to let go. He and Rebecca sustained their relationship through the months of Legend -enforced separation — only to break up for good upon his return to America to begin work on Top Gun .

“Relationships,” he sighs as we round the final corner toward his hotel. “Relationships are hard. You have to know when you’re going to be in a different place from someone else, you have to have the strength to separate. People are more prone to stay together for the security, which is something in my life that I have really not done, in relationships or even in business. If something’s not working, you’ve got to face it and move on.”

He isn’t sure about what he wants to do emotionally with his life. “I don’t know if I could get married. Right now, in my present state of mind, I don’t believe so. I need a lot of space for myself and my work. You can’t say, ‘Okay, let’s keep that thought — I’ll be back to you in a couple of months when I finish this.’ But I do enjoy being in a relationship.”

He admits to “officially” dating actress Mimi Rogers. “I met her at a dinner party about a year ago, when I was developing Top Gun . She was dating a friend, and, uh, I thought she was extremely bright.” Alone or not, at work or at ease, the old questions — What’s going to happen now? What next? — have a different ring; now Cruise asks them with a smile on his face.

“For a while there I felt like I had to do everything in a weekend,” he says with a laugh. “Then, for the first time, someone died in my life. When someone close to you dies, it makes you face the fact that you are going to die one day. And then I started to realize — actually when I was living in London — it’s okay. I can take my time, I can start trusting the fact that I’m gonna live a little longer. I’ve just grown a lot. I’m a little more relaxed.”

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The earlier part of this year finds Cruise in Chicago, filming The Color of Money — a sequel of sorts to The Hustler — with director Martin Scorsese and Paul Newman. Tom thinks he’s one lucky guy. Lucky to get to do Top Gun , lucky to get to star opposite a truly major star. He says as much to Newman one day on the set: “Gee, I’m lucky.” “Funny you should say that,” Newman replies. “I said the same thing once to George Roy Hill [director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ]. Know what he said to me? ‘There’s an art to being lucky.'”

On another day, Newman takes Cruise out to a nearby race track. After a few laps, the champion race-car driver asks Cruise if he wants to take the wheel for a high-speed spin. You bet, says Tom. “Okay,” Newman says, strapping himself into the passenger seat. “Just don’t show me how brave you are, kid.” “Aw,” replies Tom, “stop givin’ me shit.” And he floors it. 

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14 photos show the childhood homes of Hollywood's biggest stars

• Dolly Parton grew up in a two-room log cabin with her parents and 11 siblings in Tennessee.
• The childhood homes of Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are now museums.
• Jennifer Lopez's 2002 song "Jenny from the Block" pays tribute to her Bronx roots.

Elvis Presley was born in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Presley's father, Vernon Presley, borrowed $180 to acquire the materials to build the home in 1934, according to the museum's website . A few years after Presley's birth in 1935, his family lost the house because they couldn't repay the loan. When he was 13, his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

You can now visit the home: A $20 ticket grants access to Presley's home, his family's church, and the museum on site.

Leonardo DiCaprio told the Los Angeles Times that he grew up "very poor" in Los Angeles, California.

DiCaprio spent his early years at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, where he said he witnessed prostitution, crime, and drug use, he told the Los Angeles Times in 2014.

"It was a pretty hardcore neighborhood and I think that gave me a lot of motivation to be successful, really, and try to do something else," he told CBS Sunday Morning .

Ben Affleck grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, two blocks away from Matt Damon.

Affleck and Damon were childhood best friends and attended the same high school, they told Interview magazine in 1997 .

"My mother is a professor of early childhood development, and she knew Ben's mother — who's a teacher of little kids — and sought her out after we moved back to Cambridge," Damon told the magazine. "So I was pretty much forced into hanging out with Ben."

Arnold Schwarzenegger's childhood home — an apartment in this building in Thal, Austria — had no electricity or running water.

Schwarzenegger lived in the apartment, which had a pit toilet, from his birth in 1947 until 1966, BBC News reported .

It is also now a museum, which displays his childhood bed, as well as memorabilia from his time in Hollywood such as a motorbike that he rode in the "Terminator" movies.

Adult admission costs €8.90 (about $9), according to the museum's website .

Visitors to Judy Garland's childhood home in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, can view artifacts like a pair of ruby slippers she wore as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz."

There are only four known remaining pairs of original ruby slippers from the production of "The Wizard of Oz" in existence. One of them is on display at the Judy Garland Museum, which opened in 1975.

In 2005, the ruby slippers were stolen from the museum. The FBI  recovered them in a sting operation  13 years later in 2018.

One adult ticket to the museum  costs $12 .

Dolly Parton grew up in a two-room log cabin with her parents and 11 siblings in Sevierville, Tennessee.

The cabin had no electricity or running water, but Parton remembered her years there fondly in her 1973 song  "My Tennessee Mountain Home."

Parton's Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, features a replica of her childhood home. Her brother Bobby built the replica, and her mother, Avie Lee, furnished it with objects from the original Parton family home.

 Admission to the park costs $89 for one adult ticket .

The Jackson 5 were raised at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana.

Michael, Janet, and the seven other surviving Jackson children grew up in a small white home about 30 miles outside Chicago in Gary, Indiana.

In 2021, a sign was added to the house, marking it the "Home of the World-Famous Jackson 5," the Chicago Sun-Times reported . The yard also features a statue of two children playing.

Tom Cruise spent his teenage years in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

Cruise, whose full name is Thomas C. Mapother IV, was born in Syracuse, New York, and lived in a variety of cities before settling with his mother and her new husband in Glen Ridge, according to IMDb . 

His 1980 high school yearbook featured a photo of his home, where he lived until he moved to New York to pursue acting at 18.

Iconic Beatles songs such as "I Saw Her Standing There" and "When I'm 64" were written in Paul McCartney's modest home in Liverpool, England.

McCartney, who was born in 1942, lived in the two-story home from 1955 to 1963 . The interior is only accessible via tours booked through the National Trust, a UK charity that preserves historic places.

According to the  National Trust website , tours cost £11 (around $13) for National Trust members and £32 (around $38) for non-members.

John Lennon learned to play guitar at 251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool.

The house was known as Mendips after the Mendip Hills in Somerset, according to The New York Times . Lennon moved there when he was 5 years old after his parents separated in 1946, living with his aunt Mimi and her husband, George, until 1963.

The National Trust tour visits both McCartney's and Lennon's homes.

Beyoncé grew up in a three-bedroom home in Houston, Texas.

The Knowles family purchased the home in 1982 and lived there until Beyoncé was 5 years old, real-estate agent Brad Upshaw of The Upshaw Group told Good Morning America in 2018.

The two-story home, located at 2414 Rosedale Street, features a lofted third floor, as well as a renovated kitchen and two fireplaces. It was listed for sale in 2018 for $500,000, then reduced to $450,000 in 2019, according to the Zillow listing .

While the home is by no means small, it's modest in comparison to her current properties with her husband, Jay-Z: Their 30,000-square-foot Bel-Air, California, estate cost $88 million when they purchased it in 2017 . Two months later, they also bought a 12,000-square-foot beachfront home in the Hamptons, New York, for $26 million. 

Jennifer Lopez sang about her Bronx roots in her 2002 song "Jenny from the Block."

Lopez grew up at 2210 Blackrock Ave, a two-story home in the Bronx, New York. She shared a room with her two sisters and moved out when she was 18, she told W magazine in 2013 .

The property was last listed for $725,000 in 2011, according to Zillow .

Madonna spent her early years in a five-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Madonna, whose last name is Ciccone, lived in the home with her five siblings.

Located at 2036 Oklahoma Avenue, the property was last listed for sale for $479,000 in 2017, according to The Detroit News .

Taylor Swift lived in a 3,560-square-foot house in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, before her family moved to Nashville to help her pursue a music career.

Located at 78 Grandview Boulevard, Swift lived in the house until 2004. It has five bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, as well as details like brick fireplaces, a butler's pantry, and crown molding, Insider's Erin McDowell reported .

The property sold for $800,000 in 2022, according to Realtor .

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Tom Cruise’s Ex-Girlfriend Reveals What He Was Like Before He was a Millionaire Movie Star

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Site search, s45 e26: next-generation victorian.

Eleven months ago, construction began on an 1887 Victorian in Glen Ridge, NJ, to turn it into a home suitable for multigenerational living. The renovation is complete, and the crew is back for a tour.

Eleven months ago, construction started on a tired 1887 Victorian in Glen Ridge, NJ to restore its original Victorian charm and transform it into a home suitable for multigenerational living. Homeowners Sunita and Shankar have lived in the home for over 25 years and have raised their children there. Now, they will share the home with their daughter Asha and her husband Jason and their future family.

The crew is back to check out the transformation. Sunita gives Kevin O’Connor a tour of the main floor, highlighting the newly opened up entry and staircase, and the old double parlor which has been turned into two living spaces with the option of converting one of the spaces into a bedroom, if needed, now that a full bath has been added on the floor.

Asha gives Tom Silva a tour of the newly renovated second floor, which features their suite, an office, and a new second-floor laundry. The third floor, once an unfinished attic with a chimney running through it, has been transformed into a light-filled suite with lots of storage, a full bath, and living space for Sunita and Shankar.

Outside, the old concrete walkway has been replaced with a new brick herringbone walkway—sweat equity by Jason and his parents with the help of Jennifer Nawada. Old holly bushes that blocked the view of the front of the house have been removed to make room for a future multi-season garden.

Down in the basement, changes to the original framing plan resulted in higher headroom, and the original steam boiler has been replaced with a new heat system with forced air distribution. Richard Trethewey and builder Zack Dettmore discuss and demystify the new system.

Back on the main floor, in the new open floor kitchen and dining room suitable for a large family, Shankar presents a new bottle of Bourdeax that signifies the new character of the home, like the bottle of 1887 Bordeaux found in the walls during demolition.

Original Air Date: May 30, 2024, Season 45; Ep. 26 23:12

Products and Services from this Episode

• Side Trips: Glen Ridge Borough Freeman Gardens Association The Empire State Building
• Roofing manufacturer: GAF
• Shutters & trim manufacturer: AZEK Exteriors
• Framing contractor: Hudson Valley Artisans
• Architectural design assistance: Daniel Kopec Architectural Design
• General contractor: Dettmore Home Improvements
• Decking manufacturer: TimberTech by AZEK
• Staircase builders: Glen Rock Stair Corporation
• Painting contractor: Classic Cabinet Painting LLC
• Furnishings expert assistance: Bungalow Home Stagers
• Millwork supplier side trip: Kuiken Brothers
• Artwork: Krauss Studio Charlotte Nicole Designs
• Tile & grout expert assistance: Moreland Tile Co.
• Tile & grout supplier: Wayne Tile Company
• Tile & grout manufacturer: Schluter Systems
• Fixtures and lighting manufacturer: Kohler
• Windows side trip: Studio J
• Furnishings supplier: Backyard Living
• Landscaping contractor: Martin O’Boyle Landscaping
• Paver manufacturer: Pine Hall Brick
• Flooring contractors: Loba-Wakol NJ Cooper, LLC
• Plumbing contractors: Jersey Drains Unlimited Rak Plumbing & Heating
• HVAC contractor: Integrate Comfort Systems
• HVAC Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC
• Doors & hardware  manufacturer: Baldwin Hardware
• Insulation manufacturer: TimberHP
• Electrical contractor: Brightview Electric, LLC

Next Up In Season 45 - Glen Ridge Generational

• A Revitalized 1887 Victorian Home in Glen Ridge, NJ
• S45 E25: Spring Forward
• S45 E24: Tested and Approved
• Reviving a 1887 Victorian for Multigenerational Living
• S45 E23: A Breath of Fresh Air
• S45 E22: Next Level Tight

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Tom Cruise's Mother, Mary Lee South, Dies

Mary Lee South, 80, died peacefully in her sleep last week, say sources

Mary Lee South, the mother of Tom Cruise , has died, PEOPLE has learned exclusively.

South, 80, died peacefully in her sleep last week. South, who coped with health issues in recent years, was given a memorial service at her local Church of Scientology this weekend.

The 54-year-old star and his sisters Lee Ann DeVette, 57, Cass Mapother, 55, and Marian Henry, 52, all attended the memorial along with other family and friends.

Born Mary Lee Pfeiffer, the Louisville, Kentucky, native was a special-education teacher when she wed Cruise’s father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. It was from her that Cruise developed a passion for acting.

“I was always interested in theater, but I never did anything with it,” she told Rolling Stone in 1986. “When I was growing up, if you went to Hollywood, that was really risqué.”

The family lived in Syracuse, New York, where Cruise was born, and Ottawa, Canada. When Cruise was young, his mother encouraged him to participate in a local theater group. “I guess I was his greatest audience,” she said. “He had it in him then.” But Cruise’s love of sports took precedence as he grew up.

Her marriage to Mapother was tumultuous. Cruise told PEOPLE in 2006 that his father was “a bully.” Mary Lee ended the marriage in 1974.

RELATED: Why You Need to Watch Jack Reacher: Never Go Back on Blu-Ray

She returned to the United States, and worked a series of jobs to keep her family out of poverty. Cruise helped with money from a paper route. He even massaged his mother’s sore feet after she came home from long days at work.

That close relationship continued when the family relocated to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, and Mary Lee wed Jack South in 1978, when Cruise was 16. “He loved my mother so much that he took us all in, all four young people,” Cruise later recalled.

After a knee injury sidelined her son’s varsity wrestling career, Mary Lee encouraged him to try out for a high school production of Guys and Dolls . After the play, Cruise surprised his mother by asking if he could have 10 years to give show business a try. She approved, and with her support, he waited tables in New York City before breaking into the movies.

The close mother-son relationship continued as he became a box-office star.

As for South, she never doubted her son would be a success. When Cruise asked her and her second husband if he could be an actor, “We both wholeheartedly agreed,” she told Rolling Stone . “Because we both felt it was a God-given talent … So to make a long story short, we gave him our blessing — and the rest is history.”

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World’s Most Famous Actor Graduated High School in New Jersey

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Did you know that the most famous actor in the world graduated high school in New Jersey?

His name is Thomas C. Maypother, IV, better known as Tom Cruise. His middle name is Cruise, which he took on for his stage (last) name.

Cruise Is a graduate of Glen Ridge High School in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

Fun fact, as a senior, Cruise played varsity football as a linebacker. But, was cut from the team allegedly for drinking beer.

Cruise’s newest movie, Top Gun: Maverick is currently in the process of breaking all sales records in the history of the cinema.

The movie has grossed more than $1.3 billion and is the top-performing box office draw of Cruise’s storied career in motion pictures.

We talk on-air and write about the many “firsts” in Atlantic City, New Jersey. A gallery after this article lists the many significant things that took place first in Atlantic City.

We will follow that with a list of famous people, with direct ties to New Jersey, who are now some of the most famous actors in Hollywood history.

Cruise films have grossed more than $4 billion in North America and more than $11 billion worldwide.

This makes Tom Cruise one of the highest-grossing box office stars of all time.

Cruise's parents are from Louisville, Kentucky. He is of English, German, and Irish ancestry.

Cruise has three sisters: Lee Anne, Marian, and Cass. A cousin, William Mapother, is also an actor and has worked with Cruise in five movies.

SOURCE : Tom Cruise Wikipedia.

Atlantic City's Firsts Throughout History

5 famous new jersey people you would never smack in the face, more from wpg talk radio 95.5 fm.

WATCH: Tom Cruise gives N.J. shoutout in 'Tonight Show' lip sync battle

• Updated: Jul. 28, 2015, 7:04 p.m. |
• Published: Jul. 28, 2015, 6:04 p.m.
• Amy Kuperinsky | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

On Monday night  Tom Cruise  joined the long list of celebrities to enter into lip sync battle with "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon .

In doing so, the former Glen Ridge High School student  name-dropped his old home, New Jersey, before one of his performances.

After bringing his signature Cruisian intensity to "Can't Feel My Face" by The Weeknd, Cruise, 53, teased a "Risky Business"-style slide to the opening riff of Bob Seger's " Old Time Rock and Roll " but admitted performing that particular lip sync would just not be fair to Fallon.

The Jersey mention came with a song that Cruise said takes him back, "to high school, the parking lot on Friday night," he told Fallon. "Those Jersey girls would sing all the lyrics. You know, and the guys would just sit there and sweat, you know, hearts pounding. So this is for all you Jersey girls in these hot summer nights."

Cruise went on to perform both the male and female parts of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" by Meat Loaf. Then he joined Fallon to "serenade" an audience member with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers. So far, the Cruise-Fallon lip sync battle has amassed 589,263 views on YouTube.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at  [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup . Find NJ.com Entertainment on Facebook .

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

The Untold Truth Of Tom Cruise

When Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , as his folks called him, appeared alongside fellow young guns Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Ralph Macchio in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Outsiders" in 1983, few would have earmarked the 21-year-old for world-beating success. His bit part as greaser Steve Randle was pedestrian at best. Yet in his next film, "Risky Business," Cruise pulled out all the stops in his first lead role. This laid the foundation stone for a career that would see him take off into the stratosphere like an F14 Tomcat. Three years later, Cruise became a household name thanks to his career-defining role as the troubled but lovable rouge Maverick in "Top Gun." A star was born and it's been lighting up the hills of Hollywood like a champagne supernova ever since.

Fast forward to three Golden Globes, three Academy Award nominations, and a portfolio of record-breaking blockbuster films later, and one of the world's highest-paid actors is pretty much in cruise control. Yet behind that dazzling smile of porcelain perfection, the trademark shades, and the happy-go-lucky demeanor, there's always been a lot more to Cruise than meets the eye. His relationship with Scientology and his more bizarre public outbursts may have ruined a lesser celeb, but with Cruise, they just serve to make him more star-like. If you're going to go Mach 2 with your hair on fire, you might as well do it in style. It's time to throw caution to the wind, buzz the tower, and fly right into the calm at the center of the storm that is the untold truth of Tom Cruise.

Cruise attended a lot of different schools and was bullied regularly

Starting a new school is a big deal for any young and impressionable kid. Learning to cope in a new environment, making new friends, fitting in, sussing out the bullies, and assessing the lay of the land is pretty exhausting stuff. Yet imagine having to attend 13 different schools when growing up? Tom Cruise did and all that adapting to being the new kid on the block must have left its mark on his character! In an interview with Roger Ebert , Cruise confessed that his early life lacked stability. He was born in Syracuse and lived in various cities in America and Canada. During third, fourth, and fifth grade, he attended Robert Hopkins Public School in Ottawa. His time in sixth grade was spent at Henry Munro Middle school where his resilience, determination, and competitive character manifested themselves in his talent for floor hockey and athletics.

He later became a football linebacker in high school but, after he was caught downing beer before a game, the coach called time on his burgeoning career. Cruise has revealed that his family's financial status and habit of continually relocating led to him being bullied when young. He said that he was mocked by the other kids because of his accent, his shoes, and pretty much everything else. After a stint at seminary school in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cruise finally graduated from Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey, with a strong interest in acting that had been blossoming like a promising bloom since the fourth grade.

He was diagnosed as a dyslexic aged 7

When Cruise finally closed the door on his academic life in 1980, according to People , he described himself as a "functional illiterate." Cruise explained, "When I was about 7 years old, I had been labeled dyslexic. I'd try to concentrate on what I was reading, then I'd get to the end of the page and have very little memory of anything I'd read. I would go blank, feel anxious, nervous, bored, frustrated, and dumb. I would get angry." Throughout school and well into his career, Cruise said he felt like he was harboring a secret. He explained how his head ached and his legs hurt when he attempted to study and was desperate to keep his dyslexia hidden with every new school he attended.

As an aspiring actor, Cruise's frustration with his condition reached boiling point. Reading scripts and memorizing lines was the bread and butter of his craft, but it was something his dyslexia prevented him from mastering. Cruise compensated for his inability to read scripts cold at auditions by getting the director to talk about the character and winging it. "I got pretty good at ad-libbing," he revealed. Yet he could only carry on flying by the seat of his pants for so long because in his own words, "the trapdoor was going to open up and that would be it." Cruise credits his introduction to Scientology during the release of "Top Gun" in 1986 as the remedy to his dyslexia. He states he finally learned to read through Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's Study Technology learning method.

Cruise described his dad as an abusive bully

Tom Cruise told Parade (via the Irish Examiner ) that his father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III was a "bully and coward" and "a merchant of chaos." Cruise added that his father, who was an electrical engineer, caused him a great deal of anxiety during his formative years. He explained, "He 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."

Cruise states he grew up not trusting his father and treading extremely carefully around a guy he thought had something wrong with him. In 1974, when Cruise was 12, his mother Mary Lee divorced his dad. Cruise's mother and her children left Canada and returned to the United States, where she married Cruise's stepfather Jack South. Cruise didn't see his father again until 10 years later, when the man was dying of cancer in the hospital. The elder Cruise would only meet his son on the provision that the younger Cruise didn't ask him anything about the past. The actor agreed and recalled, "When I saw him in pain, I thought, 'Wow, what a lonely life.' He was in his late 40s. It was sad."

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services .

Tom's world-famous teeth have their own story to tell

If there's one thing Tom Cruise is famous for, apart from his acting chops, it's his teeth. Cruise's pearly whites aren't that of the average Joe — they have a life of their own in their dazzling, world-conquering brilliance. However, according to Closer , if you study photos of Cruise's teeth closely, you'll notice they are not perfectly aligned with the center of his face. His right front tooth juts out of position somewhat and is often branded his "middle tooth."

Not that this imperfection will bother Cruise any. The actor messed up his front tooth in high school when it chipped during a hockey match from a wayward puck. He later removed the cap for his part in "The Outsiders" to portray a character with a less than a wholesome smile. Yet according to co-star Patrick Swayze (per Stuff ), Cruise was extremely self-conscious about his teeth at the time, to the point he turned down magazine photoshoots. Whatever concerns Cruise may have had about his teeth were laid to rest for good in 2001. In the wake of his split from Nicole Kidman, Closer reports that Cruise decided to fix his overbite and misalignment issues with some braces.

He once wanted to be a priest

Father Tom has something of a ring to it, and perhaps some amongst us would be confessing our sins to Priest Mapother IV if Cruise has followed his first calling and become a man of the cloth. Yet God's loss is Hollywood's gain. According to  The Daily News , Cruise applied to attend Cincinnati's St Francis Seminary School on the advice of Father Ric Schneider, who explained, "With his parents going through a divorce, it was tough on him, that's maybe one of the reasons why he came here." The teenage Tom scored 110 on the IQ entry test and just gained admission by the skin of his teeth. Cruise showed particular promise in the school's drama club, but according to his friend Shane Dempler, the pair of them both heard the spirit calling and were preparing for a life in the priesthood.

Dempler told The Daily News, "We thought the priests had a great lifestyle and we were really interested in the priesthood." Yet the hand of the unseen works in mysterious ways and although he possessed a strong Catholic faith, Cruise was a teenage boy and prone to all the antics that attract teenagers like honey to bees. Drinking alcohol and cutting loose wasn't exactly condoned by the school. Subsequently, when Cruise and his mate stole some booze from the monks and made merry, it didn't sit well with the powers that be. Dempler alleges that the seminary asked their parents to withdraw them both and the dream of becoming priests turned to dust.

His acting career was born from a wrestling injury

After deciding that saying "Hail Mary" a lot, continually crossing himself, and rocking a predominantly black wardrobe wasn't for him, Tom Cruise appeared to decide that rolling about on the floor and grunting a lot was where it was at. In other words, he became a wrestler. The Daily Mail reports that during his tenure at New Jersey's Glen Ridge High School, Cruise earned a solid rep as a teenage wrestler who could grapple, pin, and showboat with the best of them. Cruise is renowned as an action man who likes to get stuck in and it all began on the wrestling mat. His former wrestling captain, Tom Jarret aka TJ, explained that Cruise had a tough time arriving at the school from Kentucky as a fresh-faced 15-year-old, and so he channeled his aggression into wrestling.

TJ told The Daily Mail, "He had times when he was struggling to be accepted. With wrestling, you made your own mark. He deserves all his success. He was always a real go-getter, but a good guy. I've not got a bad word to say about Tom." Interestingly, TJ's father didn't have a good word to say about Cruise and once told his son, "Stop hanging out with that guy. He's not doing anything with his life." It was whilst recovering from a wrestling injury that Cruise decided to take a punt on an audition for "Guys and Dolls." Cruise landed a key role in the high-school musical and it convinced him that religion and sport were all well and good, but it was on the stage where his true destiny lay.

He performs his own stunts

When it comes to playing men of action, such as special agent Ethan Hunt from the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, Cruise likes to walk it like he talks it and go all in. Leaping through plate glass windows and riding motorcycles off cliffs is all in a day's work for Cruise, who loves performing his own stunts. The thought of not going out on a limb is more terrifying than breaking one for Cruise, who busted up his ankle performing an action sequence on the set of "Mission: Impossible — Fallout." As a huge box-office draw who also does his own stunts, Cruise is the last of a dying breed. Cruise's stunt coordinator Wade Eastwood told Men's Journal  that the actor relishes the role because, "He loves making these films, and he wants the audience to love them as well."

Eastwood explains that, although many actors will brag about how capable they are behind the wheel of a supercar, they fall to pieces once they're in the hot seat and struggle to even shift gears. Yet he believes Cruise was born to live in the fast lane and said, "His skills levels are through the roof. He is incredibly capable. He can do it all. When we are doing these stunts with Tom, we are not just talking about a fast pull away. This is a level that requires a lot of talent, more than I would say any other actor has. He is almost to the point where he is dangerously good."

He strictly forbids Tom Cruise figurines or video games

When you possess the sort of face that is instantly recognizable the world, one capable of selling everything from souvenir china to novelty t-shirts, it's only natural that people will want to exploit your likeness for a quick buck. Yet, don't expect that to happen on Tom Cruise's watch. The actor with the face that has launched multi-million dollar box office successes in succession is allegedly strictly adamant that his likeness will not appear in any video games. Nor will he allow it to appear on the tiny and somewhat unsettling faces of figurines that come in plastic packaging.

MTV News reports that the NES "Top Gun" game released in 1987, and the "Mission: Impossible" game were created without Cruise's likeness in pixels or on the cover art. In the "Minority Report" game released in 2002, Cruise's character is blond and looks a million miles removed from the actor. The reason why Cruise has not capitalized on his world-famous looks has never been properly explained. His agent has always declined to comment on his client's decision and Cruise has learned long ago that the motto of "never apologize, never explain" carries its own weight in free publicity. So if you're holding out for a Tom Cruise doll this holiday season, forget about it!

In Japan, they have a Tom Cruise Day

You know you've finally arrived on the world stage when a country names a day in your honor. It's the sort of accolade that money just can't buy, but being a Hollywood actor definitely can, just ask Tom Cruise! Hollywood.com reports that "The Last Samurai" star was awarded his special day in Japan because of his close ties and long-term affection for the country. Cruise has visited the Land of the Rising Sun more than any other actor and always ensures he has time to share with his legion of adoring fans. Digital Spy reports that The Japanese Memorial Day Association chose to allocate October 10 as "Tom Cruise Day" in 2006 because of the actor's "love for and close association with Japan."

According to the Filipino Japanese Journal , Cruise made his 23rd visit to Japan in 2018 to promote "Mission: Impossible — Fallout." At a press conference, he revealed the love Japan has for him is no one-way street. He enthused, "It's so great to be back in Japan. It's just amazing to me. I feel very at home here. It's always fast (my trips) but thank you for the warm smile this evening, for the lovely gifts, and always for the wonderful conversations. I'm very honored. Thank you."

Cruise allegedly uses a strange concoction for his youthful good looks

He once played immortal bloodsucker Lestat de Lioncourt in "Interview With The Vampire." However, Tom Cruise's secret behind his permanently youthful good looks isn't the drinking of blood. He has extremely focused nutrition and training plan — with, allegedly, a little help from a good old-fashioned bird droppings.  Men's Health reports that Cruise credits weightlifting, sea-kayaking, treadmill, rock-climbing, caving, and a whole host of other activities to stay in shape and keep the ravages of father time from his door. Sports scientist Anne Elliott explained, "Regularly switching up cardio and strength work with something like fencing or climbing – like Cruise – maintains flexibility and balance: the first two things that give your age away."

An anonymous source supposedly near Cruise told NOW Magazine (via  The Daily Mail ) that the secret to Cruise's glowing complexion and radiant skin is an expensive spa treatment that has its origins in nightingale droppings. The source claims that Cruise shuns botox and surgery, but he does have a soft spot for natural treatments, like the kind that can be found in the excrement of our feathered friends. Adherents of the unusual treatment claim that it works as an exfoliant to extract the dirt and leave one's face feeling shiny and bright.

Cruise is a real-life Maverick

Looking effortlessly cool on a Kawasaki Ninja ZX900, and giving the 'bird' to a MiG whilst flying inverted are just some of the reasons why audiences fell in love with Tom Cruise's character in "Top Gun." His manifold issues with authority, terrible karaoke performances, and flair in a cockpit won a watching world over. "Maverick" is a larger-than-life character who knows his way around a joystick-like nobody's business. Yet there is more than just a dash and splash of Cruise in this fictional hero of the skies.

The actor has been in love with the idea of flying jets since he was young, but it wasn't until he appeared in "Top Gun" in 1986 that he gave serious thought to getting his pilot license. In 1994 he received his wings and in a subsequent interview with Wired revealed he was a multi-engine instrument-rated commercial pilot. In plain speak that means Cruise could legally fly you anywhere in the world in a plane or helicopter. In "Top Gun: Maverick," Cruise lives the dream and flies some of the jets in the movie. Yet it's not the first time Cruise has been airborne on the big screen. In "American Made," and "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" he does some crazy things in a helicopter. According to World War Wings , Cruise also owns a World War II fighter, P-51 Mustang a $20M Gulfstream with its own jacuzzi and movie room. Beat that, Mav!

Cruise once saved a woman from being mugged in London

It must be hard for actors to live up to some of the heroic characters they play on the big screen. Yet Tom Cruise came close to being a real-life Ethan Hunt when he chased down a gang of muggers who were in the act of trying to part a lady with $153,000 of her jewelry. The Scottish Daily Record reports that when Cruise's neighbor, Rita Simmonds, arrived outside of her $8 million London home she was approached by two unsavory characters. They pulled the door of her Porsche open and attempted to drag her to the curb in front of her two-year-old daughter Sophie, who was sitting in the back. One of the assailants screamed, "Give us your jewelry, or we will kill you." The man then proceeded to beat her, whilst the other attempted to rip the jewelry from her person.

Rita Simmonds cried for help, and her pleas caught the ears of none other than Cruise who dashed out of his Regent's Park apartment. Flanked by his bodyguards, Cruise charged down the road, chasing off the muggers and saving the day. Rita Simmonds explained, "Tom was brilliant. He rushed down the road with his bodyguards and chased the attackers away." When asked about the mugging, a spokesperson for Cruise explained, "He does not want to talk about this. He does like to help people but he likes to keep it quiet."

Cruise almost played Iron Man

Visualizing anyone else in the role of Tony Stark whose name isn't Robert Downey Jr seems like blasphemy. It's not easy to be cool and witty whilst flying around in a constricting tin suit but Robert Downey Jr does it with aplomb and a flair that's tough to beat. Nevertheless, it would have been interesting to see what dynamic Tom Cruise would have brought to the role of the billionaire arms dealer with questionable facial hair. The Indian Express reports that Marvel Studios had earmarked Cruise as the first choice to play Iron Man. They believed he was a lot more of a box-office draw than Downey Jr. Yet Cruise turned down the opportunity to ignite the Marvel cinematic universe because he didn't think the role would work.

Cruise explained, "If I commit to something, it has to be done in a way that I know it's gonna be something special. And as it was lining up it just didn't feel to me like it was gonna work." Cruise later added that no one but Downey Jr could have done the character justice. "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau battled studio executives hard for Downey to play the role, claiming the actor would effortlessly connect with a character who shared a similar redemption story.

Disney used Cruise's image as the prototype for Aladdin

Tom Cruise's portrayal of Maverick in "Top Gun" made such a powerful impression on many in the audience that it led to an upsurge in recruitment for the U.S. Navy. It also triggered a massive 40 percent sales increase for Aviator sunglasses . Yet perhaps its strangest legacy was how the character of Maverick was the inspiration for Walt Disney's animated version of "Aladdin." People report that Disney president Jeffrey Katzenberg was so taken with Cruise's portrayal of the charismatic pilot with attitude that he urged his animators to capture the essence of what made him tick and bring it to life in Disney's forthcoming cartoon.

Photos of Cruise were draped everywhere in the studio for illustrators to take inspiration from. Animator Glen Keane explained to The Los Angles Times , "In all Cruise's poses, I noticed there was a confidence, a look in the eyebrows, that gives him intensity and at the same time a smile that has a kind of impish look like he's got something up his sleeve." In tribute to Cruise, Aladdin was blessed with a "straight-off-the-forehead nose."

He gives chosen celebs a Cruise Cake every Xmas

Being a good pal of Tom Cruise might get you a white chocolate coconut bundt cake delivered by private jet every Christmas. Yahoo! reports that close friends of the big-hearted actor can expect a little something extra in their stocking and it's full of creamy goodness and very nice to eat. Chosen celebs who receive the signature item from Doan's Bakery in Woodland Hills, California, are unanimous in singing its praises. Jimmy Fallon brands it "unbelievable." Henry Cavill positively gushes when he calls it, "the most decadent, the most amazing cake." And Kirsten Dunst wastes no time in calling it "one of the best cakes I've ever had." Such is the power of the "Cruise Cake," celebs fall over one another to stay on Tom's nice list.

Cruise rarely consumes sugar himself and so, "I send cakes to everyone and I wait for the calls." When the recipients call to express their delight, Cruise said, "I'm like: Tell me about it!" According to The Guardian , Cruise was introduced to the cake by Diane Keaton. He was instantly converted. Having once spent three days straight eating chocolate cake as a young actor until he was violently sick, Cruise is partial to a nice sponge, but the white chocolate coconut bundt was like nothing he had ever experienced before. It was kind of an eureka moment, and for years he has made it his business to spread the word and send them to famous faces all over the world.

When each one of Tom Cruise's three wives turned 33, he left them

The innocence of chance and the fickle hand of fate land lead to some strange symmetries in everyone's life. Take Tom Cruise and the number 33 for example (via MammaMia ). When Katie Holmes, Nicole Kidman, and Mimi Rogers's marriage with Cruise came to an end, why were they all 33-years-of-age? Is it a bizarre coincidence or intriguing conspiracy? That's the question that has plagued Cruise fans for many a moon. Showbiz CheatSheet notes that Cruise's first wife, Mimi Rogers was responsible for introducing him to Scientology, and rumors abound that the Church of Scientology has been an unseen and silent bedfellow in the break-ups.

There's a theory noted by The Daily News that Cruise's divorces all have their basis on Scientology, which is not a rabbit hole we any sane person would wish to disappear into. Nevertheless, conspiracy theorists insist that because the number 33 has such a deep significance in Scientology, the age of each of Cruise's three wives at the time of their divorce cannot be ignored.  They also point out that Phoenix, Arizona, where the first Church of Scientology was founded, lies on a circle of latitude that lies 33 degrees from the Earth's equator and has been called the 33rd parallel. At best it's a loose connection, but it remains one of intrigue for those who delight in playing "connect the dots."

Cruise once lost it big time on the set of Mission: Impossible

Tom Cruise's no-holds-barred COVID-19 safety rant on the set of the seventh "Mission: Impossible" movie was a welcome slice of behind-the-scenes Hollywood honesty. As anger-fueled rants that could turn the air blue with their sheer savagery and cuss words, it was right up there with Christian Bale's torrid dressing-down of the director of photography on the set of "Terminator Salvation." Only the hardest heart would not find a sliver of joy in listening to an A-Lister having a huge meltdown on the job. It demonstrates quite poignantly that behind the most polished PR job and promotional campaign lies a human heart that beats with the same frustrations and foibles as the rest of us.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Cruise barked, "I am beyond your apologies" to a few members of the crew he thought were violating COVID-19 protocols. He snarled, "We are not shutting this f****** movie down. Is it understood? If I see it again, you're f****** gone. And so are you." Some criticized Cruise for what they perceived as an exploitation of his power and for coming across as a control freak. Cruise later clarified that he was "very emotional" at the thought of the film's production being shut down again. He told Empire Magazine, "I said what I said. There was a lot at stake at that point. All these emotions were going through my mind. I was thinking about the people I work with and my industry."

Cruise has been accused of attempting to convert other celebs to Scientology

The New Zealand Herald reports that Cruise credits his success in Hollywood to Scientology . He told ITV in 2016, "It's something that has helped me incredibly in my life; I've been a Scientologist for over 30 years. It's something, you know, without it, I wouldn't be where I am. So it's a beautiful religion. I'm incredibly proud." The church was founded in the 1950s by sci-fi author L. Ron Hubbard. It believes that individuals are not just the product of their environment or genes, but immortal spiritual beings with unlimited capabilities and experiences above and beyond a single lifetime.

Tom Cruise has long been a vocal advocate of Scientology. By at least one telling, Cruise attempted to convert Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen to the cause. Rogen recalled in an interview with Howard Stern (per Far Out Magazine ) that during a meeting with Cruise, Cruise said, "If you let me just tell what it was really about, if you let me, just give me like 20 minutes to really just tell you what it was about, you would say 'No f****** ing way." Feeling uncomfortable, Apatow managed to steer the conversation toward movies, and their conversion was forgotten.

Cruise isn't a big fan of antidepressants

As a Scientologist, Tom Cruise subscribes to a philosophy that frowns upon prescription pills and chemical substances that alter the brain's chemistry. People report that in 2005 this belief saw him lock horns with Brooke Shields over her use of antidepressants. In the aftermath of giving birth to her daughter Rowan in 2003, Shields battled with postpartum depression. She documented the struggle in her book "Down Came the Rain."

Although a fan of Shields, describing her as "an incredibly talented woman," Cruise criticized the actress for her assertion that antidepressants cured her. He branded it as "irresponsible," and said, "When someone says medication has helped them, it is to cope, it didn't cure anything. There is nothing that can cure them whatsoever." Shields begged to differ and hit back at Cruis by stating, "Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them."

His nice-guy image isn't just a solid PR campaign

Tom Cruise often comes across as the nice guy's nice guy. His everyman and easy-going demeanor almost appear too good to be true. Is it a bulletproof PR job or is Cruise actually one hell of a great guy? It's actions and not words that make a man, and judging by the long list of "Cruise to the rescue" stories in circulation, the guy is indeed, one rocksteady dude you'd want in your corner when things go south. Vulture reports that Crusie's good deeds are legion.

For example, Cruise one invited Zac Efron to his house just to teach him how to ride a motorcycle. Efron said, "It's just so cool he gave a s***, the fact that he cared at all. No one else did." Cruise also invited "Mummy" co-star Jake Johnson to his gym, the "pain cave," and got him in shape. 

Yet that's just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone who works with Cruise on set sings his praises. Stanley Kubrick once said, "You've never seen an actor more completely subservient and prostrate themselves at the feet of a director." It's not just other celebs he helps out. He once came to the rescue of a family whose sailboat went up in flames, and he paid the medical bills of an aspiring actress who was involved in a hit-and-run. 

Last but not least, no matter how busy he is on set, Cruise will always take his kids' calls, even if it means breaking from character.

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Tom told Parade that happiness is “being able to confront and overcome problems. It’s not running away but trying to see life in its full glory.” As someone who’s overcome being mocked for dyslexia, being the new kid at 14 different schools, and a stint in seminary school to become a priest, he must have a pretty full view of life. (Now he’s just made fun of for being an overly excited Scientologist.)

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One Response

September 07, 2012 at 9:05 pm, Andy said:

Scientology?? Who wouldn’t make fun of somebody who believes men from outer space screwed a bunch of female humans…etc….etc….etc…. screwed up!!!!!

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‘Top Gun: Maverick’ earning $86 million at the box office has a West Milford man smiling

A freelance director shares his brush with a budding movie star..

With people flocking to theaters and the Warwick Drive-In to see the new Tom Cruise blockbuster movie “Top Gun Maverick,” a West Milford man’s memories of the actor give him reason to smile. William D’Andrea remembers Tom Cruise as a member of the Glen Ridge, NJ, high school, Class of 1980.

D’Andrea was responsible for the decision to give Cruise the role of Nathan Detroit in a Glen Ridge High School production of “Guys and Dolls.” This was the role that Sam Levine performed when the 1950 production of the show opened on Broadway. Frank Sinatra had the part in the 1955 film version of the story based on two Damon Runyon short stories – “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown” (1933) and “Blood Pressure.” D’Andrea, a freelance director who did the casting for the high school play, found the fit to be perfect.

In his high school days, Cruise was known by his given birth name of Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. That got him the high school nickname of “Maypo,” concocted from the beginning letters of his family name.

The high school had already chosen the musical “Guys and Dolls” for their production when, through a connection with Glen Ridge High School music teacher Nancy Tiritilli, D’Andrea, who had been hired to direct earlier shows, was again recruited to do their newest one.

D’Andrea said he always tries to spot talented people who show signs of acting ability for his productions. Often, he looks for popular high school guys with assurance that their friends will come out to see them in a play. Sometime these youths are chosen to be part of a group or to take part in fighting action-packed scenes.

When auditioning was beginning, Tiritilli mentioned to D’Andrea that she thought Tom Cruise Mapother IV would be a good choice for a part in the musical. He had been sidelined from running in spring track events because of an ankle injury suffered while wrestling.

When D’Andrea heard that “Maypo” was a bit of a jock, he initially wondered if it was a good idea to consider such a guy for the school play production. Initially D’Andrea assumed that this high school jock would be the type of person to sing “Wild Thing” for his audition. Wrong. When Tom said he would sing “I don’t know how to love him” from “Jesus Christ Superstar!” D’Andrea, who said he isn’t usually surprised by anything, was very surprised at the selection chosen by the student. He was stunned and his mind drifted back to a time when he held auditions for that role.

Cruise’s interpretation of sensitive words of the song immediately convinced D’Andrea that “Maypo” could handle the role of Nathan Detroit in the Glen Ridge School production of “Guys and Dolls.”

But D’Andrea almost did not direct the production. His full-time job as a trainer for racing horses at Freehold Raceway and directing the play three hours away seemed like just too much for one person to handle. He was rising at 5 a.m. and driving an hour and a half to the stable; working out three horses and rubbing and bedding them down, and then driving to Glen Ridge to work with the students on the play and finally driving back home. Casting a student on crutches (Cruise) where D’Andrea would have to walk through the part until Cruise could walk himself, finally seemed like too much for D’Andrea to add to his schedule.

After considering casting someone else for the part of Nathan – someone who could walk – D’Andrea said he realized that he could not ignore the talent he saw in Cruise.

“I felt if I did not cast Tom Cruise in the ‘Guys and Dolls’ role of Nathan Detroit because of selfish reasons, it would be a sin,” D’Andrea said. “As it turned out, when the audience gave the cast a standing ovation at the end of the show, it was a life changing experience for Tom. I believe it was then that he decided he was going to devote his life to pursuing an acting career.”

Cruise’s father was Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His mother Mary Lee Pfeiffer was a special education teacher and amateur actress. Both were natives of Kentucky. Cruise spent his early childhood in Canada where his father had a job as a defense consultant with the Canadian armed forces. He was 11 years old when his parents divorced. His mother moved back to Kentucky with Cruise and his three sisters. Eventually she remarried and she, her children and new husband moved to Ridgewood, NJ. Both of Cruise’s parents are now deceased.

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Glen Powell Spent 6 Hours Watching a Tom Cruise Video ‘Breaking Down Everything He’s Learned About Filmmaking,’ Says Chris Pratt Helped Open the Door For His Success

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Glen Powell told some of his best Tom Cruise stories as part of a cover story interview with GQ UK magazine . The two actors became close friends during the production of “Top Gun: Maverick.” Powell originally auditioned for the role of Rooster, but he was beat out by Miles Teller. Cruise liked Powell and offered him the role of Hangman, but Powell had some notes.

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“Tom goes ‘oh no, oh no,’ and he starts dropping the helicopter over London,” Powell said. “I was like, ‘Am I about to be the unnamed guy that dies with Tom in a smoking hole in the middle of London?’”

Another memory is when Cruise sent Powell to a theater in Los Angeles to show him a “film school” video that Cruise had put together for his friends.

“Powell expected to be among a crowd – but no, it was just him alone, in an empty theater. For  six hours ,” GQ UK reports. “Watching Tom Cruise speak directly to the camera, breaking down everything he’s learned about filmmaking over the years. According to Powell, Cruise has no intention of putting it out into the public sphere.”

“He said, ‘This is just for my friends’,” Powell said. “[In the video Cruise] is like: ‘Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…’ The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go, ‘Ok, this is what a plane is. Here’s how things fly. Here’s how air pressure works.’”

Powell is finally becoming one of Hollywood’s go-to leading men. He scored a box office hit last year with Sony’s rom-com “Anyone but You” and is front and center as a co-lead in this summer’s tentpole “Twisters.” It’s been a long time coming for the actor, who told GQ UK he screwed up auditions to play Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Han Solo in the “Star Wars” prequel “Solo.”

“I can joke about it now,” Powell said of his “Solo” casting process. “[But] I blew that final audition.”

Powell is no longer interested in superhero roles, although he did say that Batman would most likely be the only one worth his time.

“I was always a Batman guy,” Powell said. “I would have a wild take on Batman. It definitely would not be like a Matt Reeves tone – it’d probably be closer to [Michael] Keaton. 

According to Powell, Hollywood became a lot more favorable on him thanks to the success of actors like Chris Pratt in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and Chris Hemsworth in “Thor.”

“I really do feel like a lot of Hollywood is which actors are in vogue,” Powell said. “What everybody does is end up writing to that thing. All of a sudden, when Robert Pattinson pops off, they’re like, ‘We want a brooding Robert Pattinson type.’ You see it in every script.”

Once Pratt found blockbuster success with “Guardians,” Hollywood became more interested in goofier leading men and not just the brooding, self-serious type.

“These guys can take a punch and sell a joke,” Powell said of Pratt and Hemsworth. “I feel like that’s when I started catching friction on the sidewalk.”

Head over to GQ UK’s website to read Powell’s profile in its entirety.

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Explore 9 private NJ gardens at the annual Roses to Rock Gardens tour

We're in the homestretch of the spring season, and are just about a month away from the official start to summer. That means that you've likely refreshed at least parts your home garden for the warm weather, but you may be still looking for some inspiration.

Look no further than the annual Roses to Rock Gardens tour, held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1. Hosted by The Montclair Foundation through the Van Vleck House and Gardens, this year's event will feature a total of nine private gardens throughout Montclair and Glen Ridge — or, ten if visitors choose to include the gardens of the Van Vleck house — for visitors to explore.

The Van Vleck House and Gardens began as a 12-acre estate owned by the Van Vleck family, dating back to 1868 when Joseph Van Vleck Sr. and his family moved to Montclair from Brooklyn. The last of the family to inhabit the estate, Howard Van Vleck was an architect by trade, having built the house that sits on the property today. But, he left architecture to become a full-time horticulturalist, designing the house and gardens, which are still maintained by The Montclair Foundation today.

"He was such a skilled horticulturalist and lover of plants that his rhododendrons are registered with the Royal Horticultural Society," said Eileen Lundberg, a spokesperson for the organization. "If you're really into gardening, people are usually impressed by that fact because it's not an easy distinction."

The Roses to Rock Gardens tour was held for the first time in 1999 and has been held annually ever since, except for the year they took off in 2020 due to the pandemic. Lundberg said the event, which acts as a fundraiser to help the organization maintain the Van Vleck House and Gardens, came to life after so many people raved about the Van Vleck gardens and sought advice for their own personal gardens.

While this year's event features private gardens in Montclair and Glen Ridge, she said they've previously included private gardens in nearby towns like Llewellyn Park, Verona and Bloomfield. Lundberg said that upon check-in at the Van Vleck House and Gardens, visitors will receive a tour journal as their ticket for entry into each garden. The booklet will also include both the addresses and details of each garden on the tour.

"It's a combination of a lot of different gardens that vary in size, in design and in the type of landscape that they have," Lundberg said. "It's a lot of sites and sounds and smells, and everybody enjoys coming out on a Friday and Saturday. It's a self-guided tour, so you can really take a look at the list of locations to decide if you want to follow the suggested path that's on the map in the book, or if you want to guide yourself."

When it comes to finding private gardens to feature in the tour each year, she said they have a crew of volunteers to help put the event together. One of their volunteers, Tracy Parsons, owner of Parsons Cabinetry, keeps track of the list of potential participants for each year. She said Parsons also reaches out to local realtors to get recommendations from them for potential gardens to include, whether its through a house going up for sale or someone who may have just redid their garden. Plus, Lundberg said they've previously posted on social media to find new participants.

"We just like to make sure that the homeowners are excited about the tour and that it feels like it's going to be a place where their property is respected," she said. "It's an ever-evolving list of gardens. And, it's definitely a community effort. It's really nice when people reach out to us and say that they would like to be included."

On the Friday of the event, Lundberg said Ken Selody, owner of Atlock Farm in Somerset and a former Martha Stewart contributing editor, will also be in attendance. She said he will be hosting a pop-up shop on the terrace of the Van Vleck House, and will be available to speak with visitors of the event.

Tickets for the event can be purchased in advance on its website , and are $40 per person for members of Van Vleck House and Gardens or $50 per person for non-members. While tickets can be purchased on-site on the day of the event, Lundberg said she recommends visitors purchase their tickets in advance. Tickets $10 cheaper online per person than when purchased in person, and it will make the check-in process quicker.

"I would hope that by attending this event, people learn more about our organization, because not only do we have this beautiful, free garden for people to visit, we're a private property and a non-profit foundation at our core," Lundberg said. "We raise money through events like this to take care of the physical property, but we also have a lot more going on here."

The Montclair Foundation and Van Vleck House and Gardens also holds an annual plant sale, another fundraiser that helps them maintain the property. Plus, they have an education center and host wellness classes, gardening classes for seniors, children's education programs and more. They also provide grants to other non-profit organizations, and share the building with fellow non-profit organizations Schumann Fund for New Jersey and Turrell Fund.

Go: Van Vleck House and Gardens, 21 Van Vleck St., Montclair; 973-744-4752, montclairfoundation.org .

Maddie McGay is the real estate reporter for  NorthJersey.com  and The Record, covering all things worth celebrating about living in North Jersey. Find her on  Instagram @maddiemcgay ,  on  X @maddiemcgayy , and sign up for her  North Jersey Living  newsletter.   Do you have a tip, trend or terrific house she should know about? Email her at  [email protected] .