Unknown Facts: Tom Cruise Lived In Poverty And Started Working At Age Eight
Not many people know that the famous Hollywood actor Tom Cruise was very poor when he was little and even had to work when he was only eight years old.
If we look now at this new film, "Top Gun: Maverick (2022)", which has just grossed $100 million in its first weekend of release, we probably can't imagine the humble beginnings of Tom Cruise.
He is now one of the biggest and most successful actors in the world, but the Hollywood superstar hasn't always lived in luxury. Quite the opposite.
During the most controversial period of his career, when his career choices raised questions, in the early 2000s, Tom Cruise gave an interview to Parade magazine in which he talked about his childhood, a rare thing for an actor who likes to be extremely discreet.
Tom Cruise Was Extremely Poor When He Was Little
Yes, the famous actor had a difficult start in life. Although glory awaited him in the future, his childhood was quite hard.
Born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV barely had enough to eat. His father, Mapother III, was an electrician who struggled to get projects done, and the Hollywood star's mother, Mary Lee, was the breadwinner most of the time, working three shifts at a time.
If Mapother III couldn't provide a steady income for the family, he at least tried to control it as much as he could.
In the book "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography", Andrew Morton claims that the head of the family resorted to physical violence several times with his son Tom.
"My father was the kind of man who, when something happened that he didn't like, would jump into a fight!" admitted Tom Cruise in that interview for Parade magazine.
"He was a bully and a coward!" he continued in the same emphatic and unforgiving tone.
Not only did Tom Cruise often get a spanking from his frustrated parent, but he was also moved from school to school numerous times. The whole family would take what few possessions they had and pack them up to move from place to place, where new projects might arise for the electrician father.
Tom Cruise Started Working At Age Eight
Given his poverty, young Tom Cruise had to somehow manage to scrape together money to buy movie tickets, with movies becoming his passion from the age of four, People reports.
So the boy offered to do anything he could to get paid - from mowing the neighbors' lawns to delivering newspapers to the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, not all the money he earned went on movie tickets. The child had to help his family, who often had nothing to eat. They were so poor that they gave up gifts for Christmas and gave each other poems instead.
And with the money Tom Cruise earned from the age of eight, his parents often bought food or clothes for the little ones.
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If we look now at this new film, "Top Gun: Maverick (2022)", which has just grossed $100 million in its first weekend of release, we probably can't imagine the humble beginnings of Tom Cruise.
He is now one of the biggest and most successful actors in the world, but the Hollywood superstar hasn't always lived in luxury. Quite the opposite.
During the most controversial period of his career, when his career choices raised questions, in the early 2000s, Tom Cruise gave an interview to Parade magazine in which he talked about his childhood, a rare thing for an actor who likes to be extremely discreet.
Tom Cruise Was Extremely Poor When He Was Little
Yes, the famous actor had a difficult start in life. Although glory awaited him in the future, his childhood was quite hard.
Born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV barely had enough to eat. His father, Mapother III, was an electrician who struggled to get projects done, and the Hollywood star's mother, Mary Lee, was the breadwinner most of the time, working three shifts at a time.
If Mapother III couldn't provide a steady income for the family, he at least tried to control it as much as he could.
In the book "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography", Andrew Morton claims that the head of the family resorted to physical violence several times with his son Tom.
"My father was the kind of man who, when something happened that he didn't like, would jump into a fight!" admitted Tom Cruise in that interview for Parade magazine.
"He was a bully and a coward!" he continued in the same emphatic and unforgiving tone.
Not only did Tom Cruise often get a spanking from his frustrated parent, but he was also moved from school to school numerous times. The whole family would take what few possessions they had and pack them up to move from place to place, where new projects might arise for the electrician father.
Tom Cruise Started Working At Age Eight
Given his poverty, young Tom Cruise had to somehow manage to scrape together money to buy movie tickets, with movies becoming his passion from the age of four, People reports.
So the boy offered to do anything he could to get paid - from mowing the neighbors' lawns to delivering newspapers to the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, not all the money he earned went on movie tickets. The child had to help his family, who often had nothing to eat. They were so poor that they gave up gifts for Christmas and gave each other poems instead.
And with the money Tom Cruise earned from the age of eight, his parents often bought food or clothes for the little ones.
