Tom Cruise Turns 60: From 'Top Gun' to 'Magnolia', His 15 Best Performances

With six decades around the sun, Tom Cruise still feels the need for speed and has established himself as one of the most successful and undeniably talented movie stars of his generation.

Variety ranks his 15 best cinematic performances to celebrate the actor's 60th birthday.

With a breakthrough that began in the coming-of-age film “Risky Business” (1983), the Syracuse, N.Y.-born actor has become a darling of Hollywood and consumer audiences around the world . While Joseph Kosinski's "Top Gun: Maverick" continues to be strong, earning over half a billion dollars domestically, Cruise has continued to stay in tune with the cultural zeitgeist, spanning multiple generations. .

Also a producer, Cruise continued to elevate the entertainment medium with the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, which debuted in 1995. With five highly successful sequels and two more on the way, he continues to push the boundaries for himself- even as a fearless stunt performer and big-screen advocate.

A career only the boldest actors and creatives can dream of, Cruise has worked alongside two Best Actor winners - Paul Newman ("The Color of Money") and Dustin Hoffman ("Rain Man" ) - and earned three Oscar nominations in 'Born on the 4th of July' (1989), 'Jerry Maguire' (1996) and 'Magnolia' (1999). But there was no talk of the accolades for Cruise. In May 2021, he returned his three Golden Globe Awards after exposing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's lack of diversity, particularly the absence of black members.

Cruise's films have grossed over $10 billion worldwide and there's no sign of it slowing down. Will he ever win a coveted Oscar? That remains to be seen, but the narrative is there, should the Academy decide to award an upcoming project.

Read Variety's ranking of Tom Cruise's best performances below:

Honourable Mentions: 'Far and Away' (1992), 'The Last Samurai' (2003), 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)

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