Tom Cruise. The movie star we love to hate for his oddball tendencies and commitment to scientology. Like jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch because Katie’s love gave him so much “energy”. Or professing that Scientology cured his dyslexia and refusing to have an action figure made in his likeness (he doesn’t, however, seem to have a problem being the face Disney’s Aladdin was modeled after).

Yet as much as we might like to throw shade, Cruise is one of the world’s most beloved actors. Japan loves him so much, in fact, they gave him his own holiday on 10 October. And it’s hard to argue with his very successful career. In 1996, Cruise became the first actor to star in five consecutive movies that grossed over $100 million in the United States.

His many accomplishments range from inventing the “movie star run” to earning his pilot’s license in 1994 and even saving lives in real life. On this list are 10 other things you may or may not know about this larger-than-life mega movie star.

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10 A Cruise Christmas

Cruise famously sends his co-stars and friends a “Cruise cake” every year for Christmas. The coconut and white chocolate confection is widely appreciated and fussed over by celebrities the world over. Recipients include, among others, Barbara Walters, Jimmy Kimmel, and Kirsten Dunst who co-starred with Cruise in Interview with the Vampire back in 1994. Henry Cavill also received a cake a couple of years ago and eventually devoured the whole thing by himself.

Perhaps this sweet touch harks back to his childhood. As many know, Cruise has always been open about growing up poor. The first Christmas after his parents split up, his family could not afford Christmas gifts. Instead, they picked each other’s names out of a hat and did favors for that person. In true Secret Santa style, the giver was only revealed on Christmas Day.^[1]

9 Camera-shy Cruise

It’s hard to picture the benevolent Cruise without his million-dollar movie star smile. Yet those pearly whites weren’t always there. Looking at his earlier movies, his teeth look like everyone else’s: slightly yellowed, misaligned and chipped from a hockey incident as a child.

According to the late Patrick Swayze, who co-starred with Cruise in The Outsiders, Cruise was rather camera shy. In his memoir, The Time of My Life, Swayze recalled how Cruise would avoid publicity photoshoots and harbored a deep-seated embarrassment about his grin. Fortunately for the mega movie star, money, or rather braces and veneers, can indeed buy happiness.^[2]

8 Cruise’s crazy childhood

When you consider Cruise’s troubled and sometimes traumatic childhood, it’s sometimes not hard to see why he couldn’t make his marriages work. Cruise grew up with an abusive father and has even told reporters that his old man was “a bully and a coward. He was the type of person that if something goes wrong, they kick you.”

Couple this with the fact that he was bullied at school and had trouble making friends because his family moved so often and a lot of things about the man behind the movie star start to make more sense. During his 12-year school career, Cruise attended 15 different schools and, understandably, has very few lasting relationships from back then.^[3]

7 Cruise, crash and burn

The above might also explain why he had a soft spot for Zac Efron who was in teen-star hell after the success of High School Musical. One day Cruise asked the heartthrob whether he knew how to ride a motorcycle, offered to teach him and invited him back to his house. According to Efron, Cruise showed him how a motorcycle engine works and showed off his own pristine collection. “It was just so nice that he cared at all. No one else did.”

Cruise’s love affair with motorcycles started way back when he bought a Yamaha motorcycle as a teen before he even knew how to ride it. This resulted in a not-so-surprising crash. That didn’t stop him, however, and over the next couple of years he slowly put the motorcycle back together.^[4]

6 Cruise the committed comedian

Although Cruise is best known for his action movies, he has also known success in comedic roles. He is credited for coming up with Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder, even suggesting his character should be balding and have enormous hands.

In Rock of Ages, Cruise stars as Stacee Jaxx, a scene-stealing washed-up rocker whose over-the-top antics include, among other things, keeping a baboon sidekick close by at all times (also Cruise’s idea). The movie portrays not only his funny and charming side but is also a testament to his commitment. Cruise rehearsed 5 hours a day to perfect his rocker persona and technique.^[5]

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5 Need for speed

Cruise is probably most famous, though, for his commitment to action movies and insisting on doing all his own stunts. The man has dangled from planes, skyscrapers, and canyon walls in the name of art and can even hold his breath for about 6 minutes (a lifetime if you’ve ever tried it yourself). While filming Days of Thunder, the daredevil drove around the track at Daytona International Speedway at an average of 205 mph. Truly impressive, considering the land speed record is 223mph!

The people at Bugatti, however, were not impressed by his performance. Not on the track but on the red carpet. In 2006, Cruise arrived at the premiere of the third Mission: Impossible instalment in his 2005 Bugatti Veyron. Everything went smoothly until he tried to open the passenger door to help Katie Holmes exit the vehicle. The door wouldn’t budge. Whether this was the fault of the car or the actor we will never know. The manufacturer, however, felt the episode reflected poorly on their craftmanship and banned Cruise from buying anything from Bugatti again.^[6]

4 Aaaaand cut!

His 30-second fumble with the Bugatti’s car door handle pales in comparison to the time it took Cruise 95 takes to nail “walking through a doorway” while filming Eyes Wide Shut, though. Again, however, it’s not clear whether the fault lay with Cruise or director Stanley Kubrick. All we know is that after watching the playback, Kubrick apparently told Cruise “hey, Tom, stick with me and I’ll make you a star.”

Eyes Wide Shut is also featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest constant movie shoot equaling 400 days.^[7]

3 33 is not his lucky number

Nicole Kidman was not only Cruise’s co-star in Eyes Wide Shut, she also married him in real life. Cruise, in fact, has been married 3 times: first to Mimi Rogers, who reportedly introduced him to Scientology; then to Kidman with whom he adopted two kids; his last marriage was with Katie Holmes with whom he has a daughter named Suri. A major movie star with 3 marriages is nothing new. Celebrities make up and break up all the time after all. There is, however, something a little weird about Cruise’s three leading ladies.

Rogers was born on 27 January 1956 while Kidman and Holmes were born on 20 June 1967 and 18 December 1978 respectively. Not only were his wives all born 11 years apart, he also divorced them whey were each 33 years old.^[8]

2 For better and for worse

Although Cruise has starred in several Academy Award-winning movies and has himself been nominated three times for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia, the A-lister has never won an Oscar. His penchant for action-packed flicks that don’t tend to earn nods will probably keep him out of the winner’s circle for the foreseeable future.

Notably, Cruise is the first actor to star in a Best Picture and Worst Picture contender in the same year. While it’s not that rare for an actor to win an Academy Award as well as a Razzie Award, in 1988 Cruise became the first to feature in the best film (Rain Man) and the worst (Cocktail) in the same year.^[9]

1 Queen Cruise

A Razzie is bad enough but having to show up in drag to collect his “Man of the Year” award from Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals was not his finest moment either.

In 1994, Cruise, who had played a Harvard graduate in both The Firm and A Few Good Men, made his way to the stage in bright pink heels and a huge white bra with the red Harvard emblem on each breast. ‘This is how you turn people crimson,’ said Cruise, referring to the school’s official color.

Hasty Pudding producer Catherine Zipf said she bought the heels for Cruise because she’d ‘read somewhere Tom doesn’t like sharing the spotlight with someone taller than he is.’ This is quite ironic considering each of his three wives were an inch or two taller than the diminutive Cruise.^[10]

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Thousands of people embark on cruises each year to enjoy vacations, holidays, and honeymoons with family and friends. But not everyone returns home from these trips.

Several people have vanished aboard cruise liners, leaving their friends and families heartbroken and confused. Here are 10 times that people mysteriously disappeared from cruise ships.

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10 Amy Lynn Bradley

While on a family cruise to the Caribbean, Amy Lynn Bradley mysteriously vanished from the Royal Caribbean International Cruise Line’s Rhapsody of the Seas. The American woman was only 23 years old when she disappeared from the vessel on March 24, 1998.

Early that morning, Bradley went missing. She had danced all night with members of Rhapsody’s band, Blue Orchid. She left the band around 1:00 AM, and her father noticed her sleeping on their cabin balcony around 5:30 AM.

Her dad returned to the balcony at 6:00 AM to check on Amy, but she was no longer there. Her father reported her missing to the authorities on the cruise line, and the ship docked at Curacao, Antilles.^[1]

The cruise line and the Netherlands Antilles Coast Guard spent days looking for Amy, but the search ceased on March 29. There have been many theories about her disappearance, but none have been proven to be true.

9 George Allen Smith IV

In July 2005, George Allen Smith IV and his wife, Jennifer, were celebrating their two-week-long honeymoon on a cruise from Greece to Turkey when he mysteriously disappeared. It is believed that he went overboard due to an accident on the ship.

Smith vanished after a long night of drinking and gambling at the ship’s casino. A passenger aboard Brilliance of the Seas claimed that he heard men arguing in the Smiths’ room. Another passenger heard furniture being moved around inside the room, and Jennifer was later found passed out in a hallway.^[2]

Jennifer claimed that she did not remember much from the previous night, and nobody ever admitted to knowing anything about Smith’s disappearance. Some theories claimed that he was thrown overboard by the men with whom he was arguing. Others believe that he accidentally fell into the water after drinking too much.

In 2015, the FBI closed their investigation into the disappearance of Smith. They said that his death could have resulted from an accident, but his family was never convinced. They believe he was murdered.

8 Rebecca Coriam

In 2010, Rebecca Coriam started working for Disney Cruise Line and spent months visiting several ports in the Bahamas. On March 22, 2011, while working on the Disney Wonder, Coriam disappeared.

She was last seen on CCTV footage in the crew’s lounge talking on an internal phone. She was wearing men’s clothing and seemed visibly distressed. After hanging up the phone, she walked away, never to be seen again.^[3]

When she failed to report for her shift, crew members started looking for Coriam. After they were unsuccessful, the United States Coast Guard and the Mexican Navy were alerted and joined the search. But her body was never found.

Some theories claim that she was swept overboard while at the pool. Others say that she jumped or fell from the deck. Her family hasn’t received any answers as to why or how she went missing while aboard the cruise ship.

7 Daniel Kueblboeck

Daniel Kueblboeck, a German pop star, was famous for a short time on the talent show Germany Seeks the Superstar. He disappeared after reportedly either jumping or falling from a cruise ship. The 33-year-old was aboard an AIDA Cruises ship for a holiday from Hamburg to New York when he went missing. The cruise ship was off the coast of Canada when the incident occurred.

Witnesses aboard the ship claim they saw someone jump overboard around 6:00 AM the day he went missing. A month earlier, Daniel had posted on Facebook about being bullied as a kid, how it had affected him deeply, and that he still did not feel better mentally or physically.

Authorities believe that he jumped into the water on purpose. The search for his body was called off after four days.^[4]

6 John Halford

On April 6, 2011, John Halford went missing while aboard Thomson Cruise’s Thomson Spirit. The 63-year-old man disappeared while on a holiday cruise in Egypt. Authorities believe that Halford went missing sometime between 11:45 PM on April 6 and 7:30 AM on April 7. According to authorities, he was last seen at the ship’s bar drinking cocktails.

Halford’s suitcases were found sitting outside his cabin’s door, which is required for guests on the last night of the cruise. The luggage contained gifts that he had purchased for his wife and children. When the cruise ship docked the next morning, he was not in his room or anywhere else on the ship. His body was never found.^[5]

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5 Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell and his fiancee, Crystal Tinder, went on a Carnival cruise in July 2004 to Mexico. Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Fascination was near Miami on the final night of the trip when Caldwell disappeared.

That last evening, he and his fiancee had gone to dinner with some friends they met on the cruise. They all had a few drinks and decided to hit up some of the nightclubs after dinner.

Crystal then decided to head in for the night, but Caldwell chose to stay in the casino for a while. He told her he would be back shortly. But he never returned to their cabin.^[6]

Surveillance video showed Caldwell leaving the casino at 2:17 AM, and one crew member admitted that a bartender had seen Caldwell on the promenade deck around 3:30 AM. The bartender said that Caldwell had appeared to be very drunk, but the barkeep did not help his customer back to his room.

Caldwell was never seen again. It was believed that he had fallen overboard, and the coast guard spent 36 hours looking for his body. They eventually called off the search, and Caldwell was presumed to be dead.

4 Fariba Amani

Fariba Amani was enjoying a cruise with her boyfriend, Ramiz Golshani, when she mysteriously vanished from the Bahamas Celebration cruise. The 47-year-old mother of two from Canada disappeared on February 29, 2012, somewhere between the Bahamas and Florida.

Ramiz last saw her at the ship’s gift shop, and then he headed to the casino by himself. When he returned to their cabin, Fariba was not there. He eventually fell asleep. When Ramiz woke up, Fariba still had not returned. He spent an hour searching for her on the ship.^[7]

Ramiz alerted the crew about her disappearance shortly after arriving at port. The coast guard began an 84-hour search that spanned 25,900 square kilometers (10,000 mi²), but they were unable to find Fariba.

Police and the FBI also failed to find any evidence or trace of her during their investigation on the ship. The whereabouts of Fariba remain unknown, but her family suspects that Ramiz may have had something to do with her disappearance.

3 Annette Mizener

In December 2004, 37-year-old Annette Mizener embarked on a nine-day cruise with her parents and daughter. On the final day of the trip, she disappeared from Carnival’s ship The Pride.

She was last seen when the ship was around 48 kilometers (30 mi) off the coast of Ensenada, Mexico. Authorities believe that she fell or was pushed overboard, but some strange facts emerged about her vanishing.

Mizener’s beaded purse was found with beads missing near a smoking deck. But her family said she would have stayed away from there. A passenger stated that a nearby camera for that deck was covered, so there was no footage of her.

The captain of the ship waited about three hours before finally turning around and dropping rescue boats to search for Mizener. However, he only did this because he was ordered to do so by the coast guard. Her family believes foul play was involved, but her case remains unsolved.^[8]

2 Merrian Carver

Merrian Carver’s disappearance from a cruise ship around Alaska in 2004 is one of the more absurd stories. The 40-year-old woman vanished from a Royal Caribbean ship that nobody in her family even knew she had boarded.

On the second day of the cruise, a cabin attendant noticed that the bed had not been used and reported it to the boss. The supervisor said, “Just forget it, and do your job.” The attendant did as she was told, although nobody ever used the room. Carver was never seen again.

After the ship docked, her possessions were packed away. The authorities weren’t notified that she was missing. In fact, the police only learned of her disappearance when her father filed a missing person’s report days later. As her family hadn’t known that Carver was on the ship, the police needed time to trace her there.

The cruise line took three more days to confirm to authorities that she had been on the vessel, which was 26 days after she disappeared. By that time, the trail had gone cold.^[9]

1 Hue Pham And Hue Tran

In 2005, Hue Pham, 71, and Hue Tran, 67, took a seven-night Mother’s Day cruise in the Caribbean with their daughter and granddaughter. The couple, who had been married for 49 years, mysteriously vanished while on the Carnival Cruise Line ship.

On May 12, a ship employee found two passports, two pairs of flip-flops, two driver’s licenses, medication, and a wallet containing cash and credit cards. The passports belonged to Hue Pham and Hue Tran.^[10]

A full search and rescue mission began after family members realized the couple was missing, but the mission failed to find anyone. Authorities believe that the couple committed suicide by jumping into the sea together. Their son, Michael Pham, testified before Congress to urge tougher regulation of safety practices on cruise lines.

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