Tom Cruise - by Jeff Benedict (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tiger Woods comes a definitive, revelatory, and cinematic biography of Tom Cruise--the most intensely ambitious, mysteriously private, and enduringly powerful star in Hollywood history.

Over the past fifty years, no actor has been more fiercely driven to reach the top of the entertainment world than Tom Cruise. After breaking out in Risky Business to soaring to stardom by age twenty-three in Top Gun, Cruise became the most bankable actor in the world. His forty-five movies have grossed upward of $13 billion. But his signature role as Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise defined him as Hollywood's ultimate action star and shaped the modern blockbuster and what it means to be a global movie star.

Offscreen, his personal life is shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding. His marriages to actresses Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes were catnip for the paparazzi and the subject of endless rumors and speculation. His spirited advocacy for the Church of Scientology and some of its controversial teachings sparked a flashpoint in his career and severed some of his closest personal and professional relationships. And his nomadic and solitary lifestyle has added to the mystique of a man who stands alone, both literally and figuratively.

This landmark biography by acclaimed author Jeff Benedict takes readers on a journey that begins in Kentucky with Thomas Cruise Mapother IV--"Tommy"--a Catholic boy whose estrangement from his father forms the launchpad for an origin story as dramatic, and at times as tragic, as any Hollywood epic. Poring through thousands of pages of genealogical records, court documents, and family history, Benedict gives readers an unprecedented view of the struggle of a young man who grew up yearning for acceptance and set out in his late teens to find it in the make-believe world of show business.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented access to those who knew Cruise across the critical stages of his life, Benedict uncovers the forces that shaped him and reveals the intense determination that has both fueled his global dominance and driven him into the shadows. The result is a vivid, intimate, and unflinching portrait of ambition, fame, power, hubris, belief, downfall, regret, and redemption in modern America.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Dynasty:

"The Dynasty is Jeff Benedict's latest masterpiece. . . . It's a relationship book, it's a football book, it's a business book. . . . I was surprised at the level of detail in Robert Kraft's quotes and his willingness to allow [the book] to go to some pretty painful places. . . . If you love football the way I do, you'll just eat up these stories."
--Colin Cowherd, The Herd

"An epic business story . . . The Dynasty goes deeper than anyone has before on the Beatles-esque collaboration among an owner, a coach, and a star player."
--Bloomberg

"Most often in our business, there are writers and there are reporters, and rarely do the twain meet. In The Dynasty, Jeff Benedict shows he's masterful at both. His reporting on the very well-worn (trust me) earth of the Patriots' greatness is groundbreaking, starting with his illumination of the evening in the hospital in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe's life was in peril and going all the way through to previously unknown details of the emotional play-by-play of Tom Brady's departure from New England. The imagery and prose are just as strong. Such a great read from Benedict."
--Peter King, NBC Sports, author of "Football Morning in America"

"For two decades we've been peering up at the castle looming over the American sportscape with the same mixture of awe, suspicion, and envy with which peasants have peered up at palisades for millennia. So when a deft and lyrical serf named Benedict slips inside, lowers the drawbridge, and waves us in to see the ramparts, towers, turrets, and castle keep where the Brady-Belichick-Kraft trinity ruled . . . how can a peasant resist?"
--Gary Smith, longtime Sports Illustrated writer and author of Beyond the Game

"This is an extraordinary book. The narrative is comprehensive, intimate, and original. I've watched and written about the entire Patriots dynasty, and yet this epic story provides new insights and startling details that I didn't know. I can assure you that there's not another Patriots book like it."
--Michael Holley, author of Belichick and Brady and Patriot Reign

"Smart, engaging . . . Action-packed . . . Benedict has long blended two interests--sports and business--and the Patriots are emblematic of both. . . . Good reading for organization builders as well as Pats fans."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A marvelously told story of the New England Patriots . . . This is the story of a well-run and successful business, very much like Apple or Amazon. . . . You don't need be a sports fan to enjoy this masterpiece study of a successful sports franchise. . . . With substantial research, great attention to detail and superb writing, The Dynasty is a book worthy of the team it chronicles."
--Book Reporter

"Richly detailed . . . Benedict's book breaks new ground in utilizing the oft-neglected vantage point of the owner's box."
--Hartford Courant

"A page-turner for Patriots fans. There are plenty of behind-the-scenes, untold nuggets, along with more detailed versions of often-told stories that have taken place during Robert Kraft's ownership of the team. . . . It was as if Benedict was a fly on the wall for many of these significant events, and in some cases, he was in fact present to witness some indelible moments."
--Boston Herald

"The Dynasty is an unprecedented peek behind the curtain of the Patriots' football machine."
--Inside Hook

Praise for Tiger Woods:

"Irresistible . . . Immensely readable . . . The authors have laid out a saga that is part myth, part Shakespeare, part Jackie Collins. . . . Benedict and Keteyian bring us along for the ride in a whirlwind of a biography that reads honest and true."
--Leigh Montville, The Wall Street Journal

"An ambitious 360-degree portrait of golf's most scrutinized figure . . . The book features fresh reporting on almost every significant element of Woods' story. . . . It is a book brimming with revealing details."
--Sam Weinman, Golf Digest

"Chilling . . . Exhaustively researched . . . The authors present Woods as a man 'both blessed and cursed' by his otherworldly ability to separate his off-the-course problems from his performance on it. Tiger Woods is a fascinating analysis of the former, but for golf fans--and probably for Woods himself--his worth will still be judged by the latter. . . . What Benedict and Keteyian do better than in any biography I've read about Woods is detail the human costs of this machine-like focus."
--John Paul Newport, Bloomberg Businessweek

"Comprehensive, propulsive, packed with incident . . . and unsparing."
--Ian Crouch, The New Yorker

"There is beauty and awe in this perfectly pitched biography . . . It has torque and velocity . . . It's a confident and substantial book that's nearly as sleek as a Christopher Nolan movie. It makes a sweet sound, like a well-struck golf ball. I found it exhilarating, depressing, tawdry and moving in almost equal measure. It's a big American story. . . . The authors bring grainy new detail to almost every aspect of Woods's life."
--Dwight Garner, The New York Times

About the Author

Jeff Benedict is a bestselling author as well as a film and television producer. He is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Tiger Woods, which was the basis of the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary Tiger, and The Dynasty, the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots during the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era, which was a New York Times bestseller and the basis of a ten-part documentary series for Apple TV+, which Benedict executive produced. He is also the author of a bestselling biography of LeBron James.