Read Online Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton - Free Book Online
Authors: Andrew Morton
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but later she realized that he possessed a quality that she lacked—a burning ambition to succeed and a willingness to sacrifice short-term enjoyment to achieve that goal. As Phil Travisano, who went to see him in the show, recalls, “He was dedicated and so excited about acting that he was prepared to miss the fun of graduation.” So as the names of the graduating students were read out on the lawns of Glen Ridge High, he was pursuing his dream in a different kind of ceremony: singing, dancing, and rousing the audience with songs and stories that popularized the Christian gospels. “Did you like it? Was I good?” he eagerly asked his new girlfriend, Diane Van Zoeren, when she and her mother came to the show. He visibly preened as he accepted her complimentary verdict.
As the senior class celebrated the end of school, there wereendless graduation parties thrown by the parents of departing classmates. That summer, Tom, beer in hand, dressed in T-shirt and shorts, was a familiar fixture at numerous gatherings. At one party Sam LaForte asked Tom about his future plans. His reply was as forthright as it was revealing: “Sam, I am going to New York and I am going to be a star.”
CHAPTER 3
It was the perfect night for romance. Hand in hand, Tom Cruise and Diane Van Zoeren walked along the beach, watching the waves shimmer in the moonlight as they rolled along the New Jersey shoreline. When they paused by a lifeguard stand, it was clear that Tom was not in the mood to whisper sweet nothings. He was more concerned that he
had
nothing—no money, no job, and no contacts. That night in the summer of 1980, just a few weeks after leaving Glen Ridge High School, eighteen-year-old Tom felt vulnerable and frustrated, barely able to hold back his tears as he poured out his fears to his sweetheart.
Rich in ambition—he told Diane he would give himself ten years to succeed as an actor; otherwise he would train as an airline pilot—he was dirt poor financially. Money—or rather the lack of it—had always been a nagging issue in his life. Now it was more pressing than ever. He often talked about being a self-made millionaire by the time he was thirty, and had a standing bet with his great friend Michael LaForte that the first one to earn a million dollars would buy the other a Mercedes. It was a bet he never honored, a failing that still rankles with some members of the Glen Ridge Brat Pack.
On the beach at Lavallette, a popular New Jersey resort, that night, it was not the idea of future millions that consumed his thoughts, but scraping together enough cash to rent an apartment in New York. With his agent, Tobe Gibson,based in Manhattan, he reasoned that he needed to be in the city so that he would be easily available for auditions and acting classes. But more than just money was worrying him. Even though he had an agent, Tom was concerned that he didn’t have the experience or wider contacts in the film industry to make it big as quickly as he would like. The confidence he had shown after his school success in
Guys and Dolls
seemed to be evaporating.
When the couple returned from Lavallette, Tom made do with the resources at hand. For part of the summer of 1980, he commuted into Manhattan from the family home in Glen Ridge. He was a familiar figure in his dirty green Ford Pinto, rarely parted from a ratty T-shirt that read: EYEING ICE COLD GIRL . If his own car was out of commission, he borrowed his mother’s or asked Diane Van Zoeren or his actress friend Lorraine Gauli, who lived around the corner, to give him a ride. If he had an early audition, he spent the night on the couch in the living room of Tobe Gibson’s Sixty-second Street apartment. Tobe’s daughters, Amy and Babydol, were amazed at her enthusiasm for a young man they thought was “nothing special.” At least not in the looks department. They concentrated on the superficial—his rather lumpy, stocky physique and inoffensively polite demeanor—and missed
As the senior class celebrated the end of school, there wereendless graduation parties thrown by the parents of departing classmates. That summer, Tom, beer in hand, dressed in T-shirt and shorts, was a familiar fixture at numerous gatherings. At one party Sam LaForte asked Tom about his future plans. His reply was as forthright as it was revealing: “Sam, I am going to New York and I am going to be a star.”
CHAPTER 3
It was the perfect night for romance. Hand in hand, Tom Cruise and Diane Van Zoeren walked along the beach, watching the waves shimmer in the moonlight as they rolled along the New Jersey shoreline. When they paused by a lifeguard stand, it was clear that Tom was not in the mood to whisper sweet nothings. He was more concerned that he
had
nothing—no money, no job, and no contacts. That night in the summer of 1980, just a few weeks after leaving Glen Ridge High School, eighteen-year-old Tom felt vulnerable and frustrated, barely able to hold back his tears as he poured out his fears to his sweetheart.
Rich in ambition—he told Diane he would give himself ten years to succeed as an actor; otherwise he would train as an airline pilot—he was dirt poor financially. Money—or rather the lack of it—had always been a nagging issue in his life. Now it was more pressing than ever. He often talked about being a self-made millionaire by the time he was thirty, and had a standing bet with his great friend Michael LaForte that the first one to earn a million dollars would buy the other a Mercedes. It was a bet he never honored, a failing that still rankles with some members of the Glen Ridge Brat Pack.
On the beach at Lavallette, a popular New Jersey resort, that night, it was not the idea of future millions that consumed his thoughts, but scraping together enough cash to rent an apartment in New York. With his agent, Tobe Gibson,based in Manhattan, he reasoned that he needed to be in the city so that he would be easily available for auditions and acting classes. But more than just money was worrying him. Even though he had an agent, Tom was concerned that he didn’t have the experience or wider contacts in the film industry to make it big as quickly as he would like. The confidence he had shown after his school success in
Guys and Dolls
seemed to be evaporating.
When the couple returned from Lavallette, Tom made do with the resources at hand. For part of the summer of 1980, he commuted into Manhattan from the family home in Glen Ridge. He was a familiar figure in his dirty green Ford Pinto, rarely parted from a ratty T-shirt that read: EYEING ICE COLD GIRL . If his own car was out of commission, he borrowed his mother’s or asked Diane Van Zoeren or his actress friend Lorraine Gauli, who lived around the corner, to give him a ride. If he had an early audition, he spent the night on the couch in the living room of Tobe Gibson’s Sixty-second Street apartment. Tobe’s daughters, Amy and Babydol, were amazed at her enthusiasm for a young man they thought was “nothing special.” At least not in the looks department. They concentrated on the superficial—his rather lumpy, stocky physique and inoffensively polite demeanor—and missed
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