Top Five Tom Cruise Movie Roles

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Watch Cruise turn the late-'60s TV hit into a phenomenal big-screen franchise. Over four films with four different directors (starting in 1996 with Brian De Palma's version and still going strong with the most recent, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, directed by Brad Bird), Tom plays Impossible Missions Force leader Ethan Hunt, whose exploits have taken him to such far-flung locales as Moscow, Sydney, Shanghai, London and Prague -- and have seen him romance such beauties as Emmanuelle Beart, Thandie Newton and Michelle Monaghan.

As a 35-year-old sports agent who suffers a nervous breakdown and struggles for redemption, Cruise won the hand of Renee Zellweger onscreen -- and the hearts of moviegoers everywhere -- earning him an Oscar nomination for his performance. In the title role of the Cameron Crowe film, Cruise shakily sets off to start his own agency with the help of single mom Zellweger (in her own star-making performance), her scene-stealing little boy (Jonathan Lipnicki), a demanding football wide receiver (Cuba Gooding, Jr. in his Oscar-winning "show me the money!!!" performance) -- and a goldfish -- and learns to love and be loved in the process.

Despite being a top box-office draw by the end of the '80s, Cruise was still fighting to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor. In Oliver Stone's 1989 Vietnam war epic based on the true story of Ron Kovic, Cruise proved his mettle – and earned his first Oscar nomination in the process – with his brave, no-holds-barred performance. Cruise plays Kovic, a bright-eyed and patriotic small-town teen who enlists to fight abroad, only to have his jingoistic perspective changed dramatically by a bullet that puts him permanently in a wheelchair.

Tom Cruise has the need for speed in the film that vaulted the star to A-list status in 1986. Cruise plays Maverick, a hot-shot pilot who gets the opportunity to train at Top Gun, the Navy's elite flight school. There, he clashes with other pilots (including Val "Iceman" Kilmer) and falls for a beautiful civilian instructor (Kelly McGillis) while engaging the enemy in the skies above. Also starring Anthony Edwards, Meg Ryan and Tom Skerritt, the film was directed by Tony Scott and co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. "The thing I learned about the military is that they're not pro-war, they're pro-freedom," Cruise told ET on the set of the movie. "I mean, these guys don't want to go out there and kill and everything else. … They love to fly. This film is about excellence."

Cruise slid across the floor in his undies and right into the spotlight with some smooth and unforgettable moves in this breakthrough 1983 teen comedy. This classic coming-of-age story casts Cruise as Joel Goodson, a high-school student looking for a little excitement when his uptight parents go on vacation. Forced into a corner to make some serious cash after a variety of mishaps, Joel goes into business with an alluring hooker (Rebecca De Mornay), turning his house into a veritable bordello while his parents are out of town!

Tom Cruise turns 51 today, and in celebration, we're breaking down five of his most notable movie roles!