Has Tom Cruise Ever Won An Oscar?

Tom Cruise is Hollywood’s undisputed action man, whose old-fashioned charm and death-defying stunts — no, seriously, he has almost died on set many times – have thrilled audiences since his career took off in the ’80s. From the Mission: Impossible franchise — which continues to go from strength to strength — to the brace of the Top Gun movies, there are a wealth of films to choose from when it comes to picking the best Tom Cruise movies.

Across his glittering career, he has achieved many accolades and milestones, but there is one major one that still eludes him: an Oscar. Cruise has had the privilege of working with a number of Oscar-winning directors, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Oliver Stone, and starring opposite Oscar-winning actors such as Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Nicole Kidman. So far, the golden statue with Cruise’s name on it has remained just out of his reach, but his chances of winning one should never be ruled out completely.

Tom Cruise has never won an Oscar, but he’s been nominated

Tom Cruise hasn’t been completely overlooked by the Academy; across his career, he has been nominated for four Oscars. His first nomination was in 1990 for his performance in “Born on the Fourth of July.” That film picked up eight nominations, scoring two wins for best director and best film editing. Cruise, however, lost out to Daniel Day-Lewis, for his performance in “My Left Foot.” The then 28-year-old Cruise was in esteemed company that year, nominated alongside acting legends Kenneth Branagh, Morgan Freeman, and Robin Williams.

Cruise would have to wait seven years for his next nomination, which he earned for his leading role in “Jerry Maguire.” Nominated for five Oscars in total, its only win was Cuba Gooding Jr. in the best supporting actor category. In the lead category, Cruise was nominated alongside Billy Bob Thornton, Woody Harrelson, Ralph Fiennes, and eventual winner Geoffrey Rush.

For his third — and so far, last — acting nomination, Cruise shuffled over to the supporting actor category in 2000 for his role in “Magnolia.” There was stiff competition that year, with standout performances from Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law and Michael Clarke Duncan. It was Michael Caine who took home the statue, however, for his role in “The Cider House Rules.”

Cruise’s fourth nomination was a different one entirely, recognized for his role as producer for best picture nominee “Top Gun: Maverick” in 2023. While “Maverick” was one of the big winners at the box office in 2022, it bowed to the multiverse-hopping “Everything Everywhere All at Once” in the Oscar race.

Cruise has a few Golden Globes though

While so far unsuccessful at the Oscars, Tom Cruise has enjoyed success at the Golden Globes over the years. In fact, his first nomination was for his breakthrough performance in 1983’s “Risky Business.” His first win, however, came in 1990 for his emotional performance in “Born on the Fourth of July.” Interestingly, his other Golden Globe wins track with the other acting nominations he picked up — but didn’t win — at the Oscars, with Cruise earning trophies for “Jerry Maguire” in 1997 and “Magnolia” in 2000. Perhaps the Globes know something the Oscars don’t, or, more likely, the fact they split the categories between “drama” and “comedy or musical” allows more than one actor to be recognized, whereas the Oscars don’t differentiate in the same way.

Perhaps because of this category split, the Golden Globes have nominated Cruise for awards on more occasions than the Academy has. The actor picked up leading actor nominations for “A Few Good Men” in 1993 and “The Last Samurai” in 2004, losing out to Al Pacino and Sean Penn respectively. Hilariously, Cruise also earned a supporting actor nomination for his outrageous performance as the rotund Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder” in 2009. On this occasion, Cruise lost to Heath Ledger, posthumously winning for his performance in “The Dark Knight.”

He hasn’t been successful at the BAFTAs or SAG Awards

Despite being one of the biggest stars on the planet, Tom Cruise is yet to pick up a BAFTA or a SAG Award. BAFTA have so far nominated Cruise just once, for his performance in “Born on the Fourth of July” in 1991. Cruise lost out this year to a pretty leftfield choice — although still a deserving one — with Philippe Noiret winning for his tender performance in “Cinema Paradiso.” This is perhaps even more remarkable a win considering the other nominations were Robert De Niro for “Goodfellas,” and Sean Connery’s performance in “The Hunt for Red October.”

Over at SAG, Cruise has received more recognition, although still no wins. In 1997, he was nominated for “Jerry Maguire,” but lost out to Geoffrey Rush for “Shine” — something that was indicative of how the Oscar race that year would go. In 2000, Cruise was nominated for another pair of awards for “Magnolia”: outstanding performance by a cast, and supporting actor. The ensemble cast lost to the stars of “American Beauty,” while Cruise lost to Michael Caine for “The Cider House Rules” — once again, predicting how the eventual Academy Awards would go down that year.

Tom Cruise still has plenty of awards to his name

Even though Tom Cruise still hasn’t had recognition from the Oscars, BAFTAs, or SAG Awards, he still has plenty of accolades, and there is quite a range. According to Cruise’s IMDb page, he has more than 60 wins from just shy of 120 nominations. This includes recognition from champions of genre cinema the Saturn Awards, who have awarded Cruise for his performances in “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Vanilla Sky.”

The big awards and those voted for by committees and guild members are the ones that garner the most attention, but it is perhaps particularly telling that Cruise has enjoyed plenty of success in audience-voted awards. One of these is the MTV Movie + TV Awards, where Cruise has earned a whopping 18 nominations, picking up wins for his performances in “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Mission: Impossible II,” and “Jerry Maguire.” He was also the inaugural winner of the special “MTV Generation Award,” honoring actors who had been particularly influential on the MTV audience.

Of course, the true mark of an actor’s influence is if they’ve won a Razzie, and Cruise finally picked up the prize for worst actor for his performance in “The Mummy.” This followed previous Razzie nominations for his performances in “Cocktail” and “War of the Worlds.” Dreams do come true eventually.

Could Tom Cruise ever win an Oscar?

Looking at Tom Cruise’s upcoming projects, there is one that certainly could be a contender for future Oscars: the as-yet unnamed movie he is making with Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The Mexican director is already a four-time Oscar winner, taking home best director for “The Revenant” and “Birdman” (which also won best picture). Seeing Cruise at the top of the cast list for an Iñárritu movie is suddenly very intriguing. Michael Keaton was nominated for his performance in “Birdman,” and Leonardo DiCaprio went one better, finally picking up an Oscar win for his role in “The Revenant.” It is completely plausible that Cruise could follow this trajectory.

Among other things, Cruise is of course known for his incredible stunt work, and if the Oscars ever introduces a stunt category, he would be a shoo-in for the win. This might not be as far off as it had been previously, with Empire reporting that the Academy are seriously considering stunts as a new category addition. Academy CEO Bill Kramer told the outlet, “We’re talking to members of the stunt community who are Academy members about the possibility of that … we’re always open to those discussions.” Another possibility for Cruise would be a lifetime achievement award in the form of an Honorary Oscar. These are given out at the Governor’s Awards, with previous winners including Samuel L. Jackson, James Earl Jones, and Paul Newman. No need for Cruise to throw out that tuxedo or acceptance speech yet, the hope for Oscar glory is still alive.