HOT GALLERY: Happy 52nd Birthday, Tom Cruise!

Before Tom Cruise skidded across those famous Risky Business hardwood floors in his socks and tighty-whities (and into the hearts of millions of women around the world), he was just a shaggy-haired prepster at Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey. Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV to mother Mary Lee Pfeiffer and Thomas Cruise Mapother III in Syracuse, New York, Cruise grew up without much money in a strictly Catholic family. Before this pic was taken, the now-famous Scientologist was actually thinking about becoming a priest after spending time at St. Francis boarding school in Cincinnati, Ohio. He told Dotson Rader back in 2006, “I looked at the priesthood and said, ‘Listen, this is what I’m going to do. They [the Catholic Church] would pay for the boarding school for a year. I knew being there would help my family financially.”

Nine months after moving to New York to pursue his dream of becoming an actor, Tom learned about snagging the role of the “homicidally unhinged” teenage military cadet in Taps after hitching a ride home to New Jersey from some friendly prostitutes. Seriously. Taps was his big break, and became the first of many memorable film roles to come.

Tom Cruise not only gained international superstardom from his naughty portrayal of Joel Goodsen in Paul Brickman’s Risky Business, his aforementioned tighty-whitey dance has become one of the most iconic and spoofed film moments of all time. Enjoy Cruise in all of his risky, white-tube-socked glory here!

There are some movies that need no introduction. Let’s just list off a few key points: Sexy aviator glasses, sexier pilots, 1,000-watt smiles, young Meg Ryan, “Goose!,” silhouette-y sex scenes, shirtless and sweaty beach volleyball, and “I feel the need… the need for speed!” There was no stopping Cruise after starring in this Tony Scott megahit that grossed $353,816,701 worldwide.

Tom Cruise starred in Rain Man as d-bag yuppie Charlie Babbitt—who learns to love his autistic savant brother Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) after an adventurous road trip. The movie won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Hoffman), Best Writing (Original Screenplay), and Best Director for Barry Levinson.

If you watch TNT on the weekends, chances are you’ve found yourself mesmerized a few dozen times by replays of Rob Reiner’s military thriller A Few Good Men (penned by the ever-hot writer Aaron Sorkin). Cruise played JAG lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee, who deftly and famously goes toe-to-to with the entitled (and scary!) Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) while defending three marines against murder charges. It should be known as the movie that launched a million “You can’t handle the truth!” parodies.

With a long string of box office hits under his belt, Tom Cruise's career skyrocketed even further by signing on to play Ethan Hunt in the with Mission: Impossible franchise. Hunt was the perfect blend of sensitivity and secret spy, making Mission: Impossible not only a home run but a classic and ultimately a saga. It was around this time that he became one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, earning an average of 15 million dollars per film. Not too shabby.

Sparks flew on the set of the 1990 movie Days of Thunder between costars Tom Cruise and Australian beauty Nicole Kidman. You wouldn't think it, but the young couple had actually been married for eight years in this photo of them on the red carpet. It also doesn't appear as if Cruise's dedication to Scientology and Kidman's Catholic faith have come between the two... yet.

Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, spelled disaster for the couple the same way Gigli did for J.Lo and Ben Affleck. Kidman and Cruise played a young married couple who get caught up in an underground sex cult. The film received mixed reviews, and the couple divorced soon afterward in a famously icy split.

Cruise and Cruz met in 2000 while filming and costarring in Cameron Crowe's movie Vanilla Sky. They didn't start dating until 2001, after Cruise's divorce was finalized with ex-wife Nicole Kidman, and this photo from 2003 shows Cruise and Cruz happily together on the red carpet. Last-name jokes aside, the Cruise/Cruz union lasted three years before they amicably broke it off.

In 2005, weeks after Holmes ended her relationship with fellow actor Chris Klein, she started dating A-lister Tom Cruise. Less than six months later, Cruise proposed to Holmes on top of Paris's Eiffel Tower. Interestingly, Holmes was baptized as a Roman Catholic, just like Cruise's ex-wife Nicole Kidman. The speedy union raised eyebrows and had tongues wagging about the authenticity of the love between the two.

Here is Cruise as Les Grossman in the hit comedy Tropic Thunder. Cruise played the crass and hilariously foulmouthed producer of the movie within a movie to a T.

In 2006, Cruise's wife Katie Holmes gave birth to daughter Suri Cruise. This photo depicts father and daughter on a carousel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2011. Cruise and Holmes split in 2012.

Rock of Ages is a 2012 summer comedy musical with an ensemble cast of A-list actors. Cruise plays Stacee Jaxx, the aged star and lead singer of the rock band Arsenal. Check out the trailer here.

Since Rock of Ages, Cruise has gone back to his action roots starring in Jack Reacher and Oblivion. This summer, he stars in the well-recepted Edge of Tomorrow--as an officer who gets stuck in a time loop during a war with an alien race.