‘Warm, charismatic woman’ — Cruise’s mother dies at 80
LIKE many teenagers, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV was lost.
Throughout a tumultuous childhood, which included moving cities several times and an estranged father, sports provided a natural outlet for his pent-up anger, confusion and fear. Then a knee injury in the winter of his senior year of high school ended his burgeoning wrestling career.
That’s when, as People noted, his mom, Mary Lee South, suggested he try out for his Glen Ridge, New Jersey, high school’s production of “Guys and Dolls.” Heeding his mother’s wisdom, he auditioned and was cast as Nathan Detroit, the musical’s lead. Weeks later, he had just finished bowing after his fi rst, exhilarating performance. Still warm from bathing in the spotlight, the teenager rushed to his mom and stepfather.
“After the show,” South told Rolling Stone in 1986, “Tom came home and said he wanted to have a talk with my husband and me. He asked for ten years to give show business a try. ... And we both wholeheartedly agreed, because we both felt it was a God-given talent, and he should explore it because he was so enthused about it. So to make a long story short, we gave him our blessing — and the rest is history.”
That history, of course, consisted of Mapother’s move to Hollywood, where he shortened his name to Tom Cruise and became one of the silver screen’s most famous stars. Through all that, he remained close to his mother. He often brought her to movie premieres, and in 2001 The Washington Post’s Reliable Source noted the two were seen dining at Old Ebbit Grill.
“My mother is a very warm, charismatic woman. Very kind, very generous,” he once told James Lipton.
South died in her sleep last week, People reported Monday. She was 80 years old.
While that fi rst production was important in Cruise’s development as an actor, perhaps the most important thing he gained from his mother was his tireless work ethic and the virtue of patience.
He was 11 years old when his parents divorced, and he wouldn’t see his father again for 10 years, as he told Lipton. Cruise, not yet a teenager, began working to support his mom and three sisters.
“No job was too dirty or difficult for Tommy, as long as it paid money to help his mom out,” neighbour Bill Lewis told Andrew Morton, the author of Cruise’s unauthorised biography.
A service, attended by Cruise and his three sisters, was held for South this weekend at her local Church of Scientology. — WPBloomberg