No one who has seen Top Gun, Jerry Maguire, The Last Samurai, or Mission Impossible would believe that Tom Cruise struggles with reading. He always seems to deliver his lines flawlessly.
Cruise spent his childhood trying to hide his dyslexia from his peers. Diagnosed at the age of seven, Cruise describes his younger self as a "functional illiterate". He could barely read in high school or through his earliest roles.
Cruise got his first big acting job at the age of 19. As he started to embrace his love of acting, Cruise realized that his inability to read would hold him back if he didn’t work hard at it.
"I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read," said Cruise.
Cruise refused to let his dyslexia stand in the way of his acting career. To learn more about him, visit IMDB.