Tom Cruise was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Actor category in 1990 for the first time. It was for his part in the movie Born on the Fourth of July but he lost to Daniel Day-Lewis. The second time took place 7 years later when Cruise was nominated for the award for his part in Jerry Maguire, but it was Geoffrey Rush who took the win that time. His third nomination was in the Best Supporting Actor category for his part in Magnolia.

Cruise’s situation can be explained by a theory called the Pitt-Hanks Continuum which says that there are 2 types of actors in Hollywood. The first type resembles Brad Pitt, the second one resembles Tom Hanks. The actors of the first type can consistently show excellent performance but they’ll never win the award. While the actors of the “Hanks” type can win an Oscar for their first successful work. You can’t argue with science. But we hope that Tom Cruise still has a good chance to win an Oscar in the future, just like Leonardo DiCaprio who had to wait for 20 years for his first Oscar.