Hollywood icon Tom Cruise received his first Oscar for his decades of work in film and production at the 16th Governors Awards, held Nov. 16 in Los Angeles.
Cruise received a two-minute standing ovation before delivering a heartfelt speech about his journey as an actor, saying that his love for cinema “began at a very early age.”
“I was just a little kid in a darkened theater, and I remember that beam of light just cut across the room, and I remember looking up and it seemed to be just exploded on the screen,” he said while accepting the Academy Honorary Award. “Suddenly, the world was so much larger than the one that I knew.”
The star of the blockbuster Mission Impossible franchise also credited cinema for helping him to “appreciate and respect differences” while recognizing “our shared humanity.”
He continued: “No matter where we come from, in that theater we laugh together, we feel together, we hope together, and that is the power of this art form. And that is why it matters, that is why it matters to me. So making films is not what I do, it is who I am.”
Cruise has been a Hollywood superstar for more than four decades, starring in such hit films as 1983’s Risky Business, 1986’s Top Gun and 1988’s Rain Man. He has also earned four Academy Award nominations during his career — three for acting and one for producing.
Other recipients of the Academy Honorary Award this year are first-time winners: veteran actress Debbie Allen, 75; country music legend Dolly Parton, 79; and renowned movie set designer Wynn Thomas.
Cruise and Allen were seen showing off a few dance moves to a 1981 R&B classic, “Before I Let Go” by Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, at an event hosted by the Fame actress before the awards ceremony.
As for retirement, Cruise said he has no plans to slow down — ever.
“I will never stop,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in May. “I will never stop doing action, I will never stop doing drama, comedy films. I’m excited.”
Soon afterward, he doubled down on his ambitious declaration.
“I actually said I’m going to make movies into my 80s. Actually, I’m going to make them into my 100s,” he said.
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