LOS ANGELES – Tom Cruise will receive the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award, AFI’s board of trustees announced Wednesday. The honor will be presented during a gala tribute at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre on April 24 next year.
“Tom Cruise is a global icon,” Kathleen Kennedy, chair of AFI’s board of trustees, said in a statement. She highlighted Cruise’s dedication as both an actor and producer, as well as his enduring belief in film’s power to bring audiences together.
Cruise, 64, has spent more than four decades in the film industry, starring in such movies as “Risky Business,” “A Few Good Men,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Minority Report” and the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. He has earned three Academy Award acting nominations: best actor for “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Jerry Maguire,” and supporting actor for “Magnolia.”
His producing work also brought an Oscar nomination after “Top Gun: Maverick” was recognized in the best picture category.
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Last year, Cruise received an honorary Oscar at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Governors Awards.
Established in 1973, the AFI Life Achievement Award honors an individual whose body of work has advanced the art of film and endured over time. Cruise will join a distinguished group of recipients that includes John Ford, Bette Davis, Sidney Poitier, Steven Spielberg, Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman and Eddie Murphy, who received the award earlier this year.
Proceeds from the tribute gala will support AFI’s education and arts initiatives.
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