Tom Cruise is under fire at 50

Tom Cruise, who turned 50 on Tuesday, was named the highest paid actor in Hollywood − but the Mission Impossible star has little to celebrate.

His ability to make a great movie, as we saw with the most recent instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, is what moviegoers remember above all else

Days after his wife filed for divorce, apparently taking him by surprise, questions are stacking up about the role of his controversial Scientologist faith at the end of his five-year marriage to Katie Holmes.

The Top Gun actor − who has been in Iceland shooting his latest movie ahead of the landmark birthday, according to reports − has remained tight-lipped since his wife’s bombshell announcement last week.

“Tom is deeply saddened and is concentrating on his three children,” his spokesman said on Friday and has added nothing since, despite mounting speculation about what led to Ms Holmes’s decision.

Their fairytale love affair had started so well. Mr Cruise famously jumped up and down on Oprah Winfrey’s couch professing his love for Ms Holmes during a whirlwind courtship that culminated in a proposal under the Eiffel Tower.

But the divorce will be the third for Mr Cruise, following his marriage to US actress Mimi Rogers from 1987-1990 and Australian Nicole Kidman from 1990-2001. He also had a three-year relationship with Spanish star Penelope Cruz.

Critics might suggest that, for all his blockbuster achievements on the big screen over three decades, Mr Cruise has been less successful in his personal life.

And he now faces a court battle for custody of their six-year-old daughter Suri, after reports that Ms Holmes is seeking sole custody because she fears Mr Cruise wants to draw the child deeper into Scientology.

On Monday a lawyer for the Church of Scientology − of which Mr Cruise is a prominent member − denied sending anyone to follow Ms Holmes or that Mr Cruise wanted Suri to join the Sea Organisation, described as a boot camp for the religion.

“There is no truth whatsoever to the TMZ.com report (or any other report) that the Church of Scientology has sent anyone to follow or surveil Katie Holmes,” lawyer Gary Soter said in an e-mailed letter.

In the 26 years since he made his name in the first Top Gun movie in 1986, Mr Cruise has established himself as one of the most powerful and bankable players in Hollywood.

That was confirmed again on Tuesday when the latest Forbes list of Hollywood’s highest paid actors put Mr Cruise firmly at the top, with earnings of €59.5 million between May 2011 and May 2012.

TMZ reported that Ms Holmes would get virtually nothing from a prenuptial agreement the couple signed − reports that she could get €12-€15.8 million are “absurd” − but that she does not mind.

“Money is not that important to her. She makes plenty on her own,” it quoted a source close to Ms Holmes as saying, adding that the only thing she will insist on is child support, which could turn into a “big ticket item”.

A lawyer for Mr Cruise, Bret Fields, said the Hollywood A-lister will file a rival divorce case, but for the moment is content to let Ms Holmes’s camp have the spotlight.

“We are letting ‘the other side’ (Katie and her team), play the media until they wear everyone out and then we’ll have something to say,” he told BBC radio.

“Tactically we can’t say where Tom will file a divorce case and if he’ll be seeking joint custody of Suri.”

Amid all the bad news, Mr Cruise had at least one supporter Paramount came out swinging for him, as a trailer for his next movie Jack Reacher − due out in December − was launched in theatres.

“Tom is a huge movie star for the right reason, he’s a very talented actor whose movies have entertained millions of fans,” the studio said in a statement cited by The Hollywood Reporter.

“His ability to make a great movie, as we saw with the most recent instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise − the most successful of the series to date − is the thing that moviegoers remember above all else.”

In Jack Reacher, adapted from a novel by Lee Child, the actor plays an ex-military investigator caught up in the case of a sniper accused of killing five people.

The actor who wanted to become a priest

• Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in Syracuse, New York, on July 3, 1962.

• At the age of 14, he enrolled in a seminary to become a priest; he dropped out after one year.

• Cruise, at 1.70 metres, debuted in the 1981 film Endless Love.

• By the 1990s and 2000s he became one of the highest paid actors in the world averaging $15 million a picture.

• In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced the Church of Scientology, whose teachings he said cured him of dyslexia.

• Mr Cruise married three times: to actresses Mimi Rogers (1987-1990), then Nicole Kidman (1990-2001) and Katie Holmes (2006 till present).

• He adopted two children with Ms Kidman and has a girl from Ms Holmes.