'Top Gun' Star Tom Cruise to Receive AFI Life Achievement Award
Tom Cruise is adding another major honor to his list. The "Top Gun" and "Mission: Impossible" star will receive the 52nd AFI Life Achievement Award, the American Film Institute announced Wednesday.
Cruise will be celebrated at a gala tribute on Saturday, April 24, 2027, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, according to the American Film Institute. Proceeds from the event will support AFI's arts and education programs.
"A Global Icon"
AFI Board of Trustees Chair Kathleen Kennedy praised Cruise's dedication to his craft.
"Tom Cruise is a global icon," Kennedy said, according to WSTW. "As an actor and producer, he brings an extraordinary commitment to everything he does."
The AFI Life Achievement Award is one of Hollywood's most prestigious honors. It recognizes artists whose work has made a lasting mark on film and culture.
Decades of Box Office Hits
Cruise has been one of Hollywood's biggest stars for more than four decades. His films have earned nearly $13 billion worldwide, according to AFI.
His long list of credits includes "Risky Business," "Top Gun," "The Color of Money," "Rain Man," "The Firm," "Interview with the Vampire," "Jerry Maguire," "Magnolia," "Minority Report," "The Last Samurai," "Collateral" and "Edge of Tomorrow," along with the "Mission: Impossible" franchise.
In recent years, Cruise has kept audiences coming back to theaters with big-screen spectacles, including the seventh and eighth "Mission: Impossible" films. His biggest hit to date is "Top Gun: Maverick," which also earned him an Oscar nomination as a producer when it was nominated for Best Picture in 2022.
A Long Road to Awards Recognition
Despite his decades of success, Cruise has never won a competitive Oscar. He has been nominated four times, including Best Actor nods for "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Jerry Maguire" and a Best Supporting Actor nod for "Magnolia."
He finally took home an Oscar statuette in 2025, when he received an Honorary Oscar at the Academy's Governors Awards.
His other honors include recognition from the Cannes Film Festival and the Producers Guild of America, as well as being named a Knight of the Legion of Honor in France. He has also been named Harvard's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year and has received the John Huston Award, the Simon Wiesenthal Humanitarian Award, the Friars Club Entertainment Icon Award and the Will Rogers Pioneer Award.
What's Next for Cruise
Cruise currently stars in "Digger," a dark comedy from Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, in which he plays "the most powerful man in the world." He attended the film's Japan premiere in Tokyo on Oct. 6. The film had a rough start at the box office, opening to about $20 million worldwide, and could lose Warner Bros. about $150 million.
He is also set to return as race car driver Cole Trickle in "Days of Thunder 2," a sequel to his 1990 racing film.
Joining a Legendary List
AFI first handed out the award in 1973, when legendary director John Ford became its first recipient. Since then, it has gone to just 51 people. Cruise joins a list of past honorees that reads like a who's who of Hollywood, including Alfred Hitchcock, Bette Davis, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington. More recent honorees include Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, John Williams, Diane Keaton, George Clooney, Julie Andrews and Francis Ford Coppola.
In a fun twist, his former wife Nicole Kidman received the award in 2024. Eddie Murphy was this year's honoree, and his gala premiered on Netflix in May.
AFI has not yet announced where Cruise's tribute will stream, but fans can expect plenty of famous faces to turn out for the night.
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