Poor old Tom Cruise, he's about to turn 50 and his wife Katie Holmes goes and files for divorce. While he was off moping in Iceland, we gathered together a selection of his best moments, from sofa-jumping to scaling buildings, to cheer him up on his special day. Happy Birthday Tom! 

That Dance Scene

A fresh-faced Tom combined minimal clothing, comedy dancing and a bounce on the sofa to create this legendary cinematic scene. Sound familiar? Yes, Cruise started young, playing high school student Joel Goodson in his 1983 break-out film Risky Business, showing his loving fans a glimpse of what was to come. Leaping around the living room to Old Time Rock and Roll, dressed in underwear, socks and a pink dress shirt, the youthful star gained a hoard of female admirers and earned his place amongst Hollywood royalty. 

Topless in Top Gun

He may be vertically challenged, but Tom had legions of ladies swooning when he paraded his oiled-up torso during a spot of beach volleyball in 1986 classic Tom Gun. Cruise practically patented the aviator-dog tag combo when he cemented his heart-throb status alongside an equally greasy Val Kilmer and Rick Rossovich to the tune of Kenny Loggins’ Playing with the Boys. 

"You can't handle the truth"

Tom played Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee in A Few Good Men – an inexperienced US Navy lawyer thrown in the deep end to lead defence in the court-martials of two marines. Fast-forward to the courtroom and Tom is cross-examining Colonel Nathan Jessup (Oscar-nominated Jack Nicholson) in front of a packed courtroom. Amidst brimming tension and impassioned exchanges, Cruise asks the charged question, “Did you order the code red?” The response: an explosive “You’re god damn right I did” – a piece of dialogue that went down in silver-screen history. 

"You had me at hello..."

It’s 1996 and Tom is playing sports agent, Jerry Maguire in the much-loved romantic comedy of the same name. Cue gushy background music, a mad dash from the airport and one of his most iconic on-screen moments. Picking up the action from an impassioned speech to win back estranged wife Dorothy (played by Renee Zellweger), Cruise packs in the poignant pauses as he utters the famous “You complete me”, swiftly followed by Zellweger’s oft-quoted “You had me at hello”. You had us too, Tom.

The "couch incident"

If you didn’t already know about Tom Cruise’s relationship with Katie Holmes, you sure did after his cringe-inducing moment prancing about on Oprah Winfrey’s sofa. The beaming actor put on an inspired display of fist pumping, play-fighting and crazed outbursts, all in the name of love for his then-girlfriend Miss Holmes. If Tom’s repeated professions of ecstacy didn’t already have you reaching for the sick bucket, his dash backstage to drag a reluctant Holmes onto the sofa made it a done deal. The “couch incident”, as it’s now known, prompted numerous parodies, including episodes of Family Guy and South Park.

"Shawty got low low low low" 

Jump to 2008 and Cruise is making a comic comeback. His chuckle-inducing appearance in Tropic Thunder as foul-mouthed studio exec Les Grossman required the aid of a fat suit, bald cap and prosthetic hands. Watch him gyrating around the screen to the tune of Flo-Rida’s Low in a routine complete with ass-slapping, dad-dancing and repeated utterances of “Playaaaaa”. It ain’t pretty… 

"It's just another day of work on Mission Impossible"

Most would be scared of ascending the world’s tallest building in a lift. Not Tom Cruise. He chose to jump out of a window of the 2,723 ft building and freefall. That’s just how he rolls. Footage released of Cruise filming stunts for Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol shows the agile then 49-year-old using a harness to scale windows and sprint along the glass-fronted Burj Khalifa in Dubai. As they say, “It’s just another day of work on Mission Impossible”.