Tom Cruise and Heather Locklear were two icons of '80s pop culture, he for his starring turns in blockbusters Risky Business and Top Gun, she for her roles on TV hits T.J. Hooker and Dynasty. Though their careers have taken them in very different directions since, in one possible timeline, they could’ve been linked—at least romantically. But though the pair once went out on a date, it wasn’t meant to be, as Locklear later said that she found the future Mission: Impossible star’s game to be a total turnoff. Keep reading to learn about the “weird” move he tried that ended their fling almost before it started.
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They met in the early '80s.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesCruise and Locklear first encountered one another in the early ‘80s. Cruise had gotten his start as the lead of 1981’s Taps, the film the infamous New York Magazine article that coined the term the “Brat Pack” credited with beginning the movement. His star had only risen higher thanks to subsequent roles in 1983’s The Outsiders and Risky Business, the latter of which was a huge hit and cemented the actor’s leading man status.
Locklear, meanwhile, found breakout success with a role in the primetime soap opera Dynasty, in which she played Sammy Jo, the niece of the show’s protagonist Krystle Carrington and a love interest (of sorts) for Steve Carrington, one of TV’s first gay characters. She was also a series regular on the cop show T.J. Hooker, starring opposite William Shatner.
Though neither star has revealed exactly when they first met, they were photographed at an event together in 1982.
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She said Cruise “didn’t have any friends” when they met.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesIt wasn’t until 2013 that Locklear revealed the two had actually gone on out for a night on the town after connecting at an audition. On an episode of the talk show Chelsea Lately, the Melrose Place star told Chelsea Handler that this led to a night out dancing with the rising star, who she described as not being particularly popular at the time.
"We had auditioned for something together, and he didn't have any friends,” she said, as quoted in Us Weekly. “I mean, not that he doesn't have friends. Out here he doesn't have friends. We went out and we went dancing."
His “weird” dance moves were too much for her.
Warner Bros.The decision to go dancing was the nail in the romantic coffin for Cruise and Locklear. She told Handler that she was bewildered by his unconventional moves.
"You know in Risky Business where he does that dance in his underwear and does the splits? We were dancing at a club and he went into that!” she said on the show, referring to Cruise's iconic scene from the 1983 film. “He started doing the splits.”
She went on to say that she felt awkwardly out of place as Cruise took over the dance floor.
“You just kind of stand there and don’t know what to do," Locklear continued. "Do you dance around him? It was weird. I just sat down."
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That was their first and last date.
Kimberly White/Getty ImagesLocklear told Handler that the dancing outing was her first and last date with Cruise. Of course, he ascended to Hollywood superstardom in the years that followed, marrying and divorcing actors Mimi Rogers (1987 to 1990), Nicole Kidman (1990 to 2001), and Katie Holmes (2006 to 2012) along the way.
Locklear, meanwhile, seemed to prefer rock stars over movie stars, first tying the knot with Mötley Crüe founder Tommy Lee, to whom she was married from 1986 to 1993. She later married Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora in 1994, and the two divorced in 2007.
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