19/1/2004

Hollywood star Tom Cruise’s Welsh roots have been revealed by a US TV show. The actor was reportedly stunned to discover that his great great grandfather had emigrated from Flint in North Wales.

Flintshire council were quick to issue an invitation to the 41-year old who made his name in the 1986 film Top Gun. Flintshire’s council leader Alex Adridge said Mr Cruise would be “welcomed with open arms.”

Cruise learned of his ancestry on an American TV show, Inside the Actor’s Studio, which reveals the family trees of the rich and famous.

His real name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, and he is said to be descended from many generations of Mapothers living in Wales.

Genealogists discovered that Cruise's great-great grandfather, Dylan Henry Mapother, emigrated from Wales to Louisville Kentucky in 1850 when he was 16.