Cruise, Jack (John Joseph) (1913–79), entertainer, was born 9 August 1913 in the family home at 14 Arranmore Avenue, Phibsborough, Dublin, third child and eldest son among four children of Michael Cruise, a hall porter, native of Essex, England, and Brigid Cruise (née O'Kelly), from Tralee, Co. Kerry. His father, a British army veteran and former London policeman, who had four children by an earlier marriage, died when Jack was seven. Reared in a lower-middle-class household, he was educated at Phibsborough national school and St Vincent's CBS, Glasnevin, where he completed his leaving certificate at age nineteen. Entering the accounts department of Kennedy's bakery, he rose from office boy to ledger clerk to bookkeeper.
He began his acting career in amateur companies (early 1930s), first with the Ancient Order of Hibernian Players, and then with the Catholic Little Theatre Guild, his credits including passion plays in the Legion of Mary Hall. Joining the Father Mathew Players, Church St. (1936), he was soon their star performer, appearing in musical comedies, operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan, and plays by Shakespeare, John Millington Synge (qv), and George Bernard Shaw (qv), and winning medals at drama festivals. He subsequently described these years as his schooling in all facets of the actor's craft. His first paid performance was in the Guinness Christmas party of 1940 at Dublin's Mansion House. For several years thereafter he acted semi-professionally, juggling a gruelling schedule of work, rehearsals, and performances, besides writing much of his material. Performing in straight theatre, variety sketches, and pantomime, he appeared regularly at the Theatre Royal, and first appeared at the Gaiety theatre in ‘Arsenic and old lace’, directed by Hilton Edwards (qv) (1944).
In 1945 Cruise left Kennedy's to become assistant manager to Max Elliman (qv) at the Theatre Royal, taking over on Elliman's death six months later. For the next six years he struggled to establish himself as a full-time professional in the entertainment industry. He first appeared professionally in a Gaiety panto in 1946, opposite Noel Purcell (qv). In 1946 he moved to the Capitol theatre as associate producer and manager, but was soon performing more than producing. For six months he managed the Savoy cinema, Limerick (1947–8). On returning to Dublin, he worked in market research (1948–9), and as an agent for a foodstuffs importer (1950).
His big break came in 1951 when he was booked for the summer season in Butlin's holiday camp, Mosney, Co. Meath. Commencing an eight-year summer residency (1951–8), he staged ten different shows yearly over three months, then toured provincial cities and towns. In 1952 he established his own company, Jack Cruise Productions, which he directed until his death. In later years he also founded and directed JC Spectaculars. On leaving Butlin's, he returned to the Theatre Royal for several years before its closure (1959–62), then moved to the Olympia theatre in 1964, of which he became a director in 1966, producing and performing in the annual Christmas panto and summer variety show. After a portion of the theatre's ceiling collapsed in November 1974 (ending his unbroken run of twenty-seven Christmas pantomimes on the Dublin stage), he spearheaded the successful fundraising campaign to restore the venue, which reopened in 1977.
Ranked among the leading Irish variety performers of his generation, Cruise drew large audiences of all ages with his traditional formula of wholesome light entertainment. Described as ‘sharp, satirical, but never caustic’ (Ir. Independent), his comedy was mainstream and inoffensive. ‘Puritanically clean regarding his material’ (Ryan (1998), 136), he once interrupted a performance to apologise profusely for inadvertently referring to his ‘bum’; his sincere regret evoked a cheering, standing ovation. A master of the ad lib, he was especially famed and beloved for playing a gormless rustic, ‘John Joe Mahockey from Ballyslapadashamuckery’, whose sartorial inelegance was crowned by a flat cap with an absurdly long, nine-inch peak. He had originated and honed the character during his days in amateur theatrics. Cruise's Olympia pantomimes lacked the polished production values of those staged at the Gaiety, featuring Jimmy O'Dea (qv) and Maureen Potter (qv).
Cruise compèred the annual London gala of the Catholic Stage Guild for twenty-one years. He regularly toured England, and occasionally in the USA, and was notably generous in performing charity shows in Ireland. He was a conspicuous fundraiser for the Colman K. Byrnes research centre at Dublin's Richmond hospital, among the first such units on a hospital campus in Ireland. Though he appeared on radio and television in England, he disliked the latter medium (on which he rarely appeared in Ireland), contending that it denied a performer full control over his act. He was chief barker of Variety Clubs International (1961–2), and chaired their world congress in Dublin (1962). He married (1940) Jean McKevitt; they had one son and one daughter, and resided at Prague Haus, College Rd, Castleknock, Co. Dublin. His recreations were painting and golf. Recovering from a lengthy bout of pneumonia, he died suddenly of a heart attack in his home 4 May 1979, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery.