All eyes were on the star, after his noticeably changing appearance over the past four decades. His latest public appearance saw the movie star sporting longer, flowing locks as he beamed for photos with the Prince of Wales.

As one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors, Tom’s career in front of the camera has spanned over four decades. After making his breakthrough with roles in Risky Business (1983) and Top Gun (1986), he became a leading actor in the nineties with roles in The Firm (199) and Jerry Maguire (1996). As he enters the fifth decade of his career, MailOnline has taken a glance back at Tom’s changing look over the years.

Tom was a fresh-faced 24-year-old when he appeared in one of his most famous films: Top Gun. The actor won the lead role of Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in the action flick, which became the highest-grossing domestic film of the year with $357million. The star looked worlds away from his current self during this period, which also saw him appear in films like The Color Of Money (1986) and All The Right Moves (1983). Tom spoke about his rise to fame during this time, saying it was strange being suddenly recognized in the street.

He told Interview magazine: ‘I’m really very private, in my own world. Suddenly I was someone walking on the street and people were looking at me and I was thinking, “Jesus, is something hanging out of my nose?” It took time to get adjusted to it. It was such a perfect time to do Legend in England. Everyone is looking at you and somehow just moving your hand seems so much more exaggerated.’

Tom was firmly established as one of the industry’s biggest stars by this time and had a chiseled look to match. The star looked like a male model when he attended the Screen Actors Guild Awards that year where he was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role in Magnolia.

Tom also sported a longer hairstyle during this period, just months before the end of his marriage to actress Nicole Kidman. This was also the year the Mission: Impossible franchise kicked off in earnest with the release of the first sequel which made over $500million at the box office.

Tom had gone with a bolder look a few years later, sporting a much shorter crew cut that he would keep for several years. This decade was one of the busiest for Tom when he appeared in a slew of successful films including The Last Samurai, Collateral, and War of the Worlds. He was also gearing up for a return to the Mission: Impossible franchise, with the third instalment released two years later.

Tom would soon embark on one of his most highly publicized relationships when he began dating actress Katie Holmes in Apirl 2005. Just a few months later in October, the couple announced they were expecting their first child, Suri, who was born in April 2006. They married in November of that year, with Katie filing for divorce five and a half years later.

Tom raised eyebrows in October 2021 when he attended a baseball game in San Francisco with a noticeably puffier face. The father-of-three sparked speculation he had fillers after sporting a fuller face during the LA Dodgers match. Dawn Attewell, Registered Aesthetics Nurse at therapyhouse.co.uk told FEMAIL the pictures were a result of ‘excessive filler’ and ‘post-procedure swelling’ but he now looks fresher thanks to a ‘hair transplant’ and ‘skin tightening treatments’. ‘In the infamous October 2021 picture, you can see that Tom looked swollen and puffy, which could be due to excessive filler, post-procedure swelling, or weight gain.’