Val Kilmer Biography

Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! (1984), then the cult classic Real Genius (1985), as well as the military action film Top Gun (1986) and the fantasy film Willow (1988).

Some of his other notable film roles include Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991), Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993), armed robber Chris Shiherlis in Heat (1995), Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Forever (1995), Simon Templar in The Saint (1997), astronaut Robby Gallagher in Red Planet (2000), and a meth-using informant in The Salton Sea (2002).

Early life and education

Kilmer was born December 31, 1959, in Los Angeles, the son of Gladys Swanette () and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, an aerospace equipment distributor and real estate developer. His parents divorced in 1968 when he was 8 years old. In 1977 Kilmer's younger brother Wesley drowned in a swimming pool at age 15; their father died in 1993. Kilmer's grandfather was a gold miner in New Mexico, near the border with Arizona. His mother was of Swedish descent. His father's ancestry included English, Scots-Irish, French, German, and Cherokee Native American.

Kilmer attended Berkeley Hall School, a Christian Science school in Los Angeles, until ninth grade. He attended Chatsworth High School with Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham, and also attended the Hollywood Professional School. He became the youngest person at the time to be accepted into the Juilliard School's Drama Division, where he was a member of Group 10.

On May 5, 2012, Kilmer was awarded an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from William Woods University.

Career

1980s

In 1981, while at Juilliard, Kilmer co-authored and starred in the play How It All Began, which was performed at the Public Theater at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Kilmer turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film The Outsiders, as he had prior theatre commitments. In 1983 he appeared off Broadway in The Slab Boys with Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. That same year, his first off-stage acting role (excluding television commercials) came in the form of an episode of ABC Afterschool Special called One Too Many, which was an educational drama on drinking and driving; it also starred a young Michelle Pfeiffer. Also in 1983, Kilmer self-published a collection of his own poetry entitled My Edens After Burns, that included poems inspired by his time with Pfeiffer. The book of poems is difficult to obtain, and expensive; even second-hand copies fetch $300 and up.

His big break came when he received top billing in the comedy spoof of spy movies Top Secret!, where he played an American rock and roll star. Kilmer sang all the songs in the film and released an album under the film character's name, "Nick Rivers." While garnering more substantial roles and prestige, he also gained a reputation as a ladies man, dating numerous women, some many years older, including Cher and Ellen Barkin.

During a brief hiatus, he backpacked throughout Europe before going on to play the lead character in the 1985 comedy Real Genius. He turned down a role in David Lynch's Blue Velvet before being cast as naval aviator "Iceman" in the action film Top Gun alongside Tom Cruise. Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. Following roles in the television films The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, Kilmer played Madmartigan in the fantasy Willow; he met his future wife, co-star Joanne Whalley, on the film's set. Kilmer starred in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production of []Hamlet]] in 1988. In 1989, Kilmer played the lead in both Kill Me Again, again opposite Whalley, and in TNT's Billy the Kid.

1990s

1990-1995

After several delays, director Oliver Stone finally started production on the film The Doors, based on the band of the same name. Kilmer spoke with Oliver Stone early on, concerned about what he might want to do with the story because Kilmer didn't believe in or want to promote substance abuse. Kilmer saw Morrison as having picked the wrong heroes, who had different issues, that were not part of the creativity or inspiration. Kilmer saw Morrison's story as one that could be told "a thousand different ways" and didn't want to tell it by playing the role in the style of drugs, with which Oliver Stone agreed. Kilmer memorized the lyrics to all of lead singer Jim Morrison's songs prior to his audition, and sent a video of himself performing some Doors songs to director Stone. Stone was not impressed with the tape, but Paul Rothchild (the original producer of The Doors) said "I was shaken by it" and suggested they record Kilmer in the studio. After Kilmer was cast as Morrison, he prepared for the role by attending Doors tribute concerts and reading Morrison's poetry.

He spent close to a year before production dressing in Morrison-like clothes, and spent time at Morrison's old hangouts along the Sunset Strip. His portrayal of Morrison was praised and members of The Doors noted that Kilmer did such a convincing job that they had trouble distinguishing his voice from Morrison's. Paul Rothchild played Kilmer's version of "The End" for the band's guitarist, Robby Krieger, who told him, "I'm really glad they got 'The End'. We never got a recording of that live with Jim and now we've got it." However, Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek was less than enthusiastic with how Morrison was portrayed in Stone's interpretation.

In the early 1990s, Kilmer starred in the mystery thriller Thunderheart, the action comedy The Real McCoy, and again teamed with Top Gun director Tony Scott to play Elvis Presley in True Romance, which was written by Quentin Tarantino. In 1993, Kilmer played Doc Holliday in the western Tombstone alongside Kurt Russell. In the film, Doc Holliday performs Chopin's Nocturne in E minor, Op.72, No. 1; however, Kilmer does not play the piano and he practiced that one piece for months in preparation. In 1995, Kilmer starred in Wings of Courage, a 3D IMAX film, and that same year, he starred opposite Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat, which is now considered one of the best crime/drama films of the 1990s.

Batman

In December 1993, Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher had seen Tombstone and was most impressed with Kilmer's performance as Doc Holliday. Schumacher felt him to be perfect for the role of Batman, though at the time, the role was still Michael Keaton's. In July 1994, Keaton decided not to return for a third Batman film after 1992's Batman Returns, due to "creative differences". William Baldwin (who previously worked with Schumacher on Flatliners) was reported to be a top contender, though just days after Keaton dropped out, Kilmer was cast. Kilmer took the role without even knowing who the new director was and without reading the script.

Released in June 1995, Batman Forever was a success at the box office, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. There was debate about Kilmer's performance; some critics charged that Kilmer, while physically fit to play Batman, more so than his predecessor Michael Keaton had been, gave a wooden performance as Bruce Wayne. Other critics though, such as Roger Ebert, had kind words for Kilmer. Batman creator Bob Kane said in a Cinescape interview that of all the actors to have played Batman up to that point, he felt Kilmer had given the best interpretation. Film critic Leonard Maltin (who criticized the dark tone contained in Batman Returns) complimented Kilmer's portrayal when he reviewed the film for his expanding collection of film reviews, as well as being very favorable of the film as a whole. Defenders of Batman Forever praised the film for portraying Batman as a more heroic, less ruthless, and more human character than in the Tim Burton films. The film also brought the film interpretation of Bruce Wayne more into line with his comic book counterpart, showing him as a socialite and a very public figure rather than the neurotic recluse of the previous films.

In February 1996, Kilmer decided not to return for another Batman feature film, feeling that Batman was being marginalized in favor of the villains. George Clooney replaced Kilmer as Batman in 1997's Batman & Robin. There were also reports that Kilmer had not had a good working relationship with Schumacher, as another reason for not reprising the role.

1996-1999

In 1996, he appeared in a largely unknown film, Dead Girl, and starred alongside Marlon Brando in the poorly received The Island of Dr Moreau. That year, Kilmer starred alongside Michael Douglas in the thriller The Ghost and the Darkness. In 1997 he played Simon Templar in the popular action film, The Saint. Kilmer looked forward to the title role as a change toward a more fun, less serious action thriller, while enjoying the "master of disguise" chameleon characters like a mad artist, a nerdy British scientist, a cleaner, and a Russian mob boss. Kilmer also wrote the poetry in the film. He received a salary of $6 million for the movie. The Saint was a financial success, grossing $169.4 million worldwide.

In 1998, he voiced Moses in the animated film The Prince of Egypt, before starring in the independent film Joe the King (1999). Also in 1999, he played a blind man in the drama/romance At First Sight, which he described as being, of then, the hardest role he had ever had.

2000s

Kilmer's first role in 2000 was in the big budget Warner Bros. box office disaster Red Planet. That same year, he had a supporting role in the film Pollock and hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time. In 2002, he starred in the thriller The Salton Sea, which was generally well-reviewed, but received only a limited release. The same year, he teamed with his True Romance co-star, Christian Slater, and the two starred in the low-budget film, Hard Cash, also known as Run for the Money.

In 2003, Kilmer starred alongside Kate Bosworth in the drama/thriller Wonderland, portraying porn star John Holmes. He also appeared in The Missing, where he again worked with Willow director Ron Howard. The next year, he starred in David Mamet's Spartan, where he played a United States government secret agent who is assigned the task of rescuing the kidnapped daughter of the President. He received Delta Force-like training in preparation for the role. Subsequently, he had a role in the drama, Stateside, and starred (again with Slater) in the thriller Mindhunters, which was filmed in 2003 but not released until 2005. Kilmer next appeared in the big budget Oliver Stone production, Alexander, which received poor reviews.

Also in 2004, Kilmer returned to the theatre to play Moses in a Los Angeles musical production of The Ten Commandments: The Musical, produced by BCBG founder Max Azria. The production played at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and also featured Adam Lambert. Kilmer had previously played Moses in the animated film The Prince of Egypt. Finally in 2004, Kilmer appeared in an episode of Entourage, where he played a Sherpa whose primary source of income was the growing, harvesting and distributing high-quality cannabis, all under a guise of metaphysical insights.

Kilmer was in negotiations with Richard Dutcher (a leading director of Mormon-related films) to play the lead role in a film entitled Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, although the project never materialized.

Kilmer performed in The Postman Always Rings Twice on the London stage from June to September 2005. In 2005, he co-starred with Robert Downey, Jr. in the action-comedy film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. His performance was praised and the film was well reviewed, but it received only a limited release. It later won the award for "Overlooked Film of the Year" from the Phoenix Film Critics Society.

In 2006, he reunited with director Tony Scott a third time for a supporting role opposite Denzel Washington in the box-office hit Dj Vu. The song "Val Kilmer" was named after him on Bowling for Soup's 2006 album The Great Burrito Extortion Case. The song was later used for a Ford Motors commercial on season 10 of American Idol in 2011. In 2007, he guest-starred on the hit TV series Numb3rs in the episode "Trust Metric", portraying torture expert Mason Lancer. That same year, he released a CD, proceeds of which went to his charity interests. In 2008, Kilmer starred alongside Stephen Dorff in the Sony and Stage 6 film Felon. The film was given only a limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles in 2008, but it developed into a success secondary to positive word of mouth.

Kilmer was the voice of the car KITT for the 2008 Knight Rider TV pilot film and the following television series. He replaced Will Arnett, who had to step down from the role due to contractual conflict with General Motors. In keeping with tradition established by the original Knight Rider series and original KITT actor William Daniels, Kilmer was uncredited for the role on-screen. He next starred alongside Nicolas Cage in the Werner Herzog film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and alongside Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson in Streets of Blood. Both were released in 2009. He appeared as the main antagonist "Mongoose" in a live TV series adaptation of the comic/video game of XIII on NBC in 2009.

2010s

In 2010, Kilmer starred in the horror film from Michael Oblowitz, The Traveler, where he played the vengeful spirit of a man who had been tortured and murdered while in police custody. In November 2010, Kilmer was filming in Kelseyville, California. He was finally able to work with his lifelong friend Francis Ford Coppola and star in the film Twixt. The film was filmed mostly on Coppola's estate in Napa County. The filming was expected to take five weeks and was being independently funded by Coppola. In 2010, Kilmer appeared as the villain Dieter Von Cunth in MacGruber, and Tenacious D's music video "To Be The Best" as a small cameo role.

Kilmer spoke at the May 5, 2010, commencement ceremonies of William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri. During his week-long visit on campus, he also performed his one-man play, Citizen Twain. He received an honorary doctorate "in recognition of his creative abilities and his contributions to art and theater."

In 2012, Kilmer received a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word. He also starred in Harmony Korine's short "The Lotus Community Workshop" which is part of a collaborative film The Fourth Dimension. He plays a version of himself from an alternate reality, that is a former actor, turned self-help guru. The Fourth Dimension is a collection of three standalone short films about parallel universes produced by Vice Films in collaboration with Grolsch Film Works, a new division of the namesake beer company. Kilmer notes that his addition to the list of actors, including John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) and Al Pacino (Jack and Jill), that mock their real-life persona in fictional movies was an accident and says, "I still love saying the premise because it makes me laugh every time."

In 2002, Kilmer worked on a film about the life of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science church, and Mark Twain, one of her most famous critics. Kilmer is still working on the film, which is about the lives and relationship of Mary Baker Eddy and Mark Twain as "a quirky, tender, tragicomic portrait of two contrasting lives, set against the backdrop of Gilded Age America." Citizen Twain was initially performed as a one-man show Hollywood workshop in April 2012; it is now the basis of Kilmer's film project, which will be his directorial debut. In 2013, he reunited with his Top Gun co-star Anthony Edwards in the Disney animated movie Planes. Kilmer voiced the character Bravo, while Edwards supplied Echo. Kilmer also played the role of Detective Dobson in the series finale of the television show Psych.

In 2017, Kilmer appeared in Song to Song opposite Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling directed by Terrence Malick. That same year, Kilmer will appear in The Snowman directed by Tomas Alfredson.

Influence and public image

Kevin Spacey told James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio that one of the turning points of his life was at a high school drama festival when he saw Kilmer and Mare Winningham perform a scene from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the drama teacher, Robert Carrelli, invited him to transfer to Chatsworth High School; he accepted. In the same interview, Spacey said he went to Juilliard because Kilmer did. Kilmer was at that time the youngest person ever admitted to Juilliard. During Kilmer's subsequent Inside the Actors Studio interview, he said "Robert Carrelli, who was our teacher, had a knack for producing and directing. And it was either Beverly Hills High, because of their very talented pool of students, or Chatsworth High that would win all these festivals."

Politics and charity work

Kilmer made several trips to New Orleans to help in the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. Kilmer is a supporter of Native American affairs and an advocate of environmental protection. He briefly flirted with running for Governor of New Mexico in 2010, but decided not to run.

In May 2013, Kilmer lobbied Congress on behalf of Equitable Access to Care and Health Act, or EACH Act (H.R. 1814), a bill "to provide an additional religious exemption from the individual health coverage mandate" of Obamacare.

Personal life

Kilmer was married to actress Joanne Whalley from March 1988 to February 1996. The two met while working together on the film Willow. The couple had two children: a daughter, Mercedes (b. October 29, 1991), and a son, Jack (b. June 6, 1995). Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star from the 1988 fantasy Willow, in his audio commentary for the film said that the question he's most asked is what it was like working with Kilmer. Though Kilmer has a reputation of being difficult, Davis describes him as a very funny man and a hard working, dedicated actor. Kilmer reunited with Davis in the 2013 Easter special of the sitcom Life's Too Short, in which he plays a fictionalized version of himself as a mooching, arrogant eccentric.

Kilmer has gotten into feuds with some of the actors with whom he has worked, notably The Island of Dr. Moreau co-star Marlon Brando and Red Planet co-star Tom Sizemore.

Other actors have noted that he prepares for his roles extensively and meticulously. Irwin Winkler (director of At First Sight) talked about his decision to hire Kilmer. "I'd heard the stories, so I checked him out. I called Bob De Niro and Michael Mann, who'd worked with him on Heat, and they both gave him raves... I had a wonderful experience in spite of all the naysayers." Jeffrey Katzenberg (producer of Prince of Egypt) talks about the actor: "Val was one of the first people cast in The Prince of Egypt. He was there every step of the way; patient, understanding, and phenomenally generous with his time."

In 2011, Kilmer sold his ranch in New Mexico, where he would track, hike, fish, and raise bison. Kilmer is a devout Christian Scientist. He is also an avid musician; he released a CD in the fall of 2007 and donated its proceeds to his charity interests.

Health

In January 2015, Kilmer was hospitalized for what his representative said were tests for what could be a possible tumor. Kilmer said on social media, "I have not had a tumor, or a tumor operations [sic], or any operation. I had a complication where the best way to receive care was to stay under the watchful eye of the UCLA ICU."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Top Secret!	Nick Rivers
1985	Real Genius	Chris Knight
1986	Top Gun	Lt. Tom "Iceman" Kazanski
1988	Willow	Madmartigan
1989	Kill Me Again	Jack Andrews
1991	The Doors	Jim Morrison
1992	Thunderheart	Ray Levoi
1993	The Real McCoy	JT Barker
1993	Tombstone	Doc Holliday
1993	True Romance	Elvis Presley
1995	Batman Forever	Bruce Wayne/Batman
1995	Heat	Chris Shiherlis
1995	Wings of Courage	Jean Mermoz
1996	The Island of Dr Moreau	Montgomery
1996	The Ghost and the Darkness	Col. John Henry Patterson
1996	Dead Girl	Dr. Dark
1997	The Saint	Simon Templar
1998	The Prince of Egypt	Moses/God	Voice
1999	At First Sight	Virgil "Virg" Adamson
1999	Joe the King	Bob Henry
2000	Pollock	Willem de Kooning
2000	Red Planet	Robby Gallagher
2002	The Salton Sea	Danny Parker / Tom Van Allen
2002	Hard Cash	FBI Agent Mark C. Cornell
2003	Wonderland	John Holmes
2003	The Missing	Lt. Jim Ducharme
2003	Blind Horizon	Frank Kavanaugh
2003	Masked and Anonymous	Animal Wrangler
2004	Spartan	Robert Scott
2004	Stateside	Staff Sergeant Skeer
2004	Alexander	Philip II of Macedon
2004	George and the Dragon	El Cabillo	Uncredited
2005	Mindhunters	Jake Harris
2005	Kiss Kiss Bang Bang	Perry Van Shrike / "Gay Perry"
2006	Summer Love	The wanted man
2006	Moscow Zero	Andrey
2006	10th & Wolf	Murtha
2006	Played	Dillon
2006	Dj Vu	Agent Andrew Pryzwarra
2006	The Ten Commandments: The Musical	Moses
2007	Have Dreams, Will Travel	Henderson
2008	Conspiracy	MacPherson
2008	Felon	John Smith
2008	Delgo	Bogardus	Voice
2008	2:22	Maz
2008	Columbus Day	John	Also producer
2008	The Love Guru	Himself	Uncredited
2009	The Chaos Experiment	James Pettis
2009	Streets of Blood	Detective Andy Devereaux
2009	American Cowslip	Todd Inglebrink
2009	The Thaw	Dr. David Kruipen
2009	The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans	Det. Stevie Pruit
2009	Hardwired	Virgil
2009	Double Identity	Dr. Nicholas Pinter
2010	The Traveler	The Stranger / Mr. Nobody
2010	Bloodworth	Warren Bloodworth
2010	MacGruber	Dieter Von Cunth
2010	Gun	Angel
2011	Kill the Irishman	Joe Manditski
2011	Blood Out	Arturo
2011	5 Days of War	Dutch journalist
2011	Twixt	Hall Baltimore
2012	Riddle	Sheriff Richards
2012	Seven Below	McCormick
2012	Wyatt Earp's Revenge	Wyatt Earp
2012	The Fourth Dimension	Hector
2013	Planes	Bravo	Voice
2013	Standing Up	Hofstadder
2013	Palo Alto	Stewart
2014	Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn	Mark Twain
2017	Song to Song	Duane
2017	The Snowman		In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	The Murders in the Rue Morgue	Phillipe Huron	Television film
1987	The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains	Robert Eliot Burns / Eliot Roberts	Television film
1989	Billy the Kid	William Bonney	Television film
2004	Entourage	The Sherpa	Episode: "The Script and the Sherpa"
2007	Numb3rs	Mason Lancer	Episode: "Trust Metric"
2008	Comanche Moon	Inish Scull	3 episodes; also associate producer
2008	XIII	Mongoose	2 episodes
2008-2009	Knight Rider	KITT	Voice 18 episodes
2013	Life's Too Short	Himself	Episode: "Special"
2013	Ghost Ghirls	Sweetriver Jackson	2 episodes
2014	The Spoils of Babylon	General Cauliffe	3 episodes
2014	Psych	Detective Dobson	Episode: "The Break-Up"

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
2011	Spider-Man: Edge of Time	Walker Sloan

Music videos

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	"To Be the Best"	Himself	Tenacious D
2016	"Animals"	Himself	Oneohtrix Point Never