Val Kilmer

Profile
Name: Val Kilmer
Birth Name: Val Edward Kilmer
Height: 6' 0
Sex: M
Nationality: American
Birth Date: December 31, 1959
Birth Place: Los Angeles, California, USA
Profession: actor
Education: Hollywood Professional School in Hollywood,California ,.he Juilliard School in New York, New York (majored in Drama)
Chatsworth High in California (graduated in 1977)
Husband/Wife: Joanne Whalley (actress; born on August 25, 1964; married in February 1988; filed for divorce on July 21, 1995)
Relationship: Jaycee Gossett (businesswoman; dated 1998), Cindy Crawford (model; b. February 20, 1966; dated 1996), Drew Barrymore (actress; b. February 22, 1975; dated 1995), Ellen Barkin (actress; b. April 16, 1954; dated 1984), Cher (actress; b. May 20, 1946)
Father: Eugene Kilmer (real-estate developer; divorced in 1968; died in 1993)
Mother: Gladys Kilmer
Brother: Wesley Kilmer (born in 1962), Mark Kilmer (mental health worker)
Son: Jack (born in June 1995; mother: Joanne Whalley)
Daughter: Mercedes (born on October 29, 1991 in Santa Fe, New Mexico; mother: Joanne
Whalley)
Claim to fame: as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991)

Biography
Val Edward Kilmer was born on December 31, 1959 in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, the second of the three sons of Eugene Kilmer and his wife. When Kilmer was nine years old, his parents divorced, and his mother moved to Arizona. Kilmer stayed behind in town of Chatsworth, California with his father. Val managed to become accepted to the Julliard School in New York, where he became the youngest person ever accepted to the drama department. During his time at Juilliard, Val appeared as Orestes, Macbeth, and Richard III, Greek tragedy and Shakespearean roles, as well as Henry IV and As You Like It. In 1981, while still at Juilliard, he starred in How It All Began, a play he co-authored. In 1983 he appeared Off Broadway in The Slab Boys with Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn. Val's other stage roles include: Hamlet, in Hamlet, at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and the 1992 Jacobean play about incest and murder 'Tis Pity She's a Whore performed at Joseph Papp's Public Theater.

In 1984 he made his film debut in "Top Secret", a parody espionage movies. In the following year, Kilmer made his first foray into television, as Eric in the ABC special One Too Many, a story about teenage. Among the other made-for-television movies in which he appeared were The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986), The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains (1987), and Gore Vidal's "Billy the Kid" (1989). Kilmer's next film role was that of the prankish student physicist Chris Knight in Martha Coolidge's Real Genius (1985). The movie elicited widely varying reviews, as did Kilmer's performance. Kilmer's long list of credits include Willow, The Doors, Tombstone, Batman Forever, True Romance, Thunderheart, Heat, The Saint, At First Sight, And The Salton Sea. In Addition, He Appeared In The 3-d Epic Wings Of Courage, as well as voicing the character of Moses in the DreamWorks animated film The Prince Of Egypt.

2004 will also see him as King Philip II of Macedonia in Oliver Stone's epic movie "Alexander". Kilmer will play the part of Alexander's father, played by Colin Farrell and husband of Olympias, played by Angelina Jolie. Val Kilmer presently resides in New Mexico. Val loves animals and has horses, dogs, cats, chickens and 3 buffaloes at his New Mexico ranch.

Filmography
Actor
2008 The Dirt
2007 Played
2007 Dark Matter
2007 Delgo
2006 The Ten Commandments: The Musical
2006 10th & Wolf
2006 Summer Love
2006 Déjà Vu
2006 Ask the Dust
2005 Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
2005 Champion
2005 Mindhunters
2004 Spartan
2004 Alexander
2004 Entourage: The Script and the Sherpa
2004 Stateside
2004 Blind Horizon
2003 The Missing
2003 Wonderland
2003 Masked and Anonymous
2002 The Seventh Man
2002 The Salton Sea
2001 Hard Cash
2000 Red Planet
2000 Saturday Night Live: Val Kilmer
2000 Pollock
1999 At First Sight
1999 Joe the King
1998 The Prince of Egypt
1997 The Saint
1996 Maneaters of Tsavo
1996 The Island of Dr. Moreau
1996 Dead Girl
1996 The Ghost and the Darkness
1995 Batman Forever
1995 Heat
1995 Wings of Courage
1993 The Real McCoy
1993 True Romance
1993 Tombstone
1992 Thunderheart

Awards
Prism Award
Year : 2003
Category : Performance in a Theatrical Feature Film
For : The Salton Sea
Won

MTV Movie Awards
Year : 1996
Category : Most Desirable Male
For : Batman Forever
Nominated

MTV Movie Awards
Year : 1994
Category : Best Male Performance
For : Tombstone
Nominated

MTV Movie Awards
Year : 1992
Category : Best Male Performance
For : The Doors
Nominated

Trivia
*Attended Chatsworth High School with Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham.
*Ranked #62 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
*Dated Cindy Crawford. [1996]
*Co-authored play "How It All Began," performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Public Theatre, in 1981.
*Was at the time the youngest student ever accepted into Juilliard's Drama department. His record has been supplanted by Juilliard student Seth Numrich, who was admitted at 15 in 2002.
*Graduated from Chatsworth High, California. [1977]
*A Led Zeppelin fan.
*Wanted to turn down Juilliard but his classmate at Chatsworth High School, Kevin Spacey, convinced him to accept.
*Val convinced fellow actor Kevin Spacey to attend Juilliard, after Val had inspired him to become an actor in the first place.
*So infuriated the late director John Frankenheimer on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) that Frankenheimer vowed to never work with Kilmer again, and he never did.
*While being let out of the metal cage during the filming of the crossroads scene in Willow (1988), the rope holding the cage up broke and the cage landed on Kilmer's foot, nearly breaking it. Later on in the film, Kilmer (who played swordsman Madmartigan) can be spotted having difficulty walking.
*Met first wife, British actress Joanne Whalley, when they filmed the 1988 fantasy Willow (1988).They had two children: Mercedes (born 1991) and Jack (born 1995).
*Is the fifth actor to play Batman.
*Did his own singing while playing Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991). The real members of the band said they had difficulty distinguishing Kilmer's voice from that of Morrison's.
*Turned down a role in The Outsiders (1983) because he was working with a theater company at the time, and if he had pulled out, the show would have been cancelled and his fellow actors out of a job.
*Got the role of Chris Shiherlis in Heat (1995) after Keanu Reeves, who was originally cast as Chris, backed out.
*Of all the actors to have played Batman, Kilmer was considered the best by creator Bob Kane.
*Contrary to popular belief, he enjoyed playing Batman. In fact, he said he enjoyed playing the role so much that he was eager to reprise the role in Batman & Robin (1997); however, he could not because he was already committed to doing The Saint (1997).
*During the sled riding scene in Willow (1988), he can be seen wearing a black glove on his left hand.
*Is the only blonde actor to have played Bruce Wayne/Batman.
*Oliver Stone once considered him for the role of Alexander the Great in his long-delayed Alexander (2004) project. Kilmer plays the father of Alexander, King Philip, opposite Colin Farrell in the Alexander role instead.
*Has a reputation as being difficult to work with, evidenced in part by The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) director's promise never to work with him again.
*Did not want to appear in Top Gun (1986) but was forced to do so because of contractual obligations.
*Appeared in Tombstone (1993) opposite Charlton Heston. Five years later, he succeeded Heston in the roles of both Moses and God in The Prince of Egypt (1998).
*Does a variation on his trademark of twirling objects in Willow (1988): he twirls a sword during the fight in the snow camp.
*At the time that they were filming The Doors (1991), Oliver Stone considered Kilmer for the part of Alexander the Great in his long delayed film project on Alexander the Great. Kilmer appears in the film as King Philip instead.
*Has played two legendary rock and roll musicians: Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley.
*He was 4' 11" when he entered high school. He acknowledged this on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993).
*Said that his daughter and her friends were very "blown away" when they saw him in the Batman costume for the first time.
*Described the Madmartigan character from the 1988 fantasy Willow (1988) as being a "warrior on warrior skid row."
*Admits in interviews that he is a horrible cook.
*After his first film, Top Secret! (1984), he went off and backpacked around Europe.
*Enjoys scuba diving.
*Enjoys traveling.
*Filmed his part as Elvis Presley in True Romance (1993) in 1 day.
*Friends with musician David Crosby.
*Good friends with actor Frank Whaley.
*Has lived in New Mexico since 1983.
*His father, Eugene, died in 1993.
*His first auditions were for commercials at 13 years old.
*His parents divorced when he was 9 years old.
*In 1995, Kilmer learned he was getting a divorce while watching CNN in a hotel room. "It was no fun," he has said.
*In the past he used to send taped auditions to filmmakers, figuring they would be much better (and less pressure) than live auditions.
*Is of Swedish, German, Mongolian, Scottish, Irish, and Cherokee ancestry.
*Loves buffalos and owns (or owned) a few on his ranch in New Mexico.
*Loves candles.
*Poet Joyce Kilmer is his second cousin twice removed.
*Stated in 1999 that At First Sight (1999) was his most challenging role to date.
*Turned down Patrick Swayze's role in Dirty Dancing (1987) because he didn't want to be perceived as a "hunk."
*Turned down roles in movies such as Dune (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), Flatliners (1990), Backdraft (1991), Sliver (1993), Point Break (1991), In the Line of Fire (1993) and Indecent Proposal (1993).
*Visited Iraq briefly during the Gulf War in April 1998 with AmeriCares, delivering supplies such as food, medicine and baby food.
*He was in the Kalahari Desert in Africa researching a story he was writing about witch doctors when he was offered the Batman Forever (1995) Batman role.
*Wrote poetry for actress Michelle Pfeiffer.
*Broke his arm while filming The Doors (1991) when he performed a jump from the stage into the crowd and the stuntman failed to catch him. The injury has left Kilmer with an abnormal growth on his left elbow that can clearly be seen many times in Heat (1995).
*Was originally set to play the lead role in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) but asked to switch roles because of his divorce.
*Keith Campbell has doubled for him in many films.
*Said that his divorce from British actress Joanne Whalley was the most painful thing he ever experienced.
*Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star in Willow (1988), says in his audio commentary that the question he is most frequently asked is: "What was is it like to work with Val Kilmer?" Davis says he has very fond memories of working with Kilmer, stating that Kilmer had a great sense of humor and was very dedicated to the job.
*Favorite band is Rage Against the Machine.
*While the movie The Missing (2003/I) was being shot about one hour from his New Mexico ranch, he called up his old friend Ron Howard [writer/director] and asked for a part. Ron gladly accepted and gave him a part which only took 3 days to film. Kilmer's scene is close to 13 minutes long, not counting the DVD's deleted scene.
*He and Elvis Presley, whom Kilmer portrayed in True Romance (1993), both have Cherokee ancestry.
*Shares his birthday with Tim Matheson.
*Shares two roles with Peter Dobson. In True Romance (1993), Kilmer plays Elvis Presley, a role Dobson played in Forrest Gump (1994). Kilmer also plays Chris Shiherlis in Heat (1995), which was a remake of L.A. Takedown (1989) (TV), in which Dobson played the role.
*Was originally cast as Johnny Mnemonic in Johnny Mnemonic (1995) but left the project when he was offered the role of Batman in Batman Forever (1995). He was replaced by Keanu Reeves, whom Kilmer later replaced as Chris Shiherlis in Heat (1995).
*Grew up in the San Fernando Valley the middle son of three boys (Mark the eldest; Wesley the youngest). During his high school years, Wesley drowned in the family's swimming pool, an incident Val claims inspired his subsequent performance in The Salton Sea (2002).
*His work with the New Mexico Film Investment Program fueled a nearly 40-fold growth in the state's annual production revenue, from $3 million in 2002 to $117 million in 2006.
*Was succeeded in the role of Batman by Christian Bale. In The Prince of Egypt (1998), Kilmer provides the voice of God, while Bale played Jesus in Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999) (TV).
*Born to Eugene Kilmer and his wife, Gladys Ekstadt.
*His family has Scottish, Irish, Sephardic Jewish, Cherokee Native American (from a paternal great-grandmother), Swedish, German and distant Mongolian ancestry.
*Second cousin of journalist and poet Alfred Joyce Kilmer.
*His paternal grandfather was a gold miner in New Mexico.
*He and his old friend Kevin Spacey have both played iconic characters from DC Comics. Kilmer played Batman in Batman Forever (1995), and Spacey played Lex Luthor in Superman Returns (2006).
*Was considered for the role of Captain America/Steve Rogers in the failed 1990 film adaptation of the character. Captain America later fought Batman, whom Kilmer played, in the 1996 DC vs. Marvel storyline.
*Was succeeded as Batman by George Clooney.