Background

Ethnicity: Val Kilmer’s father had ancestors from England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany, and the actor’s mother had Swedish roots.

Val Kilmer was born on December 31, 1959, in Los Angeles, California, United States. He is a son of Eugene Dorris Kilmer, a real estate developer and former aerospace-parts distributor, and Gladys Swanette (maiden name Ekstadt).

Kilmer’s grandfather worked as a gold miner in New Mexico, not far from the border with Arizona.

Education

Val Kilmer’s parents divorced when he was an eight-year-old boy.

Kilmer received his secondary education at Berkeley Hall School, a Christian Science school in Los Angeles where he studied until ninth grade. While in Chatsworth High School, Kilmer did his first appearances on the stage with this time friends Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham.

In 1977, Kilmer left California, his home state, to attend the Julliard School in New York City becoming the youngest student at the time aged seventeen to be accepted into the School’s Drama Division. While there, he studied classical theatre.

Tragically, the day before leaving for Julliard, Kilmer’s brother Wesley drowned, but Kilmer felt that Julliard was a good place to cope with his brother’s death.

In 2010, the actor obtained an honorary doctorate “in recognition of his creative abilities and his contributions to art and theater” from William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri.

Career

Val Kilmer began his work as a professional actor in the early 1980s in theatrical productions of classics, including the Greek tragedy ‘Electra and Orestes’ and William Shakespeare’s comedy ‘As You Like It’. In 1982, Kilmer also performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare in the Park, in ‘How It All Began’, a play he co-authored.

The following year, he made his first appearance in a movie. It was an episode in ABC Afterschool Special’s educational drama One Too Many. He also issued a collection of his poetry titled ‘My Edens After Burns’. It wasn’t long before the more serious role came. In 1984, he performed a rock and roll star in ‘Top Secret!’, an espionage spoof written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker, the trio who had collaborated on the popular Airplane! comedies. Although it was a freewheeling movie, strong on sight gags and jokes but light on characterization, Kilmer nonetheless prepared for his role with what would become recognized as his customary intensity. After the movie, he issued an album signed by his character’s name Nick Rivers which contained all the songs he sang in himself.

Kilmer next appeared as Chris Knight in ‘Real Genius’. Directed by Martha Coolidge, 1985 movie revolved around a science genius and his conflict with the CIA regarding a laser program. Val played an exceptionally intelligent college senior who foils the scientist’s plot. Two years later Kilmer scored as the bloodless ace pilot “Iceman” in ‘Top Gun’ with Tom Cruise, which was directed by Tony Scott. The movie focused on a group of top pilots in naval flight school, with Kilmer’s Iceman as the rival to Cruise’s Maverick, both fighting for the title ‘Top Gun.’ The role provided Val Kilmer with the status of a major star.

After serving as director of ‘Journey to Victory’, a documentary about the hazards of nuclear power, and playing some roles on television, Kilmer resumed his film career with Ron Howard’s fantasy ‘Willow’, which fared poorly at the box office. Kilmer played Madmartigan a rogue who teams with the title character in the lead roles of this adventure surrounding a mysterious baby girl. ‘Willow’ cost millions to make, but even with all the special effects, the movie received poor reviews from critics characterized as too predictable. Although the movie wasn’t a success, Kilmer met his future wife, an actress Joanne Whalley.

Val Kilmer again appeared with his wife in director John Dahl’s 1989 debut ‘Kill Me Again’. Jack Andrews, a private-eye played by Kilmer, involved himself with Fay (Joanne Whalley), a criminal on the run. This work in the noir style movie found particular favor following its release on cable television and video.

The same year, Kilmer realized one of his greatest screen successes when he played the self-destructive rock singer Jim Morrison in director Oliver Stone’s ‘The Doors’. While casting the roles, Oliver Stone viewed a video of Kilmer singing and acting as Jim Morrison and knew he had to have him for the movie. To prepare for the role of the notable singer, Kilmer studied Morrison’s life and viewed footage of him performing with The Doors. In addition, the actor took to dressing like Morrison and even assumed some of his personal tastes. Kilmer learned fifty songs for the movie, fifteen of which he performed in the movie. All musical performances in ‘The Doors’ were done by Kilmer except a few lines, including a scream.

Kilmer’s next big role was in ‘Thunderheart’, a 1992 drama in which he played a Sioux FBI agent named Ray Levoi who investigated a murder at an Indian reservation. Uncredited, the actor then went on to play Elvis, or the mentor, in 1993’s ‘True Romance’, written by Quentin Tarantino. The same year, Kilmer took on the role of J. T. Barker in ‘The Red McCoy’, a story about a bungled robbery. ‘Tombstone’, a western, featured Kilmer as tubercular, quick-drawing lawman Doc Holliday.

Experimenting with new technology, Val Kilmer played Jean Mermoz, a French pilot, in 1995 ‘Wings of Courage’, filmed in IMAX format utilizing a new 3D technology. The same year, Kilmer played a supporting character in ‘Heat’, a police drama featuring three Academy Award winners for best actor: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Jon Voight. The actor also succeeded Michael Keaton as the superhero Batman in ‘Batman Forever’, the third installment of the hugely successful series of action extravaganzas derived from the popular comic-book character. This movie afforded Kilmer the opportunity to work with performers Nicole Kidman and Tommy Lee Jones, and launched Kilmer’s career into the ranking of a Hollywood superstar.

Kilmer’s next role was in an unreleased film ‘Dead Girl’. Another unsuccessful project of the time with Kilmer was John Frankenheimer’s ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’, a 1996 horror based on a story by H.G. Wells. Val played Dr. Moreau’s assistant, Montgomery, in the story of mutant animals and humans opposite legendary actor Marlon Brando (Dr. Moreau).

‘Ghost and the Darkness’ starred Kilmer as Lt. Colonel Patterson and Michael Douglas as Remington. The movie was followed by another success which provided the actor with a salary of $6 million. Kilmer played a title role of a master of disguises in a quirky thriller derived from a popular television series featuring Roger Moore, titled ‘The Saint’, and accented opposite actress Elisabeth Shue.

Kilmer has also worked on a screenplay derived from Jim Thompson’s thriller ‘The Killer Inside Me’, which he bought the rights for. His television roles have been few because as he told Bret Easton Ellis in Harper’s Bazaar, “television reduces the standards of the culture to the standards of television.”

The 2000s were rich on roles for Kilmer. The first movies of the century became the big-budget Warner Brothers ‘Red Planet’ and ‘Pollock’, both of 2000. The actor also tried his hand as a host of Saturday Night Live. Another significant project of the time included Oliver Stone’s production, ‘Alexander’ where Kilmer played Philip II of Macedon. In 2004, the actor came back to the stage and performing Moses in a Los Angeles musical production of ‘The Ten Commandments: The Musical’ at the Kodak Theater. It was followed by another play, ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’, played the next year on the London stage. The same year, Kilmer partnered Robert Downey, Jr. in a limited release movie ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”. The similar project with a limited distribution became ‘Felon’ movie where Kilmer played alongside Stephen Dorff. In 2009, the actor appeared with Nicolas Cage in ‘Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans’ and with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson in ‘Streets of Blood’.

Among 2010s projects were the roles in ‘The Traveler’ by Michael Oblowitz, 2012 ‘Twixt’ by Francis Ford Coppola, the voice work in a 2013 cartoon ‘Planes’. The recent projects include an appearance in ‘Song to Song’ alongside Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling, and in ‘The Snowman’ with Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson.

In 2018, Val Kilmer was confirmed to reprise his role as Lt. Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazanski in the upcoming ‘Top Gun’ sequel ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ which release is planned for 2020.

In addition to a great number of star roles in a variety of well-known movies, Kilmer has shown himself as a talented painter, photographer, and author. In 2003, while starring in Wonderland, he initiated a photography project which later was transformed into a behind-the-scenes pictorial book. The photos from the volume were exhibited in some cities of the United States. Kilmer’s enamel paints on metal can be found in galleries and pop-up shows throughout the United States.

Nowadays, Kilmer is working on the movie production of his one-man show Citizen Twain.

Achievements

• Val Kilmer is one of the most prolific actors of his generation. From his more recent work as a career military officer in David Mamet’s Spartan, back through his work with Oliver Stone in The Doors and Michael Mann in Heat, to his early work in Top Gun, Kilmer has worked with many of movie’s most respected directors and actors.
  
  ‘Top Gun’ where he starred along with Tom Cruise was a box-office hit earning a total of $344,700,000 around the world. Kilmer’s performance meticulous acting methods of the self-destructive rock singer Jim Morrison were described by a New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin as “so right it goes well beyond the uncanny.” Robby Krieger, the former drummer for The Doors, told Jeffrey Ressner of Rolling Stone that the similarity of Kilmer and Morrison was so unusual that “it was like having Morrison back for a while.” The western “Tombstone” featuring Kilmer as tubercular, quick-drawing lawman Doc Holliday, pulled in over fifty million dollars at the box-office. David Kehr of Daily News (New York), wrote Kilmer as Doc Holliday was “by far the film’s most entertaining element.”
  
  The movie ‘Heat’ where Val Kilmer partnered with such movie stars as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Jon Voight is nowadays included in a list of the best crime and drama movies of the 1990s.
  
  An American rock band Bowling for Soup One celebrated the actor using his name for one of their songs from the 2006 album The Great Burrito Extortion Case. The composition was later applied for a Ford Motors commercial on season 10 of American Idol in 2011.
  
  During his career, Val Kilmer has been a recipient of Prism Award for his performance in 'The Salton Sea' and the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role in 2005 ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’. The actor has also been a nominee for such prizes as the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor, the MTV Movie Award for Best Actor in a Movie (twice), the MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Male (three times), Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor (twice), and the CableACE Award for Actor in a Movie or Miniseries.
  
  An actor Kevin Spacey confirmed that Val Kilmer played a significant role in his life. According to him, it was Kilmer who pushed him to enter the Juilliard School after he saw Kilmer and Mare Winningham performing a scene from ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’.

Works

More photos

• book

  • My Edens After Burns

    (A poetry collection by an actor Val Kilmer)

    1988

• movie

  • Streets of Blood

    (A veteran detective (Val Kimer), his new partner (Curtis ...)

    2009
  • The Doors

    (Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer), one of the most sensual figure...)

    1991
  • Top Gun

    (The movie starring Tom Cruise as Maverick Mitchell, a you...)

    1986
  • MacGruber

    (MacGruber (Will Forte) and his sidekick (Kristen Wiig) se...)

    2010
  • Double Identity

    (In Sofia, Bulgaria in 1992, an American doctor takes a de...)

    2009
  • Alexander

    (Oliver Stone re-creates the towering, true story of Alexa...)

    2004
  • Blind Horizon

    (As he tries to retrace his steps and relearn his identity...)

    2003
  • The Super

    (When tenants of a New York City apartment begin disappear...)

    2017
  • The Traveler

    (A bloody, and gruesome thriller starring Val Kilmer as a ...)

    2010
  • The Chaos Experiment

    (A deranged scientist locks 6 people in a steam room and t...)

    2009
  • Willow

    (The movie starring Val Kilmer as Madmartigan about a relu...)

    1988
  • Twixt

    (This terrifying horror film, from Oscar winner Francis Fo...)

    2011
  • The Island of Dr. Moreau

    (Following a shipwreck, crewman Andrew Braddock (Michael Y...)

    1996
  • Watch Top Secret!

    (In his film debut, Val Kilmer plays Nick Rivers, a Presle...)

    1984
  • Real Genius

    (Whiz-kids (Val Kilmer and Gabe Jarrett) plot their reveng...)

    1985
  • True Romance

    (In Detroit, loner Clarence marries a call girl named Alab...)

    1993
  • The Thaw

    (Ghost House Underground: Hand-picked horror from Sam Raim...)

    2009
  • Wonderland

    (In the police investigation of a brutal crime scene, one ...)

    2003
  • Felon

    (Val Kilmer (Columbus Day, Conspiracy), Stephen Dorff (Bla...)

    2008
  • Spartan

    (A special ops officer and his protégé are recruited to in...)

    2004
  • Played

    (A gritty look at London's criminal underground starring V...)

    2006
  • The Saint

    (Simon Templar has no real family, no real home and Simon ...)

    1997
  • Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn

    (The newest adaptation of the timeless tale based on the c...)

    2014
  • Batman Forever

    (Val Kilmer is the Dark Knight, Chris O'Donnell is his tru...)

    1995
  • Pollock

    (The movie traces the turbulent life of the well-known art...)

    2000
  • Deja Vu

    (An ATF agent travels back in time to save a woman from be...)

    2006
  • Tombstone

    (Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) team up at the O...)

    1993
  • Have Dreams, Will Travel

    (Have Dreams, Will Travel also known as West Texas Lullaby)

    2007
  • Bloodworth

    (It's been 40 years since E.F. Bloodworth (Kris Kristoffer...)

    2010
  • Hardwired

    (Cuba Gooding Jr. and Val Kilmer star in this explosive fu...)

    2009
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2005

Views

Val Kilmer has taken part in some charity projects. He has traveled several times to New Orleans in order to help in the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. The actor supports the Native American affairs organization and is an advocate of environmental protection.

In 2007, Kilmer issued a CD and used proceeds for his charity activity.

In May 2013, the actor tried to persuade Congress as a spokesperson for 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.

Quotations: "Once is more than generous for any lifetime."

"If you know where your spiritual center is, and you neglect it, peace will always allude you."

"Television reduces the standards of the culture to the standards of television."

"I liked being Doc Holliday. It's fun to be insightful and aristocratic, to stand up for your friend and make sacrifices for him. It was fun to be arrogant like he was and have the goods to back it up. He was a very noble character. Although, let's not forget, he did kill a lot of people."

"There is no normal life, there's just life. You live it."

"That's the joy of art – it should be dangerous and challenging but it's just art – it's safe."

"It's important to be yourself. What art does for everyone, helps you understand yourself and in a distilled way, whether it's a painting or a scene in acting or a joke. It distills something about everyday life that can be important to you."

"I saw the horizon. It's out there. And though I may not ever be able to touch it, it's worth reaching for."

"I don't make any pretense about being normal. I'm not."

"I respect people who can do both careers, like Will Smith and a couple of other people who have done it, but I just don't know when they sleep."

"You just don't understand humility until you have children and get divorced. I was very hurt and very angry and so was she. But when kids are involved, you either become friends with respect or you become mortal enemies."

"I think spiritual perception comes from natural and healthy relationship to the land and I've had that. I get an easy, automatic sense of myself in nature, a wholeness and I feel nowhere else. I think people should live where praying is most immediate."

"The trick to being a good actor is getting so involved in your character that the camera disappears, the 50 bored guys eating doughnuts disappear, friends disappear. To get to that point when you don't have to think about it, you're just acting and reacting in those circumstances."

"I don't believe in death. I think it's just a state of mind."

Personality

The co-actors of Val Kilmer in movies note the perseverance and accuracy while he prepares for his roles. Irwin Winkler spoke about a wonderful experience he had while starring Kilmer in ‘At First Sight’. The producer of ‘Prince of Egypt’, Jeffrey Katzenberg noted that Kilmer “was there every step of the way; patient, understanding, and phenomenally generous with his time.” John Frankenheimer appreciated the work of Kilmer in his movie ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’. Supporting the actor as easy as to work with, Frankenheimer stated, according to Amy Archerd for Variety, that he “is wonderful in the movie. He is a very talented actor.”

Val Kilmer had also conflicts with some of his partners. So, after the set of ‘Batman Forever’ Richard Corliss in Time reported statements made by Joel Schumacher, director of Batman Forever: “He isn’t just a high-strung, difficult actor. He’s a deeply troubled man in need of Psychiatric help.” Schumacher claimed that Kilmer had with him more than verbal altercations. According to the Time article by Richard Corliss, Schumacher stated that the two engaged in a small shoving match in Kilmer’s trailer.

Till 2011, Kilmer had a 6,000-acre ranch in New Mexico where the actor fished, hiked, and raised bisons. Kilmer is also an avid musician, reader, and art amateur.

Physical Characteristics: In 2015, Val Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer. He had been in a battle with the illness for two years. He had an operation on his trachea that added rasp to his voice.

Interests

• fishing, reading, painting, art, music

Connections

Val Kilmer met his future wife, Joanne Whalley, in 1988 while working at the movie Willow where she also had a role. They married in March of the same year. The family produced two children named Mercedes and Jack. Val and Joanne divorced in February 1996.

Mercedes Kilmer and Jack Kilmer followed their parents' steps and both became actors. Mercedes has played in such movies as ‘Ingrid’, ‘Pretty face’ and ‘Pool Party’. Jack has appeared in ‘Palo Alto’, ‘Len and Company’, ‘The Nice Guys’, ‘Woodshock’, ‘Summer '03’, and ‘The Pretenders’.

Daughter:

Mercedes Kilmer

Son:

Jack Kilmer

ex-wife:

Joanne Whalley

Friend:

Francis Coppola

colleague:

Al Pacino

colleague:

Tom Cruise

colleague:

Marlon Brando

colleague:

Michael Douglas

References

• Val Kilmer's Official Website
• Val Kilmer Adult Coloring Book A book by Liza Lopez about Val Edward Kilmer
  2018
• Blessed, Life And Films Of Val Kilmer A Biography of Val Kilmer, his life and movies, his career and his personal life
  2004