Actors - Val Kilmer

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	Actors - Val Kilmer

Val Edward Kilmer (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor.

Kilmer is known for film roles as diverse as the Elvis-like teen idol Nick Rivers in Top Secret!
, real-life gunslinger Doc Holliday, porn star John Holmes, rock idol Jim Morrison, cultural icon Robert Burns, as well as larger-than-life literary characters like Madmartigan in Willow
, "Ice-Man" in Top Gun, Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Forever
and Simon Templar in The Saint
.

Early life

Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, California to Eugene Kilmer and Gladys (who divorced when he was 9); the family has Scottish, Irish, Sephardic Jewish, Cherokee Native American (from a paternal great-grandmother ), Swedish, German and distant Mongolian ancestry. Kilmer's paternal grandfather was a gold miner in New Mexico; the poet Joyce Kilmer is a second cousin. Kilmer grew up in the San Fernando Valley with his two siblings, older brother Mark and younger brother Wesley. During Kilmer's teenage years, his brother Wesley drowned in the family's swimming pool.

Kilmer, who was raised a Christian Scientist, attended Chatsworth High School, as well as Hollywood's Professional's School. In his teens, he was one of the youngest people to be accepted into Julliard's drama program, where he became friends with actor Kevin Spacey.

Career

1980s

In 1981, Kilmer co-authored the play How It All Began, which was performed in the Public Theatre at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Kilmer turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders in 1983, as he had prior theatre commitments. That same year, his first off-stage acting role (excluding television commercials) came in the form of a television short titled One Too Many, which was an educational drama on drinking and driving; it also starred a young Michelle Pfeiffer. His big break came when he received top billing in the comedy Top Secret, where he played an American rock and roll star. Kilmer sang all the songs in the film and actually released an album under the film character's name, "Nick Rivers".

Following a brief hiatus, he backpacked throughout Europe before starring, again as the main character, in the comedy Real Genius
. He turned down roles in Dune and Blue Velvet
before he was cast as "Iceman" in the big budget action film Top Gun, playing alongside Tom Cruise. Top Gun grossed a total of $353,816,701 worldwide. Following roles in television films The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains, he played "Madmartigan" in the fantasy Willow
, where he met his future wife, co-star Joanne Whalley. The next year he played the lead in both Kill Me Again
and television film Billy the Kid. He can often be seen twirling small objects between his fingers, such as coins and pens and, in the case of The Doors biographical film, a drum stick.

1990s

After several delays, director Oliver Stone finally started production on the The Doors
, based on the popular band. Kilmer allegedly memorised all of the lyrics to all of lead singer Jim Morrison's songs prior to his audition. He actually sent video of himself performing some Doors songs to director Stone. After Kilmer was cast as Morrison, he spent close to a year before production started dressed in Morrison-like clothes and spent time at Morrison's old hangouts along the Sunset Strip. His portrayal of Morrison was praised and real members of The Doors noted that Kilmer did such a fantastic job that they had trouble distinguishing his voice from Morrison's. Throughout the early 1990s, Kilmer starred in the mystery thriller Thunderheart
, action comedy The Real McCoy
and again teamed up with Top Gun director Tony Scott to play Elvis in True Romance
, which was written by Quentin Tarantino.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Val Kilmer ]

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Actors - Val Kilmer

Early life

Career

1980s

1990s

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