One of Hollywood's surlier sex symbols, leading man Val Kilmer had intensive training at the Hollywood Professional School and at Juilliard before going directly to the New York stage. He acted onstage for the better part of a decade, making occasional side trips to Hollywood.
Kilmer made his film debut as pop singer-cum-spy Nick Rivers in the 1984 Zucker-Abahams-Zucker spoof Top Secret. The following year, he earned a place in the cult movie lexicon when he starred in Real Genius. Kilmer's subsequent before-the-camera appearances over the next few years were sporadic but always memorable: the best of these included Top Gun (1986), Willow (1988), and the title role in the made-for-cable Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid (1989). Far lengthier was the list of films turned down by Kilmer for various artistic and personal reasons: Dune, Blue Velvet, Flatliners, Backdraft, Point Break, and Indecent Proposal, to name a few.
In 1991, Kilmer cemented his stardom with an eerily dead-on portrayal of rock icon Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors. Two years later, he found himself in a showcase role in a surprise success, playing the consumptive (but still persuasively handsome) Doc Holliday in Tombstone. In 1995, Kilmer was back to turning down assignments like Interview with a Vampire and Crimson Tide, the better to clear time for his portrayal of the Caped Crusader in the 1995 megahit Batman Forever. The film was a success, and though he turned down the opportunity for the continuing role of the Dark Knight, Kilmer's career seemed to have taken flight. That same year, he had a starring role in the critically acclaimed Heat. Unfortunately, most of his subsequent films were disappointments, the most notable offender being The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). Kilmer's highly anticipated 1997 film, The Saint, which cast him as the titular hero, was similarly disappointing, and the following year only his voice was detectable on the big screen, when he voiced the role of Moses in the animated biblical epic The Prince of Egypt. He was once again visible in 1999, starring as a blind man whose sight is regained in the romantic drama At First Sight, and as an abusive, alcoholic janitor in Joe the King, actor Frank Whaley's directorial debut
Click these thumbnails to enlarge them
Look below this page on the side index and you will find a hidden page of pictures of Val Kilmer. You will also find his filmography.
