
In the comedy "Real Genius" (1985), he played a brilliant science student at a fictional university who teams up with a freshman (Gabe Jarret) to stop a wayward physics professor (William Atherton) from experimenting on unsuspecting students. The following year, he made his feature debut with a starring role in "Top Secret!" (1984), a spy parody and all-around Hollywood spoof from the goofy minds of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker which later achieved a cult following.Īlso at the time, Kilmer had a supporting role in "One Too Many" (ABC, 1985), a rather stark "ABC Afterschool Special" that cautioned teens against drunk driving. Kilmer soon made his Broadway debut opposite Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon in "The Slab Boys" (1983). Meanwhile, he landed parts in "Henry IV, Part I" at the NYSF and "As You Like It" for the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. While at Juilliard, he and his classmates wrote and performed "How It All Began," a play that was eventually produced at the New York Shakespeare Festival with Kilmer in the lead.

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After attending Chatsworth High School, where he was classmates with Mare Winningham and Kevin Spacey, and the Hollywood Professional School, Kilmer became the youngest student at the time to be allowed entrance into the famed Julliard School.

31, 1959 in Los Angeles, Kilmer was raised by his father, Eugene, an aerospace equipment distributor and real estate developer who made - and lost - a fortune developing a ranch once owned by Roy Rogers, and his mother, Gladys. Kilmer had his strongest performance in years as a gay private detective opposite Robert Downey, Jr.'s dimwitted thief in the hilarious "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" (2005), which led to a revitalization of his image as one of the most in-demand actors for both major Hollywood movies and independent films.īorn on Dec. Kilmer also starred in such movies as "The Ghost and the Darkness" (1996), "The Saint" (1997) and "At First Sight" (1999) before taking on the crime thriller "The Salton Sea" (2002). Following a strong supporting turn in Michael Mann's epic crime drama, "Heat" (1995), he starred in "The Island of Dr. Val Kilmer first made himself known as the chief rival of Tom Cruise in the blockbuster "Top Gun" (1986) before delivering an uncanny performance of poet-singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's "The Doors" (1991) and a mesmerizing turn as Doc Holliday in "Tombstone" (1993).
