biography

Val Edward Kilmar was born in Los Angeles, California to Gladys (a housewife) and Eugene (a real estate developer). Born on December 31, 1959, Val lived in Chatsworth, California on the land once owned by Roy Rogers, until his parents divorce at the age of nine. He then split his time between his mothers in Santa Fe and his fathers in Los Angeles. His mother remarried, but is now a widow and lives in Arizona. Val and Gladys appear to be very close. His father died in 1993. Val has two brothers (one older and one younger) the younger of which died in 1977 when Val was starting his new life at Juilliard in New York.

Val attended Chatsworth High School where he wasn't much better than an average student. He attributes his career in acting to the people in his high school's drama department. 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 the1992 Jacobean play about incest and murder 'Tis Pity She's a Whore performed at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. He started his career in plays and made his film debut in a spy spoof "Top Secret" and since then has worked on many films.

One source describes Val Kilmer "as a remarkable actor, whose brilliant performances have synthesized physicality and intellect; a chameleon-like performer who has inhabited a wide range of roles so completely that he is virtually unrecognizable from film to film. An actor with, some would say, an under-appreciated talent." This could explain why people are hard pressed to remember his roles. Other than his roles as Morrison in the movie "The Doors", which he spent six months delving into the life and singing of Morrison to do, and his role as Batman in "Batman Forever", Val's work has been easy to overlook. For example, do you remember him as Iceman in "Top Gun"? Yet even though he has a tendency to be very difficult to work with (He got into a shoving match with the Producer of "Batman Forever") he still manages to land roles that are a credit to his resume.

His time as the Batman is what he attributes to his divorce from his wife Joanne Whalley after the birth of their second child. Val saw Whalley for the first time when he was filming the movie "Top Secret" in London, though he says that he didn't realize it was the same actress until after their marriage in 1989. It was during the filming of "Willow" that Val met Joanne Whalley and pursued her in a whirlwind courtship that lasted seven months. He claims that during his first glimpse of her he was smitten but never got up the courage to approach her. During the filming of "Willow" though he overcame his courage problem and pursued her until she gave up and married him.

Val has been described as "devastatingly handsome, lush-lipped and "so damn perfect looking that reason flees leaving you to think 'So this is what God intended'." A man with a masculinity so effortlessly ideal it borders on the perverse." There just may be some truth to this as he does still manage to land plum roles. I am sure we will continue to see him pull of some good character roles.