Val Kilmer

The book of poems is difficult to obtain, expensive and even second hand copies fetch $300 and up. His big break came when he received top billing in the comedy spoof of spy movies Top Secret!, where he played an American rock and roll star. Kilmer sang all the songs in the film and released an album under the film character's name, "Nick Rivers". While garnering more substantial roles and prestige, he also gained a reputation as a ladies man, dating numerous women, some many years older, including Cher and Ellen Barkin. Read Less

There was debate about the performance of Val Kilmer; some critics charged that Kilmer, while physically fit to play Batman, more so than his predecessor Michael Keaton had been, gave a wooden performance as Bruce Wayne. Other critics though, such as Roger Ebert, had kind words for Kilmer. Batman creator Bob Kane said in a Cinescape interview that of all the actors to have played Batman up to that point, he felt Kilmer had given the best interpretation. Film critic Leonard Maltin (who heavily criticized the dark tone contained in Batman Returns) complimented Kilmer's portrayal when he reviewed the film for his expanding collection of film reviews, as well as being very favorable of the film as a whole. Defenders of Batman Forever praised the film for portraying Batman as a more heroic, less ruthless, and more human character than in the Tim Burton films. The film also brought the film interpretation of Bruce Wayne more into line with his comic book counterpart, showing him as a seasoned celebrity of the media and a very public figure rather than the neurotic recluse of the previous films. Read Less

He plays a version of himself from an alternate reality, that is a former actor, turned self-help guru. The Fourth Dimension is a collection of three standalone short films about parallel universes produced by Vice Films in collaboration with Grolsch Film Works, a new division of the namesake beer company. Kilmer notes that his addition to the list of actors, including John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) and Al Pacino (Jack and Jill), that mock their real-life persona in fictional movies, was an accident and says, “I still love saying the premise because it makes me laugh every time."

Since 2002, Kilmer has been working on a film about the life of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science church, and Mark Twain, one of her most famous critics. Kilmer is still working on the film, which is about the lives and relationship of Mary Baker Eddy and Mark Twain as "a quirky, tender, tragicomic portrait of two contrasting lives, set against the backdrop of Gilded Age America." Read Less

Kevin Spacey told James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio, that one of the turning points of his life was at a high school drama festival when he saw Kilmer and Mare Winningham in “The Prime of Miss Jean Browdy” and when the drama teacher Robert Correlli invited him to transfer to Chatsworth High School, he accepted. In the same interview with James Lipton, Spacey also said he went to Julliard because Kilmer did, who was the youngest person, to that day, ever admitted to Julliard. During Kilmer's subsequent "Inside the Actors Studio" interview, he said "Robert Correlli, who was our teacher had a knack for producing and directing. And it was either Beverly Hills High, because of their very talented pool of students or Chatsworth High that would win all these festivals." Even though he has had a reputation of being difficult, Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star from the 1988 fantasy Willow, in his audio commentary for the film said that the question he's most asked is what it was like working with Kilmer, Davis describes him as a very funny man and a hard working, dedicated actor. Read Less

Kilmer sold his 6,000 acre ranch in New Mexico in 2011, where he would track, hike, fish, and raise bison.

General

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