'''Val Edward Kilmer'''
[State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905-1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. Lists his birth name as simply "Val". At Ancestry.com] (born December 31, 1959) is an American actor.
A trained stage actor, Kilmer became well-known in the mid 1980s, after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with ''
Top Secret!'' (1984), as well as blockbuster action films, including a role in ''
Top Gun'' and as the lead in ''
Willow''. During the 1990s, Kilmer gained critical respect after a string of commercially successful and well reviewed films, including his role as Jim Morrison in ''
The Doors''. Kilmer played Batman in 1995's ''
Batman Forever''.
During the early 2000s, Kilmer appeared in several well-received roles, including ''
The Salton Sea'' and ''
Spartan'', and an acclaimed supporting performance in ''
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang''.
Early life
Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, California to Eugene Kilmer and Gladys Ekstadt, the second of three sons; 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 of Kilmer's.
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, an incident that Kilmer claims to have inspired his later performance in ''
The Salton Sea''.
Kilmer, who was raised a Christian Scientist,
attended Chatsworth High School, as well as Hollywood's Professional's School. At the age of seventeen, he was at the time the youngest person to be accepted into Juilliard's drama program,
where he trained alongside now well-known actors Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham.
Career
1980s
thumb|150px|left|Kilmer as "Iceman" in ''Top Gun (film)|Top Gun'', 1986
In 1981, Kilmer co-authored and starred in the play ''How It All Began'',
which was performed at the Public Theatre at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Kilmer turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 film, ''The Outsiders'', 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
