Val Kilmer

5 Things about Val you may not know….

1. Val Kilmer was the youngest person to ever be accepted into The Juilliard School’s drama division.   After attending the Hollywood Professional School, Kilmer enrolled in the prestigious Juilliard School. At 17, he was the youngest student to be accepted into the drama division at the time.
2. He turned down The Outsiders to do Broadway.  Can you imagine if he’d been a part of that cast?! 
3. Kilmer didn’t want to make Top Gun. As Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, the ultra-confident pilot in 1986’s Top Gun, Kilmer runs afoul of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) during Naval training. While the movie was a huge hit and went on to become one of Kilmer’s best-known roles, he didn’t want to do it, fearing the movie had a “warmongering” message.
4. He took The Doors very seriously. Kilmer worked with Doors producer Paul Rothschild and appeared to be so uncannily like Morrison in his speech and mannerisms that Rothschild begged him to stop. He found it too unsettling.
5. Val Edward Kilmer owned a 6,000-acre New Mexico ranch, where he would trek, hike, fish, and raise bison.  Val was married to actress Joanne Whalley from 1988 to 1996. The two met while working together on the film Willow. They have two children, a daughter born in 1991, and a son,  born in 1995.