Early Life and Education
Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Gladys (née Ekstadt) and Eugene Kilmer, an aerospace equipment distributor and real estate developer. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley with his two siblings, older brother Mark and younger brother Wesley (who died at 15 due to an epileptic seizure in a swimming pool). His parents divorced when he was nine years old. His father passed away while Val was filming Tombstone. Kilmer's grandfather was a gold miner in New Mexico, near the border with Arizona; the poet Joyce Kilmer is a distant cousin of Kilmer's. His mother was of Swedish descent, and his father's ancestry reportedly included German, Irish, and Cherokee Native American. Kilmer attended Berkeley Hall School, a Christian Science school in Los Angeles, until 9th grade. He then attended Chatsworth High School—where his classmates included Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham—as well as the Hollywood Professional School. At the age of 17, he became the youngest person at the time to be accepted into the Juilliard School's Drama Division, where he was a member of Group 10 (1977–1981).
On May 5, 2012, Kilmer was awarded an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from William Woods University.
Read more about this topic: Val Kilmer
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
“It is so very late that we
May call it early by and by. Good night.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We hear a great deal of lamentation these days about writers having all taken themselves to the colleges and universities where they live decorously instead of going out and getting firsthand information about life. The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.”
—Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964)
“I would urge that the yeast of education is the idea of excellence, and the idea of excellence comprises as many forms as there are individuals, each of whom develops his own image of excellence. The school must have as one of its principal functions the nurturing of images of excellence.”
—Jerome S. Bruner (20th century)