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.
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