After intensive training at the Hollywood Professional School and at Juilliard, leading man Val Kilmer went directly to the New York stage. He spent most of the next decade in the Big Apple, with the occasional side trip to Hollywood. Kilmer's first movie role was pop singer-cum-spy Nick Rivers in the Zucker-Abahams-Zucker spoof Top Secret. Within the next five years, Kilmer's before-the-camera assignments were sporadic but always memorable: the best of these included Top Gun (1987), Willow (1988) and the title role in the made-for-cable Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid (1989). Far lengthier was the list of films turned down by Kilmer for various artistic and personal reasons: Dune, Blue Velvet, Flatliners, Backdraft, Point Break, Indecent Proposal et. al. It was Kilmer's dead-on portrayal of rock icon Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991) that cemented his stardom -- but not, alas, his bankability, since Doors was a dud at the box office. In 1993, Kilmer found himself in a showcase role in a bonafide hit: the consumptive (but still dazzlingly handsome) Doc Holliday in Tombstone. In 1995, Kilmer was back to turning down assignments like Interview with a Vampire and Crimson Tide, the better to clear time for his portrayal of the Caped Crusader in the megahit Batman Forever. The film was a success, and though he turned down the opportunity for the continuing role of the Dark Knight, his career has finally taken flight. In 1996, he appeared in three major features, most notably in The Island of Dr. Moreau. In 1997, Kilmer further demonstrated his versatility as Simon Templar, master of disguise, in The Saint.