Actor Profile: Get To Know Jack Kilmer

Jack Kilmer attending Oliver People’s 30th anniversary Party on May 2017, Los Angeles. Credit: Stefanie Keenan/Getty

John Wallace "Jack" Kilmer, 26, is an American actor who rose in the industry primarily for his first ever acting role as Teddy in the 2013 film ‘Palo Alto.’

Kilmer was born into an acting family, being the son of Joanne Whalley (English actress who appeared in films such as Dance with a Stranger, Storyville and Mother's Boys) and Val Kilmer (American actor best-known for playing real-life figures such as Jim Morrison in The Doors, and Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Forever).

Despite being raised in a household full of movie stars, Kilmer’s initial interests were always geared towards skateboarding, music and surfing; he was impartial to becoming an actor himself. That is until he was requested to review Gia Coppola's script for Palo Alto.

Being 16 at the time, he was questioned whether the dialogue reflected an accurate portrayal of young people. Coppola encouraged him to try out for the role as Teddy, one of the film's key characters and, after an audition, he landed the role with ease, proving to be a natural despite having no prior acting experience.

Since then Kilmer ultimately opted to pursue acting full-time and has subsequently worked on several films.

Following the success of Palo Alto, Kilmer achieved notable success in 2018 when he portrayed black metal singer Pelle 'Dead' Ohlin in the film 'Lords of Chaos'.

Some of his most well-known performances are Chet in 'The Nice Guys,' Jim Randall in 'The Stanford Prison Experiment,' and Johnny in 'Woodshock.' As of now, he’s been involved in and engaged with a total of 29 productions, including music videos. For example, in 2016, he appeared in Metallica's music video ‘ManUNkind’, and in 2019 he portrayed young Ozzy Osbourne in the music video “Under the Graveyard.”

From film to television, his most recent projects have revolved around the TV series ‘Law & Order: Organized Crime in which he plays Louis Chinasky in the episodes “Ashes to Ashes”, “High Planes Grifter”, and “Unforgivable”.

And as an added bonus, he performed as an associate producer of 'Val,' a documentary which focused on the life and career of his father, Val Kilmer, featuring never-before-seen footage spanning 40 years.

Kilmer’s acting style is extremely captivating, in which he makes every effort to immerse himself in the role to portray the character as realistically as possible. When he acts, it’s as if there’s little to no distinction between himself and the character he portrays. He’s engaging and has shown a lot of hidden potential as a performer.