View allAll Photos Tagged batmanforever
In the real Batcave...*
"Batman, what are we going to do with all those old Batmobiles?"
"Out with the old, Robin. In with the new. Have you noticed I'm wearing my Lightning Strike uniform?"
"Yes! Why, Batman? Why??"
"Because, Robin, rest assured that in 2026 in Paprihaven...
...lightning will strike!"
"Even... Bat-lightning??"
"... ... Sure, Robin."
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆──── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Featured many times in the Paprihaven, and introduced in Paprihaven 1503:
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/47822354291/
'Real' as contrasted to the '66 Batcave, operated by a very different Batman, and contested by the serious Batman as seen in Bijou Planks 2025 Day 191:
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/54646933560/
Previous Batman New Years at Paprihaven!
2019
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/45649592575/
2020
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/49702278841/
2021
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/50786635676/
2022
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/51792244268/
2023
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/52601266018/
2024
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/53436814835/
2025
The underside of a 1995 McDonald's Batman Forever glass mug.
Photo is taken of the bottom looking into the mug.
Section photographed is approximately 1-1/4 inch wide.
A little hardcore added to this 'other' car. Up to now, these are by far my favorite Batmobiles.
Please zoom the picture for maximum effect.
–
Kaitimar's mini Batmobile, with a couple of twists of my own.
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I continued the fluid line of the cockpit towards the back and I lowered the "wings" into a more dynamic position. The "nose" is a little more aggressive on my version and I also added some contrasting details.
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It's a simple build, with common parts, yet the result is quite nice in my opinion. I wish the Batmobile polybag would have something more like this inside.
Most likely heading towards Gotham & the MCM London Comic Con 2022 close by, what better way to arrive than as a few peas in a pod.
The London Cable Car, nicknamed the Dangleway, aka the Emirates Air Line over the River Thames in London, England.
The one time you "fly " with Emirates where you don't have to wear a seatbelt, guaranteed window seat & you can have your own first class cabin all to yourself.
Flying at 14 mph through the air, cruising altitude of 90 meters ( 300 feet ) with a journey time of 10 minutes.
"With your knack for the macabre, and my intellectual superiority we could get rid of Batman FOREVER!"
;)
Batman Forever (1995) - Robin (Chris O'Donnell), Batman (Val Kilmer), The Riddler (Jim Carrey), Sugar (Drew Barrymore), Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and Spice (Debi Mazar)
This isn't a character a lot of people probably know about, probably because he's from a film that didn't get very good reviews, but I decided to make him anyway simply because I thought he looked cool. Some of the Batman movies had really cool designs for some of the characters, maybe I'll get to those guys soon. Part of the design was inspired by the Sons of Garmadon goons, other parts, I couldn't make out some of the details on Google, so I decided to make up my own. I think he still looks pretty great.
We've teamed up, Gorazd (Kaitimar) and me, and we've registered this mini Batmobile on CUUSOO, as a collaborative project:
–
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/18729
–
Obviously, this isn't about the construction itself, as anyone can build this little car just from the pictures. The real point is to demonstrate that even a small model like this can be achieved with style, elegance and care for details, especially when it comes to something iconic like the classic Batmobile.
The theme is hot, the time is now, so if you think you (and maybe other people outside flickr too!) would like to find this inside when opening a Super Heroes polybag, please take a minute to give us a hand on CUUSOO!
Hot Wheels - Batman Repaints
* Batmobile (Maroon with Red)
* Batman Forever Batmobile (Grey with Light Blue)
* Brick Rides - Brickin' Delivery (Yellow with Blue)
A little hardcore added to this 'other' car. Up to now, these are by far my favorite Batmobiles.
Please zoom the picture for maximum effect.
–
Belgian postcard by Boomerang Free Cards. Photo: Warner Bros. Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Elegant Nicole Kidman (1967) is known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports and is one of the highest-paid actresses of the film industry. She received an Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002). Her other well-known films include Batman Forever (1995), Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Moulin Rouge (2001), and Lion (2016). She was married to Tom Cruise and since 2006 she is married to Keith Urban.
Nicole Mary Kidman was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1967, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas. She is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist, and clinical psychologist. Her younger sister is an Australian television personality, Antonia Kidman. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer, and then. Three years later, the family made the pilgrimage back to her parents' native Sydney in Australia, where Nicole was raised. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well. Her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant. In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge - as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft. She worked regularly at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion, who was then a film student. Kidman eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into films at age 16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas (Henri Safran, 1983). That appearance touched off a flurry of film and television offers, including a lead in the crime comedy BMX Bandits (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1983) and a turn opposite Denholm Elliott and Hugo Weaving in the miniseries Bangkok Hilton (Ken Cameron, 1987). The high-rated series was one of the last mini-series that attracted a large viewing audience and Kidman won her first Australian Film Institute Award. With the help of an American agent, she eventually made her US debut opposite Sam Neill and Billy Zane in the at-sea thriller Dead Calm (Phillip Noyce, 1989), filmed around the Great Barrier Reef.
Nicole Kidman's next casting coup scored her more than exposure. While starring as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver played by Tom Cruise in the racetrack romance Days of Thunder (Tony Scott, 1990), she won over the Hollywood hunk. The film was praised for its action sequences, its fast pace, Hans Zimmer's musical score, and the performances of Cruise and Kidman, and was among the highest-grossing films of the year. After a whirlwind courtship, the couple wed in 1990. Determined not to let her new marital status overshadow her fledgling career, the actress pressed on. She appeared as a catty high school senior in the Australian coming-of-age comedy-drama Flirting (John Duigan, 1991), then as Dustin Hoffman's moll in the crime film Billy Bathgate (Robert Benton, 1991). She reunited with Cruise for Far and Away (Ron Howard, 1992), the story of young Irish lovers who flee to America in the late 1800s, and she starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger My Life (Bruce Joel Rubin, 1993). Despite her steady employment, critics and filmgoers still had not quite warmed to Kidman as a leading lady. She tried to spice up her image by seducing Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995), but she achieved her real breakthrough with Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For (1995). Roger Ebert: "the movie is about Suzanne, and Nicole Kidman's work here is inspired. Her clothes, her makeup, her hair, her speech, her manner, even the way she carries herself (as if aware of the eyes of millions) are all brought to a perfect pitch: Her Suzanne is so utterly absorbed in being herself that there is an eerie conviction, even in the comedy. She plays Suzanne as the kind of woman who pities us - because we aren't her, and you know what? We never will be." She took home a Golden Globe and several critics' awards for the performance.
In 1996, Nicole Kidman stepped into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion, on the adaptation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1996). A few months later, she tore across the screen in The Peacemaker (Mimi Leder, 1997), as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. Kidman and Cruise then disappeared into a notoriously long, secretive shoot for Stanley Kubrick's final film, the sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). They portrayed a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. According to IMDb, it "prompted an increase in public speculation about their sex life (rumors had long been circulating that their marriage was a cover-up for Cruise's homosexuality). Tired of denying tabloid attacks, they successfully sued The Star for a story alleging that they needed a sex therapist to coach them through love scenes." During her stay in England, Kidman also appeared in the play 'The Blue Room' (1998) on the West End. For her performance, she was awarded the Special Award at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, and in 1999, she was also nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress. Family life has always been a priority for Kidman. Born to social activists (her mother was a feminist; her father, a labor advocate), Nicole and her little sister, Antonia Kidman, discussed current events around the dinner table and participated in their parents' campaigns by passing out pamphlets on street corners. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, 17-year-old Nicole stopped working and took a massage course so that she could provide physical therapy (her mother eventually beat cancer). Kidman and Cruise adopted two children: Isabella Jane (born 1993) and Connor Antony (born 1995). Despite their rock-solid image, the couple announced in early 2001 that they were separating due to career conflicts. Her marriage to Cruise ended mid-summer of 2001.
Nicole Kidman starred in the horror film The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001), as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. It grossed over US$210 million worldwide. That year, she also played one of her most successful roles as cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in the musical Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001), opposite Ewan McGregor. For this role, she received her first Oscar nomination. The following year, she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002), which was based on Michael Cunningham's novel on author Virginia Woolf Although naturally left-handed, she taught herself to write right-handed for her role in The Hours (2002), where she played the right-handed Woolf. Nicole Kidman's later independent films often feature the theme of grief and sorrow, such as Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003), an experimental film set on a bare soundstage, the drama Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004), and the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole (John Cameron Mitchell, 2010). She also portrayed upper-class women in epics, such as Ada Monroe in Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, 2003) opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, Marisa Coulter in the fantasy adventure The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007), Lady Sarah Ashley in Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008), and Gertrude Bell in the autobiographical drama Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015). In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. In 2006, she married country singer Keith Urban. They have two children. Kidman received her fourth Oscar nomination for Lion (Garth Davis, 2016). She portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley (Dev Patel), an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family. According to Susan Wloszczyna, Sue is "a tower of maternal tenderness and immense devotion embodied by Nicole Kidman, who is excellent despite a distractingly awful curly red wig. She uses the occasion to finally explain to Saroo exactly why she and his father, John (David Wenham, best known as Faramir in “The Lord of Rings”), decided to adopt him. Kidman, herself an adoptive mother of two, delivers her words with such nakedly honest emotion, all the Kleenex in the world won’t stop the ensuing flood." Kidman played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled (2017), a remake of a 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in the drama The Goldfinch (John Crowley, 2018), an adaptation of the novel by Donna Tartt. She next starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell (Jay Roach, 2019), about sexual harassment at Fox News, in which she portrayed Gretchen Carlson. In 2020, Kidman's only film release was the musical comedy film The Prom (Ryan Murphy, 2020), based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which also starred Meryl Streep.
Sources: Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert.com), Susan Wloszczyna (Rogert Ebert.com), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
A little hardcore added to this 'other' car. Up to now, these are by far my favorite Batmobiles.
Please zoom the picture for maximum effect.
–
The June 21, 2019 RetroFest Friday evening cruise in downtown Chatham, Ontario. RetroFest coincided with the 40th Anniversary celebration of RM Auto Restoration in nearby Blenheim, creating a no-hold-barred weekend of festivities. RM Auto Restoration owns two Batmobiles and this one is from the 1995 movie Batman Forever.
All of my classic car photos can be found here: Car Collections
Press L for a larger image on black.
French postcard by Cart'com. Photo: Hugh Stewart. Nicole Kidman as Satine in Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001).
Elegant Nicole Kidman (1967) is known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports and is one of the highest-paid actresses of the film industry. She received an Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002). Her other well-known films include Batman Forever (1995), Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Moulin Rouge (2001), and Lion (2016). She was married to Tom Cruise and since 2006 she is married to Keith Urban.
Nicole Mary Kidman was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1967, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas. She is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist, and clinical psychologist. Her younger sister is an Australian television personality, Antonia Kidman. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer, and then. Three years later, the family made the pilgrimage back to her parents' native Sydney in Australia, where Nicole was raised. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well. Her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant. In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge - as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft. She worked regularly at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion, who was then a film student. Kidman eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into films at age 16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas (Henri Safran, 1983). That appearance touched off a flurry of film and television offers, including a lead in the crime comedy BMX Bandits (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1983) and a turn opposite Denholm Elliott and Hugo Weaving in the miniseries Bangkok Hilton (Ken Cameron, 1987). The high-rated series was one of the last mini-series that attracted a large viewing audience and Kidman won her first Australian Film Institute Award. With the help of an American agent, she eventually made her US debut opposite Sam Neill and Billy Zane in the at-sea thriller Dead Calm (Phillip Noyce, 1989), filmed around the Great Barrier Reef.
Nicole Kidman's next casting coup scored her more than exposure. While starring as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver played by Tom Cruise in the racetrack romance Days of Thunder (Tony Scott, 1990), she won over the Hollywood hunk. The film was praised for its action sequences, its fast pace, Hans Zimmer's musical score, and the performances of Cruise and Kidman, and was among the highest-grossing films of the year. After a whirlwind courtship, the couple wed in 1990. Determined not to let her new marital status overshadow her fledgling career, the actress pressed on. She appeared as a catty high school senior in the Australian coming-of-age comedy-drama Flirting (John Duigan, 1991), then as Dustin Hoffman's moll in the crime film Billy Bathgate (Robert Benton, 1991). She reunited with Cruise for Far and Away (Ron Howard, 1992), the story of young Irish lovers who flee to America in the late 1800s, and she starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger My Life (Bruce Joel Rubin, 1993). Despite her steady employment, critics and filmgoers still had not quite warmed to Kidman as a leading lady. She tried to spice up her image by seducing Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995), but she achieved her real breakthrough with Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For (1995). Roger Ebert: "the movie is about Suzanne, and Nicole Kidman's work here is inspired. Her clothes, her makeup, her hair, her speech, her manner, even the way she carries herself (as if aware of the eyes of millions) are all brought to a perfect pitch: Her Suzanne is so utterly absorbed in being herself that there is an eerie conviction, even in the comedy. She plays Suzanne as the kind of woman who pities us - because we aren't her, and you know what? We never will be." She took home a Golden Globe and several critics' awards for the performance.
In 1996, Nicole Kidman stepped into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion, on the adaptation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1996). A few months later, she tore across the screen in The Peacemaker (Mimi Leder, 1997), as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. Kidman and Cruise then disappeared into a notoriously long, secretive shoot for Stanley Kubrick's final film, the sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). They portrayed a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. According to IMDb, it "prompted an increase in public speculation about their sex life (rumors had long been circulating that their marriage was a cover-up for Cruise's homosexuality). Tired of denying tabloid attacks, they successfully sued The Star for a story alleging that they needed a sex therapist to coach them through love scenes." During her stay in England, Kidman also appeared in the play 'The Blue Room' (1998) on the West End. For her performance, she was awarded the Special Award at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, and in 1999, she was also nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress. Family life has always been a priority for Kidman. Born to social activists (her mother was a feminist; her father, a labor advocate), Nicole and her little sister, Antonia Kidman, discussed current events around the dinner table and participated in their parents' campaigns by passing out pamphlets on street corners. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, 17-year-old Nicole stopped working and took a massage course so that she could provide physical therapy (her mother eventually beat cancer). Kidman and Cruise adopted two children: Isabella Jane (born 1993) and Connor Antony (born 1995). Despite their rock-solid image, the couple announced in early 2001 that they were separating due to career conflicts. Her marriage to Cruise ended mid-summer of 2001.
Nicole Kidman starred in the horror film The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001), as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. It grossed over US$210 million worldwide. That year, she also played one of her most successful roles as cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in the musical Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001), opposite Ewan McGregor. For this role, she received her first Oscar nomination. The following year, she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002), which was based on Michael Cunningham's novel on author Virginia Woolf Although naturally left-handed, she taught herself to write right-handed for her role in The Hours (2002), where she played the right-handed Woolf. Nicole Kidman's later independent films often feature the theme of grief and sorrow, such as Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003), an experimental film set on a bare soundstage, the drama Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004), and the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole (John Cameron Mitchell, 2010). She also portrayed upper-class women in epics, such as Ada Monroe in Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, 2003) opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, Marisa Coulter in the fantasy adventure The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007), Lady Sarah Ashley in Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008), and Gertrude Bell in the autobiographical drama Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015). In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. In 2006, she married country singer Keith Urban. They have two children. Kidman received her fourth Oscar nomination for Lion (Garth Davis, 2016). She portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley (Dev Patel), an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family. According to Susan Wloszczyna, Sue is "a tower of maternal tenderness and immense devotion embodied by Nicole Kidman, who is excellent despite a distractingly awful curly red wig. She uses the occasion to finally explain to Saroo exactly why she and his father, John (David Wenham, best known as Faramir in “The Lord of Rings”), decided to adopt him. Kidman, herself an adoptive mother of two, delivers her words with such nakedly honest emotion, all the Kleenex in the world won’t stop the ensuing flood." Kidman played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled (2017), a remake of a 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in the drama The Goldfinch (John Crowley, 2018), an adaptation of the novel by Donna Tartt. She next starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell (Jay Roach, 2019), about sexual harassment at Fox News, in which she portrayed Gretchen Carlson. In 2020, Kidman's only film release was the musical comedy film The Prom (Ryan Murphy, 2020), based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which also starred Meryl Streep.
Sources: Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert.com), Susan Wloszczyna (Rogert Ebert.com), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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We've teamed up, Gorazd (Kaitimar) and me, and we've registered this mini Batmobile on CUUSOO, as a collaborative project:
–
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/18729
–
Obviously, this isn't about the construction itself, as anyone can build this little car just from the pictures. The real point is to demonstrate that even a small model like this can be achieved with style, elegance and care for details, especially when it comes to something iconic like the classic Batmobile.
The theme is hot, the time is now, so if you think you (and maybe other people outside flickr too!) would like to find this inside when opening a Super Heroes polybag, please take a minute to give us a hand on CUUSOO!
British postcard by Slow Dazzle Worldwide, no 10 in a series of 16. Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Val Kilmer (1959) is an American actor, known for such blockbusters as Top Gun (1986), Batman Forever (1995) and Heat (1995). His chameleon-like ability to plunge fully and breathlessly into his characters catapulted him to fame in the mid-1980s but his reputation to be a troublesome actor and a series of disappointing films held him back from megastardom.
Val Edward Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, in 1959. He is the son of Gladys Swanette (Ekstadt) and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, who was a real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor. Val grew up in the San Fernando Valley. His family is a textbook example of mixed blood. He has Scottish, Swedish, Irish, Mongolian, and Cherokee blood in his veins, among others. His parents divorced when he was 9 years old. His first auditions were for commercials at 13 years old. When he was 17 years old, his younger brother Wesley who was an epileptic, drowned in a jacuzzi at age 15. Kilmer learned acting at the famous Juilliard Drama School in New York. He was the youngest student in history to be admitted to Juilliard. In 1983 he played his first television role and a year later he made his film debut with the lead role as blond rock idol Nick Rivers in Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, 1984), a spoof of Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Andrea LeVasseur at AllMovie: "An absurd role which Kilmer plays with complete sincerity, it reveals genuine musical talent and Kilmer achieves complete credibility as a rock star." He had his big break in the role of Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) starring Tom Cruise. Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. He gave a believable performance as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). He had spent close to a year before production dressing in Morrison-like clothes and had spent time at Morrison's old hangouts along the Sunset Strip. Kilmer did his own singing during the concert pieces and a number of his Doors songs were used on the soundtrack, sans dubbing. Two years later, Kilmer played two more American legends, the spirit of Elvis Presley in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), which was written by Quentin Tarantino, and gunslinger Doc Holliday in the Western Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993).
Val Kilmer took over the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne from Michael Keaton in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). Batman Forever was a success at the box office, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. Although he enjoyed playing Batman his working relationship with director Joel Schumacher was poor. Kilmer openly refused to repeat the Bruce Wayne role for Batman and Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), and he was succeeded by George Clooney. Due to his persistent need for an on-set dialogue with his directors, Kilmer had clashed earlier with Michael Apted on the set of Thunderheart (1992) and later infuriated director John Frankenheimer on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). However, others consider him a devoted, hard-working professional. Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star in Willow (Ron Howard, 1988), says he has very fond memories of working with Kilmer, stating that Kilmer had a great sense of humor and was very dedicated to the job. In addition to acting, Kilmer is also engaged in writing. In 1981 he wrote the play 'How It All Began', performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Later in the 1980s, he wrote a poetry collection, 'My Eden after burns'. Kilmer also acted on the stage. He played Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. In 2004 he played Moses in a musical and in 2005 he starred in London in David Mamet's play 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. His other notable films include Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, the disappointing The Saint (Philip Noyce, 1997), and the action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005) with Robert Downey Jr. Another disappointment was the historical epic Alexander (Oliver Stone, 2004) in which he played the father of Alexander, King Philip, opposite Colin Farrell as Alexander. The Disney studios Sci-Fi-action thriller Deja Vu (Tony Scott, 2006) teamed Kilmer and Denzel Washington as feds who travel back in time to stop a terrorist's (Jim Caviezel) attempt to blow up a ferry. He also appeared in Werner Herzog's semi-sequel Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009), and Francis Ford Coppola's horror opus Twixt (2011), with Bruce Dern and Elle Fanning. Kilmer is a longtime board member of the New Mexico State Film Commission, which tries to persuade Los Angeles - based filmmakers and studios to film on location in New Mexico. From 1988 to 1996, Val Kilmer was married to British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while filming Willow (Ron Howard, 1988). They have two children: a daughter, Mercedes (1992), and a son, Jack (1995). Kilmer has gone through a battle with throat cancer. A procedure on his trachea has reduced his voice to a rasp and rendered him short of breath. He underwent chemotherapy and two tracheotomies. In 2020, Kilmer reported that he had been cancer-free for four years and that he uses a feeding tube to feed himself because he can no longer eat. He continues to act in films and upcoming is the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2021) in which Kilmer reprises his role as LT Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski.
Sources: Andrea LeVasseur (AllMovie), Denise P. Meyer (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
British postcard by Go Card. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Nicole Kidman as Satine in Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001).
Elegant Nicole Kidman (1967) is known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports and is one of the highest-paid actresses of the film industry. She received an Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002). Her other well-known films include Batman Forever (1995), Gus Van Sant's To Die For (1995), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Moulin Rouge (2001), and Lion (2016). She was married to Tom Cruise and since 2006 she is married to Keith Urban.
Nicole Mary Kidman was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1967, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas. She is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist, and clinical psychologist. Her younger sister is an Australian television personality, Antonia Kidman. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast cancer, and then. Three years later, the family made the pilgrimage back to her parents' native Sydney in Australia, where Nicole was raised. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well. Her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant. In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge - as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft. She worked regularly at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion, who was then a film student. Kidman eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into films at age 16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas (Henri Safran, 1983). That appearance touched off a flurry of film and television offers, including a lead in the crime comedy BMX Bandits (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1983) and a turn opposite Denholm Elliott and Hugo Weaving in the miniseries Bangkok Hilton (Ken Cameron, 1987). The high-rated series was one of the last mini-series that attracted a large viewing audience and Kidman won her first Australian Film Institute Award. With the help of an American agent, she eventually made her US debut opposite Sam Neill and Billy Zane in the at-sea thriller Dead Calm (Phillip Noyce, 1989), filmed around the Great Barrier Reef.
Nicole Kidman's next casting coup scored her more than exposure. While starring as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver played by Tom Cruise in the racetrack romance Days of Thunder (Tony Scott, 1990), she won over the Hollywood hunk. The film was praised for its action sequences, its fast pace, Hans Zimmer's musical score, and the performances of Cruise and Kidman, and was among the highest-grossing films of the year. After a whirlwind courtship, the couple wed in 1990. Determined not to let her new marital status overshadow her fledgling career, the actress pressed on. She appeared as a catty high school senior in the Australian coming-of-age comedy-drama Flirting (John Duigan, 1991), then as Dustin Hoffman's moll in the crime film Billy Bathgate (Robert Benton, 1991). She reunited with Cruise for Far and Away (Ron Howard, 1992), the story of young Irish lovers who flee to America in the late 1800s, and she starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger My Life (Bruce Joel Rubin, 1993). Despite her steady employment, critics and filmgoers still had not quite warmed to Kidman as a leading lady. She tried to spice up her image by seducing Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995), but she achieved her real breakthrough with Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For (1995). Roger Ebert: "the movie is about Suzanne, and Nicole Kidman's work here is inspired. Her clothes, her makeup, her hair, her speech, her manner, even the way she carries herself (as if aware of the eyes of millions) are all brought to a perfect pitch: Her Suzanne is so utterly absorbed in being herself that there is an eerie conviction, even in the comedy. She plays Suzanne as the kind of woman who pities us - because we aren't her, and you know what? We never will be." She took home a Golden Globe and several critics' awards for the performance.
In 1996, Nicole Kidman stepped into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion, on the adaptation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1996). A few months later, she tore across the screen in The Peacemaker (Mimi Leder, 1997), as White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. Kidman and Cruise then disappeared into a notoriously long, secretive shoot for Stanley Kubrick's final film, the sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). They portrayed a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. According to IMDb, it "prompted an increase in public speculation about their sex life (rumors had long been circulating that their marriage was a cover-up for Cruise's homosexuality). Tired of denying tabloid attacks, they successfully sued The Star for a story alleging that they needed a sex therapist to coach them through love scenes." During her stay in England, Kidman also appeared in the play 'The Blue Room' (1998) on the West End. For her performance, she was awarded the Special Award at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, and in 1999, she was also nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress. Family life has always been a priority for Kidman. Born to social activists (her mother was a feminist; her father, a labor advocate), Nicole and her little sister, Antonia Kidman, discussed current events around the dinner table and participated in their parents' campaigns by passing out pamphlets on street corners. When her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, 17-year-old Nicole stopped working and took a massage course so that she could provide physical therapy (her mother eventually beat cancer). Kidman and Cruise adopted two children: Isabella Jane (born 1993) and Connor Antony (born 1995). Despite their rock-solid image, the couple announced in early 2001 that they were separating due to career conflicts. Her marriage to Cruise ended mid-summer of 2001.
Nicole Kidman starred in the horror film The Others (Alejandro Amenábar, 2001), as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. It grossed over US$210 million worldwide. That year, she also played one of her most successful roles as cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in the musical Moulin Rouge (Baz Luhrmann, 2001), opposite Ewan McGregor. For this role, she received her first Oscar nomination. The following year, she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002), which was based on Michael Cunningham's novel on author Virginia Woolf Although naturally left-handed, she taught herself to write right-handed for her role in The Hours (2002), where she played the right-handed Woolf. Nicole Kidman's later independent films often feature the theme of grief and sorrow, such as Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003), an experimental film set on a bare soundstage, the drama Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004), and the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole (John Cameron Mitchell, 2010). She also portrayed upper-class women in epics, such as Ada Monroe in Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella, 2003) opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, Marisa Coulter in the fantasy adventure The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007), Lady Sarah Ashley in Australia (Baz Luhrmann, 2008), and Gertrude Bell in the autobiographical drama Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015). In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. In 2006, she married country singer Keith Urban. They have two children. Kidman received her fourth Oscar nomination for Lion (Garth Davis, 2016). She portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley (Dev Patel), an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family. According to Susan Wloszczyna, Sue is "a tower of maternal tenderness and immense devotion embodied by Nicole Kidman, who is excellent despite a distractingly awful curly red wig. She uses the occasion to finally explain to Saroo exactly why she and his father, John (David Wenham, best known as Faramir in “The Lord of Rings”), decided to adopt him. Kidman, herself an adoptive mother of two, delivers her words with such nakedly honest emotion, all the Kleenex in the world won’t stop the ensuing flood." Kidman played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled (2017), a remake of a 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in the drama The Goldfinch (John Crowley, 2018), an adaptation of the novel by Donna Tartt. She next starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell (Jay Roach, 2019), about sexual harassment at Fox News, in which she portrayed Gretchen Carlson. In 2020, Kidman's only film release was the musical comedy film The Prom (Ryan Murphy, 2020), based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which also starred Meryl Streep.
Sources: Roger Ebert (Roger Ebert.com), Susan Wloszczyna (Rogert Ebert.com), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Mr.Bean, Bruce Almighty, Friday Night Lights, It Started With a Kiss, Fast Five, The Empire Strikes Back, American Graffiti, Supernatural, The Young in Heart, Hart to Hart, Cars, Yellow Submarine, Ghostbusters 2016, Spectre, Bullitt, Turbo, Bikini Beach, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Goldfinger, Need for Speed, Batman: the Animated Series, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Big Lebowski, Batman Forever, Home Improvement, Two-Lane Blacktop, Furious 7, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Walking Dead, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Need for Speed, Knight Rider, The Fast and the Furious, American Graffiti, That 70’s Show, Dick Tracy, Home Improvement, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Zombieland.
All die cast vehicles are 1:64 scale and from the following various toy companies: Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightning, Greenlight, Ertl, Tomica Takara Tomy, Matchbox, Winner’s Circle, Revell, Hasbro, and Kyosho.
See Volume 1 here:
www.flickr.com/photos/lunzerland/14654368867
See Volume 2 here:
www.flickr.com/photos/lunzerland/16328548947
See Volume 3 here:
www.flickr.com/photos/lunzerland/26737059721
See Volume 5 here:
Hot Wheels - First Purchases of 2023:
* Batman Forever Batmobile
* Experimotors Draggin' Wagon
* Brick Rides Custom Small Block
* Brick Rides Brickin' Delivery
Stagecoach Manchester ( Greater Manchester South) Leyland Olympian / Northern Counties '3179' wearing an all over advertising livery for 'Batman for ever '.
Manchester. Scanned from a slide.
Taxi, Gran Torino, Magnum P.I., Joe Dirt, Knight Rider, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Stroker Ace, Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), LeMans, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Saint, Cars, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Casino Royale (2006), Fright Night, The Andy Griffith Show, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Batman & Robin, Batman (1989), The Cannonball Run, Back to the Future Part III, Smokey and the Bandit, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Smokey and the Bandit, The Italian Job (1969), The Italian Job (1969), The Italian Job (1969), The Spy Who Loved Me, The Fast and the Furious, American Graffiti, , American Graffiti, Stripes, Miami Vice, Miami Vice, Wacky Races, Batman Forever, The Persuaders.
All die cast vehicles are 1:64 scale and from the following various toy companies: Hot Wheels, Greenlight, Johnny Lightning, Hasbro, Kyosho, Revell, Matchbox, Tomica Takara Tomy, Charawheels, & American Cruiser.
See Vol.1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/lunzerland/14654368867/
See Vol.3 here:
www.flickr.com/photos/lunzerland/26737059721
See Vol.4 here:
www.flickr.com/photos/lunzerland/33804725736/in/dateposted/
See Vol.5 here:
Belgian postcard by Boomerang Free Cards. Photo: Warner Bros. Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Val Kilmer (1959) is an American actor, known for such blockbusters as Top Gun (1986), Batman Forever (1995) and Heat (1995). His chameleon-like ability to plunge fully and breathlessly into his characters catapulted him to fame in the mid-1980s but his reputation to be a troublesome actor and a series of disappointing films held him back from megastardom.
Val Edward Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, in 1959. He is the son of Gladys Swanette (Ekstadt) and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, who was a real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor. Val grew up in the San Fernando Valley. His family is a textbook example of mixed blood. He has Scottish, Swedish, Irish, Mongolian, and Cherokee blood in his veins, among others. His parents divorced when he was 9 years old. His first auditions were for commercials at 13 years old. When he was 17 years old, his younger brother Wesley who was an epileptic, drowned in a jacuzzi at age 15. Kilmer learned acting at the famous Juilliard Drama School in New York. He was the youngest student in history to be admitted to Juilliard. In 1983 he played his first television role and a year later he made his film debut with the lead role as blond rock idol Nick Rivers in Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, 1984), a spoof of Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Andrea LeVasseur at AllMovie: "An absurd role which Kilmer plays with complete sincerity, it reveals genuine musical talent and Kilmer achieves complete credibility as a rock star." He had his big break in the role of Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) starring Tom Cruise. Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. He gave a believable performance as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). He had spent close to a year before production dressing in Morrison-like clothes and had spent time at Morrison's old hangouts along the Sunset Strip. Kilmer did his own singing during the concert pieces and a number of his Doors songs were used on the soundtrack, sans dubbing. Two years later, Kilmer played two more American legends, the spirit of Elvis Presley in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), which was written by Quentin Tarantino, and gunslinger Doc Holliday in the Western Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993).
Val Kilmer took over the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne from Michael Keaton in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). Batman Forever was a success at the box office, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. Although he enjoyed playing Batman his working relationship with director Joel Schumacher was poor. Kilmer openly refused to repeat the Bruce Wayne role for Batman and Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), and he was succeeded by George Clooney. Due to his persistent need for an on-set dialogue with his directors, Kilmer had clashed earlier with Michael Apted on the set of Thunderheart (1992) and later infuriated director John Frankenheimer on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). However, others consider him a devoted, hard-working professional. Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star in Willow (Ron Howard, 1988), says he has very fond memories of working with Kilmer, stating that Kilmer had a great sense of humor and was very dedicated to the job. In addition to acting, Kilmer is also engaged in writing. In 1981 he wrote the play 'How It All Began', performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Later in the 1980s, he wrote a poetry collection, 'My Eden after burns'. Kilmer also acted on the stage. He played Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. In 2004 he played Moses in a musical and in 2005 he starred in London in David Mamet's play 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. His other notable films include Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, the disappointing The Saint (Philip Noyce, 1997), and the action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005) with Robert Downey Jr. Another disappointment was the historical epic Alexander (Oliver Stone, 2004) in which he played the father of Alexander, King Philip, opposite Colin Farrell as Alexander. The Disney studios Sci-Fi-action thriller Deja Vu (Tony Scott, 2006) teamed Kilmer and Denzel Washington as feds who travel back in time to stop a terrorist's (Jim Caviezel) attempt to blow up a ferry. He also appeared in Werner Herzog's semi-sequel Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009), and Francis Ford Coppola's horror opus Twixt (2011), with Bruce Dern and Elle Fanning. Kilmer is a longtime board member of the New Mexico State Film Commission, which tries to persuade Los Angeles - based filmmakers and studios to film on location in New Mexico. From 1988 to 1996, Val Kilmer was married to British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while filming Willow (Ron Howard, 1988). They have two children: a daughter, Mercedes (1992), and a son, Jack (1995). Kilmer has gone through a battle with throat cancer. A procedure on his trachea has reduced his voice to a rasp and rendered him short of breath. He underwent chemotherapy and two tracheotomies. In 2020, Kilmer reported that he had been cancer-free for four years and that he uses a feeding tube to feed himself because he can no longer eat. He continues to act in films and upcoming is the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2021) in which Kilmer reprises his role as LT Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski.
Sources: Andrea LeVasseur (AllMovie), Denise P. Meyer (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Checking the guest list, its Batman, just Batman, the Joker's not with me, only joking.
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French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 1619. Photo: Warner Bros. Jim Carrey as Riddler in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Arguably the top screen comedian of the 1990s, Canadian-born entertainer Jim Carrey (1962) has combined equal parts of his idol Jerry Lewis, his spiritual ancestor Harry Ritz, and the loose-limbed Ray Bolger into a gleefully uninhibited screen image that is uniquely his own. He rose to fame in the sketch comedy series In Living Color (1990) and leading roles in the comedies Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), and The Mask (1994) established him as a bankable film star.
James Eugene Carrey was born in 1962, in the Toronto suburb of Newmarket in Canada. He is the youngest of four children of Kathleen (Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, an accountant and jazz musician. Carrey was an incurable extrovert from day one. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "[Born] into a peripatetic household that regularly ran the gamut from middle-class comfort to abject poverty. Not surprisingly, Carrey became a classic overachiever, excelling in academics while keeping his classmates in stitches with his wild improvisations and elastic facial expressions. His comedy club debut at age 16 was a dismal failure, but Carrey had already resolved not to be beaten down by life's disappointments." By December 1981, a well-known comic in Canada, he received interest from Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Touring venues throughout North America as the opening act for Rodney Dangerfield, Carrey made a triumphant return home to Toronto in 1982, performing two sold-out shows at Massey Hall. He decided to permanently move to Hollywood. During this period Carrey met and married waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he had a daughter (Jane). The couple would later go through a very messy divorce, freeing Carrey up for a brief second marriage to actress Lauren Holly. By age 22, he was making a good living as a standup comic and was starring as a novice cartoonist on the short-lived sitcom The Duck Factory (1984). Throughout the 1980s, Carrey appeared in supporting roles in such films as Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Coppola, 1986) starring Kathleen Turner, and Earth Girls are Easy (Julien Temple, 1990) as the alien Wiploc. Impressed with Carrey's lunacy, fellow extraterrestrial Damon Wayans made a call to his brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was in the process of putting together the sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990-1994). Carrey joined the cast and quickly made a name for himself with outrageous acts such as the grotesquely disfigured Fire Marshal Bill, whose dubious safety tips brought down the wrath of real-life fire prevention groups.
1994 proved to be s good year for Jim Carrey with the release of three top-grossing comedy films to his credit: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (Tom Shadyac, 1994), the manic superhero movie The Mask (Chuck Russell, 1994) with Cameron Diaz, and Dumb and Dumber (Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, 1994) with Jeff Daniels. The Mask, released in July 1994, grossed $351 million worldwide, and Dumb and Dumber, released in December 1994, grossed over $270 million worldwide. By the end of the year, Carrey was commanding seven to ten million dollars per picture. The actor/comedian took over for Robin Williams as The Riddler in the blockbuster Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). The film received mixed reviews but was a box office success. He tried his hand at a darker and more menacing role as a maniacal cable repairman in The Cable Guy (Ben Stiller, 1996). The film, and Carrey's at-times frightening performance, received decidedly mixed reviews from critics and audiences. He returned to all-out comedy in the energetic hit Liar, Liar (Tom Shadyac, 1997) as a chronically dishonest attorney. Carrey explored new territory with his lead role in the highly acclaimed The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998). He played a naive salesman who discovers that his entire life is the subject of a TV show. Carrey demonstrated an uncharacteristic sincerity and won a Golden Globe for his performance. Critical respect in hand, Carrey played legendary comedian Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (Milos Forman, 1999). Carrey disappeared into the role, living as Kaufman -- and his blustery alter-ego Tony Clifton -- for months. He won another Golden Globe for his powerhouse performance, but the film earned less than stellar reviews and did poor business at the box office. Such was the strength of the actor's portrayal, however, that his exclusion from the Best Actor nominations at that year's Academy Awards was a source of protest for a number of industry members.
Jim Carrey returned to straight comedy the following year with the Farrelly brothers' Me, Myself & Irene (Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, 2000), in which he starred as a cop a state trooper whose Jekyll and Hyde personalities both fall in love with the same woman (Renée Zellweger). Hal Erickson: "Though that film fared the least successful of the Farrellys' efforts to that point, Carrey's anarchic persona was given seemingly free-range and the result was his most unhinged role since The Mask." Carrey slipped into a furry green suit to play the stingy antihero of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Ron Howard, 2000). The film raked in the money at the box office and received a Golden Globe nomination despite widespread critical contempt. Continuing to seek acceptance as a skilled dramatist, Carrey next appeared in the box-office bomb The Majestic (2001). Carrey returned again to both comedy and box-office success with Bruce Almighty (Tom Shadyac, 2003). After handily proving that his power as a big-screen star was very much intact, Carrey wasted no time switching gears once again as he embarked on his most ambitious project to date, the mind-bending romantic-dramedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004). Scripted by Charlie Kaufman, the film garnered rave reviews and featured what was arguably Carrey's most subtly complex and subdued performance to date. Carrey's cartooney presence on the screen would make him a natural fit for the kids' movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, 2004), based on the popular children's novels of the same name. More family films followed over the coming years like A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis, 2009) and Mr. Popper's Penguins (Mark Waters, 2011). Carrey would also continue to explore dramatic roles, however, such as the dark thriller The Number 23 (Joel Schumacher, 2007) and the critically acclaimed biographical black comedy I Love You, Phillip Morris (John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, 2009) with Ewan McGregor. Carrey published a children's story, 'How Roland Rolls' (2013), and with Dana Vachon, a novel, 'Memoirs and Misinformation' (2020. Carrey has one child with his first wife, Melissa Carrey, Jane Carrey (1987), and a grandson, Jackson Riley Santana (2010).
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Belgian postcard by Boomerang Free Cards. Photo: Warner Bros. Jim Carrey as Riddler in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Arguably the top screen comedian of the 1990s, Canadian-born entertainer Jim Carrey (1962) has combined equal parts of his idol Jerry Lewis, his spiritual ancestor Harry Ritz, and the loose-limbed Ray Bolger into a gleefully uninhibited screen image that is uniquely his own. He rose to fame in the sketch comedy series In Living Color (1990) and leading roles in the comedies Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Dumb and Dumber (1994), and The Mask (1994) established him as a bankable film star.
James Eugene Carrey was born in 1962, in the Toronto suburb of Newmarket in Canada. He is the youngest of four children of Kathleen (Oram), a homemaker, and Percy Carrey, an accountant and jazz musician. Carrey was an incurable extrovert from day one. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "[Born] into a peripatetic household that regularly ran the gamut from middle-class comfort to abject poverty. Not surprisingly, Carrey became a classic overachiever, excelling in academics while keeping his classmates in stitches with his wild improvisations and elastic facial expressions. His comedy club debut at age 16 was a dismal failure, but Carrey had already resolved not to be beaten down by life's disappointments." By December 1981, a well-known comic in Canada, he received interest from Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Touring venues throughout North America as the opening act for Rodney Dangerfield, Carrey made a triumphant return home to Toronto in 1982, performing two sold-out shows at Massey Hall. He decided to permanently move to Hollywood. During this period Carrey met and married waitress Melissa Womer, with whom he had a daughter (Jane). The couple would later go through a very messy divorce, freeing Carrey up for a brief second marriage to actress Lauren Holly. By age 22, he was making a good living as a standup comic and was starring as a novice cartoonist on the short-lived sitcom The Duck Factory (1984). Throughout the 1980s, Carrey appeared in supporting roles in such films as Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Coppola, 1986) starring Kathleen Turner, and Earth Girls are Easy (Julien Temple, 1990) as the alien Wiploc. Impressed with Carrey's lunacy, fellow extraterrestrial Damon Wayans made a call to his brother, Keenen Ivory Wayans, who was in the process of putting together the sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990-1994). Carrey joined the cast and quickly made a name for himself with outrageous acts such as the grotesquely disfigured Fire Marshal Bill, whose dubious safety tips brought down the wrath of real-life fire prevention groups.
1994 proved to be s good year for Jim Carrey with the release of three top-grossing comedy films to his credit: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (Tom Shadyac, 1994), the manic superhero movie The Mask (Chuck Russell, 1994) with Cameron Diaz, and Dumb and Dumber (Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, 1994) with Jeff Daniels. The Mask, released in July 1994, grossed $351 million worldwide, and Dumb and Dumber, released in December 1994, grossed over $270 million worldwide. By the end of the year, Carrey was commanding seven to ten million dollars per picture. The actor/comedian took over for Robin Williams as The Riddler in the blockbuster Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). The film received mixed reviews but was a box office success. He tried his hand at a darker and more menacing role as a maniacal cable repairman in The Cable Guy (Ben Stiller, 1996). The film, and Carrey's at-times frightening performance, received decidedly mixed reviews from critics and audiences. He returned to all-out comedy in the energetic hit Liar, Liar (Tom Shadyac, 1997) as a chronically dishonest attorney. Carrey explored new territory with his lead role in the highly acclaimed The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998). He played a naive salesman who discovers that his entire life is the subject of a TV show. Carrey demonstrated an uncharacteristic sincerity and won a Golden Globe for his performance. Critical respect in hand, Carrey played legendary comedian Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon (Milos Forman, 1999). Carrey disappeared into the role, living as Kaufman -- and his blustery alter-ego Tony Clifton -- for months. He won another Golden Globe for his powerhouse performance, but the film earned less than stellar reviews and did poor business at the box office. Such was the strength of the actor's portrayal, however, that his exclusion from the Best Actor nominations at that year's Academy Awards was a source of protest for a number of industry members.
Jim Carrey returned to straight comedy the following year with the Farrelly brothers' Me, Myself & Irene (Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly, 2000), in which he starred as a cop a state trooper whose Jekyll and Hyde personalities both fall in love with the same woman (Renée Zellweger). Hal Erickson: "Though that film fared the least successful of the Farrellys' efforts to that point, Carrey's anarchic persona was given seemingly free-range and the result was his most unhinged role since The Mask." Carrey slipped into a furry green suit to play the stingy antihero of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Ron Howard, 2000). The film raked in the money at the box office and received a Golden Globe nomination despite widespread critical contempt. Continuing to seek acceptance as a skilled dramatist, Carrey next appeared in the box-office bomb The Majestic (2001). Carrey returned again to both comedy and box-office success with Bruce Almighty (Tom Shadyac, 2003). After handily proving that his power as a big-screen star was very much intact, Carrey wasted no time switching gears once again as he embarked on his most ambitious project to date, the mind-bending romantic-dramedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004). Scripted by Charlie Kaufman, the film garnered rave reviews and featured what was arguably Carrey's most subtly complex and subdued performance to date. Carrey's cartooney presence on the screen would make him a natural fit for the kids' movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, 2004), based on the popular children's novels of the same name. More family films followed over the coming years like A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis, 2009) and Mr. Popper's Penguins (Mark Waters, 2011). Carrey would also continue to explore dramatic roles, however, such as the dark thriller The Number 23 (Joel Schumacher, 2007) and the critically acclaimed biographical black comedy I Love You, Phillip Morris (John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, 2009) with Ewan McGregor. Carrey published a children's story, 'How Roland Rolls' (2013), and with Dana Vachon, a novel, 'Memoirs and Misinformation' (2020. Carrey has one child with his first wife, Melissa Carrey, Jane Carrey (1987), and a grandson, Jackson Riley Santana (2010).
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 1620. Photo: Warner Bros. Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Val Kilmer (1959) is an American actor, known for such blockbusters as Top Gun (1986), Batman Forever (1995) and Heat (1995). His chameleon-like ability to plunge fully and breathlessly into his characters catapulted him to fame in the mid-1980s but his reputation to be a troublesome actor and a series of disappointing films held him back from megastardom.
Val Edward Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, in 1959. He is the son of Gladys Swanette (Ekstadt) and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, who was a real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor. Val grew up in the San Fernando Valley. His family is a textbook example of mixed blood. He has Scottish, Swedish, Irish, Mongolian, and Cherokee blood in his veins, among others. His parents divorced when he was 9 years old. His first auditions were for commercials at 13 years old. When he was 17 years old, his younger brother Wesley who was an epileptic, drowned in a jacuzzi at age 15. Kilmer learned acting at the famous Juilliard Drama School in New York. He was the youngest student in history to be admitted to Juilliard. In 1983 he played his first television role and a year later he made his film debut with the lead role as blond rock idol Nick Rivers in Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, 1984), a spoof of Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Andrea LeVasseur at AllMovie: "An absurd role which Kilmer plays with complete sincerity, it reveals genuine musical talent and Kilmer achieves complete credibility as a rock star." He had his big break in the role of Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) starring Tom Cruise. Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. He gave a believable performance as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). He had spent close to a year before production dressing in Morrison-like clothes and had spent time at Morrison's old hangouts along the Sunset Strip. Kilmer did his own singing during the concert pieces and a number of his Doors songs were used on the soundtrack, sans dubbing. Two years later, Kilmer played two more American legends, the spirit of Elvis Presley in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), which was written by Quentin Tarantino, and gunslinger Doc Holliday in the Western Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993).
Val Kilmer took over the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne from Michael Keaton in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). Batman Forever was a success at the box office, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. Although he enjoyed playing Batman his working relationship with director Joel Schumacher was poor. Kilmer openly refused to repeat the Bruce Wayne role for Batman and Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), and he was succeeded by George Clooney. Due to his persistent need for an on-set dialogue with his directors, Kilmer had clashed earlier with Michael Apted on the set of Thunderheart (1992) and later infuriated director John Frankenheimer on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). However, others consider him a devoted, hard-working professional. Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star in Willow (Ron Howard, 1988), says he has very fond memories of working with Kilmer, stating that Kilmer had a great sense of humor and was very dedicated to the job. In addition to acting, Kilmer is also engaged in writing. In 1981 he wrote the play 'How It All Began', performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Later in the 1980s, he wrote a poetry collection, 'My Eden after burns'. Kilmer also acted on the stage. He played Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. In 2004 he played Moses in a musical and in 2005 he starred in London in David Mamet's play 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'. His other notable films include Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, the disappointing The Saint (Philip Noyce, 1997), and the action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005) with Robert Downey Jr. Another disappointment was the historical epic Alexander (Oliver Stone, 2004) in which he played the father of Alexander, King Philip, opposite Colin Farrell as Alexander. The Disney studios Sci-Fi-action thriller Deja Vu (Tony Scott, 2006) teamed Kilmer and Denzel Washington as feds who travel back in time to stop a terrorist's (Jim Caviezel) attempt to blow up a ferry. He also appeared in Werner Herzog's semi-sequel Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009), and Francis Ford Coppola's horror opus Twixt (2011), with Bruce Dern and Elle Fanning. Kilmer is a longtime board member of the New Mexico State Film Commission, which tries to persuade Los Angeles - based filmmakers and studios to film on location in New Mexico. From 1988 to 1996, Val Kilmer was married to British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while filming Willow (Ron Howard, 1988). They have two children: a daughter, Mercedes (1992), and a son, Jack (1995). Kilmer has gone through a battle with throat cancer. A procedure on his trachea has reduced his voice to a rasp and rendered him short of breath. He underwent chemotherapy and two tracheotomies. In 2020, Kilmer reported that he had been cancer-free for four years and that he uses a feeding tube to feed himself because he can no longer eat. He continues to act in films and upcoming is the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2021) in which Kilmer reprises his role as LT Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski.
Sources: Andrea LeVasseur (AllMovie), Denise P. Meyer (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Batgirl: Barbara Wilson, niece of Alfred Pennyworth, who joins Batman and Robin in their fight against the villains Poison Ivy and Mister Freeze.
Robin: Dick Grayson, skilled acrobat, who becomes Batman's partner and vows revenge against the villain Two-Face who killed his parents and brother.
If they had to fight, who would win?
#258 in the Duel 365 series.
Belgian postcard by Boomerang Free Cards. Photo: Warner Bros. Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Two-Face in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
American actor Tommy Lee Jones (1946), known for his deadpan delivery, played hard-edged but sarcastic law enforcement and military officers in such blockbusters as the thriller The Fugitive (1993) opposite Harrison Ford and the Men in Black series with Will Smith. He received four Oscar nominations, for JFK (1991), The Fugitive (1993), In the Valley of Elah (2007) and Lincoln (2012), and won the award for The Fugitive. Other acclaimed films in which he appeared include Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and No Country for Old Men (2007).
Tommy Lee Jones was born in 1946 in San Saba, Texas. He was the son of Lucille Marie (Scott), a police officer and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, who worked on oil fields. Tommy himself worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas, on a scholarship. On another scholarship, he attended Harvard University, where he roomed with future U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Though several of his less-knowledgeable fans have tended to dismiss Jones as a roughhewn redneck, the actor was equally at home on the polo fields (he's a champion player) as the oil fields. He received a B.A. in English literature and graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1969. Following college, he moved to New York and began his stage career on Broadway in 'A Patriot for Me' with Maximilian Schell, which closed after 49 performances. In 1970, he appeared in his first film, Love Story (Arthur Hiller, 1970), listed way, way down the cast list as one of Ryan O'Neal's fraternity buddies. Interestingly enough, while Jones was at Harvard, he and roommate Gore provided the models for author Erich Segal while he was writing the character of Oliver, the book's (and film's) protagonist. While living in New York, he continued to appear in various plays, both on- and off-Broadway: 'Fortune and Men's Eyes' (1969), Abe Burrows' 'Four on a Garden' (1971), 'Blue Boys' (1972), and 'Ulysses in Nighttown (1974). Between 1971 and 1975 he portrayed Dr. Mark Toland on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live. Jones got his first film lead in the obscure Canadian film Eliza's Horoscope (Gordon Sheppard, 1975). With his first wife, Kate Lardner, granddaughter of short-story writer/columnist Ring Lardner, and her two children from a previous marriage, he moved to Los Angeles. Jones gained national attention in 1977 when he was cast in the title role in the TV miniseries The Amazing Howard Hughes (William A. Graham, 1977). His resemblance to the American aviation pioneer and filmmaker - both vocally and visually - was positively uncanny. In the cinema, he played an escaped convict hunted in the exploitation crime thriller Jackson County Jail (Michael Miller, 1976), a Vietnam veteran in the thriller Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 1977), based on a story by Paul Schrader, an automobile mogul in the Harold Robbins drama The Betsy (Daniel Petrie, 1978) with Laurence Olivier, and opposite Faye Dunaway in the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars (Irvin Kershner, 1978), written by John Carpenter. In 1980, Jones earned his first Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn's husband, Doolittle "Mooney" Lynn, in Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980), starring Sissy Spacek. While working on the film Back Roads (Martin Ritt, 1981), he met and fell in love with Kimberlea Cloughley, whom he later married. Jones won further acclaim and an Emmy for his startling performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song (Lawrence Schiller, 1982), based on the book by Norman Mailer. Maria Vitale at IMDb: "More roles in television, on stage, and in films garnered him a reputation as a strong, explosive, thoughtful actor who could handle supporting as well as leading roles." Jones spent the rest of the 1980s working in both television and film, doing his most notable work on such TV miniseries as Lonesome Dove (Simon Wincer, 1989), for which he earned another Emmy nomination.
It was not until the early 1990s that Tommy Lee Jones became a substantial figure in Hollywood, a position catalyzed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in Oliver Stone's epic political thriller JFK (1991) which examines the events leading to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the alleged cover-up through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). In 1993, Jones won both that award and a Golden Globe for his driven, starkly funny portrayal of U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard in The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 1993), starring Harrison Ford. His subsequent work during the decade was prolific and enormously varied. In 1994 alone, he could be seen as an insane prison warden in Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994); titular baseball hero Ty Cobb in Cobb (Ron Shelton, 1994); a troubled army captain in Blue Sky (Tony Richardson, 1994); a wily federal attorney in the John Grisham adaptation The Client (Joel Schumacher, 1994); and a psychotic bomber in Blown Away (Stephen Hopkins, 1994) opposite Jeff Bridges. Jones was also attached to a number of big-budget action films, hamming it up as the crazed Two-Face in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995); donning sunglasses and an attitude to play special agent K in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997); and reprising his Fugitive role for the film's sequel, U.S. Marshals (Stuart Baird, 1998). The following year, he continued this trend, playing Ashley Judd's parole officer in the psychological thriller Double Jeopardy. The late 1990s and millennial turnover found Jones' popularity soaring, and the distinguished actor continued to develop a successful comic screen persona in such films as Space Cowboys (Clint Eastwood, 2000) and Men in Black II (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2002), in addition to maintaining his dramatic clout with roles in such thrillers as Rules of Engagement (William Friedkin, 2000) and The Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003).
2005 brought a comedic turn for Tommy Lee Jones who starred in the madcap comedy Man of the House (Stephen Herek, 2005) as a grizzled police officer who has to protect a house full of cheerleaders who witnessed a murder. Jones also took a stab at directing that year, helming and starring in the Neo-Western The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005). His performance won him the Best Actor Award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Jones appeared in the film adaptation of A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006), based on Garrison Keillor's long-running radio show. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The film's legendary director, much-loved source material, and all-star cast made the film a safe bet for the actor, who hadn't done much in the way of musical comedy. Jones played the consummate corporate bad guy with his trademark grit." He headlined the Iraq war drama In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis, 2007). His work as the veteran father of a son who died in the war earned him strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. However, more people saw Jones' other film from that year, the Coen brothers adaptation of No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007). His work as a middle-aged Texas sheriff haunted by the acts of the evil man he hunts earned him a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The actor co-starred with Stanley Tucci and Neal McDonough in the blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011) opposite Chris Evans, and reprised his role as a secret agent in Men in Black 3 (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2011). In 2012 he played a Congressman fighting to help Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) end slavery in Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012), a role that led to an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He most recently appeared in the Science-Fiction film Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) starring Brad Pitt, and in the comedy The Comeback Trail (George Gallo, 2020) with Robert De Niro. Tommy Lee Jones and Kimberlea Cloughley have two children, Austin Leonard Jones (1982), and Victoria Jones (1991). After his divorce from Cloughley in 1996, he married Dawn Jones in 2001.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Maria Vitale (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
American postcard by Slow Dazzle Worldwide, no. 19 in a series of 16, no. 1621. Photo: DC Comics, 1995. Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Two-Face in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). Caption: Half man, half madman, he's the ultimate dual personality. Two-Face is the former Gotham City district attorney Harvey Dent, who mistakenly blames Batman for an accident that left one side of his face grotesquely deformed. And now he's out to get Batman!
American actor Tommy Lee Jones (1946), known for his deadpan delivery, played hard-edged but sarcastic law enforcement and military officers in such blockbusters as the thriller The Fugitive (1993) opposite Harrison Ford and the Men in Black series with Will Smith. He received four Oscar nominations, for JFK (1991), The Fugitive (1993), In the Valley of Elah (2007) and Lincoln (2012), and won the award for The Fugitive. Other acclaimed films in which he appeared include Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), and No Country for Old Men (2007).
Tommy Lee Jones was born in 1946 in San Saba, Texas. He was the son of Lucille Marie (Scott), a police officer and beauty shop owner, and Clyde C. Jones, who worked on oil fields. Tommy himself worked in underwater construction and on an oil rig. He attended St. Mark's School of Texas, a prestigious prep school for boys in Dallas, on a scholarship. On another scholarship, he attended Harvard University, where he roomed with future U.S. Vice President Al Gore. Though several of his less-knowledgeable fans have tended to dismiss Jones as a roughhewn redneck, the actor was equally at home on the polo fields (he's a champion player) as the oil fields. He received a B.A. in English literature and graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1969. Following college, he moved to New York and began his stage career on Broadway in 'A Patriot for Me' with Maximilian Schell, which closed after 49 performances. In 1970, he appeared in his first film, Love Story (Arthur Hiller, 1970), listed way, way down the cast list as one of Ryan O'Neal's fraternity buddies. Interestingly enough, while Jones was at Harvard, he and roommate Gore provided the models for author Erich Segal while he was writing the character of Oliver, the book's (and film's) protagonist. While living in New York, he continued to appear in various plays, both on- and off-Broadway: 'Fortune and Men's Eyes' (1969), Abe Burrows' 'Four on a Garden' (1971), 'Blue Boys' (1972), and 'Ulysses in Nighttown (1974). Between 1971 and 1975 he portrayed Dr. Mark Toland on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live. Jones got his first film lead in the obscure Canadian film Eliza's Horoscope (Gordon Sheppard, 1975). With his first wife, Kate Lardner, granddaughter of short-story writer/columnist Ring Lardner, and her two children from a previous marriage, he moved to Los Angeles. Jones gained national attention in 1977 when he was cast in the title role in the TV miniseries The Amazing Howard Hughes (William A. Graham, 1977). His resemblance to the American aviation pioneer and filmmaker - both vocally and visually - was positively uncanny. In the cinema, he played an escaped convict hunted in the exploitation crime thriller Jackson County Jail (Michael Miller, 1976), a Vietnam veteran in the thriller Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 1977), based on a story by Paul Schrader, an automobile mogul in the Harold Robbins drama The Betsy (Daniel Petrie, 1978) with Laurence Olivier, and opposite Faye Dunaway in the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars (Irvin Kershner, 1978), written by John Carpenter. In 1980, Jones earned his first Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn's husband, Doolittle "Mooney" Lynn, in Coal Miner's Daughter (Michael Apted, 1980), starring Sissy Spacek. While working on the film Back Roads (Martin Ritt, 1981), he met and fell in love with Kimberlea Cloughley, whom he later married. Jones won further acclaim and an Emmy for his startling performance as murderer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song (Lawrence Schiller, 1982), based on the book by Norman Mailer. Maria Vitale at IMDb: "More roles in television, on stage, and in films garnered him a reputation as a strong, explosive, thoughtful actor who could handle supporting as well as leading roles." Jones spent the rest of the 1980s working in both television and film, doing his most notable work on such TV miniseries as Lonesome Dove (Simon Wincer, 1989), for which he earned another Emmy nomination.
It was not until the early 1990s that Tommy Lee Jones became a substantial figure in Hollywood, a position catalyzed by a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in Oliver Stone's epic political thriller JFK (1991) which examines the events leading to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the alleged cover-up through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner). In 1993, Jones won both that award and a Golden Globe for his driven, starkly funny portrayal of U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard in The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 1993), starring Harrison Ford. His subsequent work during the decade was prolific and enormously varied. In 1994 alone, he could be seen as an insane prison warden in Natural Born Killers (Oliver Stone, 1994); titular baseball hero Ty Cobb in Cobb (Ron Shelton, 1994); a troubled army captain in Blue Sky (Tony Richardson, 1994); a wily federal attorney in the John Grisham adaptation The Client (Joel Schumacher, 1994); and a psychotic bomber in Blown Away (Stephen Hopkins, 1994) opposite Jeff Bridges. Jones was also attached to a number of big-budget action films, hamming it up as the crazed Two-Face in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995); donning sunglasses and an attitude to play special agent K in Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997); and reprising his Fugitive role for the film's sequel, U.S. Marshals (Stuart Baird, 1998). The following year, he continued this trend, playing Ashley Judd's parole officer in the psychological thriller Double Jeopardy. The late 1990s and millennial turnover found Jones' popularity soaring, and the distinguished actor continued to develop a successful comic screen persona in such films as Space Cowboys (Clint Eastwood, 2000) and Men in Black II (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2002), in addition to maintaining his dramatic clout with roles in such thrillers as Rules of Engagement (William Friedkin, 2000) and The Hunted (William Friedkin, 2003).
2005 brought a comedic turn for Tommy Lee Jones who starred in the madcap comedy Man of the House (Stephen Herek, 2005) as a grizzled police officer who has to protect a house full of cheerleaders who witnessed a murder. Jones also took a stab at directing that year, helming and starring in the Neo-Western The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005). His performance won him the Best Actor Award at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Jones appeared in the film adaptation of A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, 2006), based on Garrison Keillor's long-running radio show. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "The film's legendary director, much-loved source material, and all-star cast made the film a safe bet for the actor, who hadn't done much in the way of musical comedy. Jones played the consummate corporate bad guy with his trademark grit." He headlined the Iraq war drama In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis, 2007). His work as the veteran father of a son who died in the war earned him strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. However, more people saw Jones' other film from that year, the Coen brothers adaptation of No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007). His work as a middle-aged Texas sheriff haunted by the acts of the evil man he hunts earned him a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The actor co-starred with Stanley Tucci and Neal McDonough in the blockbuster Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011) opposite Chris Evans, and reprised his role as a secret agent in Men in Black 3 (Barry Sonnenfeld, 2011). In 2012 he played a Congressman fighting to help Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis) end slavery in Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2012), a role that led to an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He most recently appeared in the Science-Fiction film Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019) starring Brad Pitt, and in the comedy The Comeback Trail (George Gallo, 2020) with Robert De Niro. Tommy Lee Jones and Kimberlea Cloughley have two children, Austin Leonard Jones (1982), and Victoria Jones (1991). After his divorce from Cloughley in 1996, he married Dawn Jones in 2001.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Maria Vitale (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Riddler: Edward Nygma, technical whiz and inventor at Wayne Enterprises in Gotham City who invents a mind-manipulation device that taps into people's brainwaves and also artificially increases his own intelligence.
Edward: "Radical Edward," strange and somewhat androgynous teenage girl and elite hacker prodigy with a mysterious past who helps a crew of bounty hunters living in the spaceship named Bebop.
If they had to fight, who would win?
#264 in the Duel 365 series.