FILM · 1991 · FRANCE
The Doors
30 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (30)
- #001
Jim Morrison's real grave is shown at the end of the film, filmed at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. The headstone has since been replaced, and at the request of Jim's parents graffiti was removed from surrounding graves. Jim's bust was stolen in 1988. As pieces of the stone were broken off and stolen over the years, the grave was surrounded by a steel fence to prevent further damage. The bust was eventually found and returned in 2025.
- #002
The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger insisted that the scene showing the band rehearsing "Light My Fire" makes it clear that he, not Jim Morrison, composed the song.
- #003
Val Kilmer badly broke his arm while jumping from the stage into the crowd. The stunt double failed to catch him, and an abnormal growth formed on Kilmer's right elbow. The growth is clearly visible in Heat (1995), in which McCauley discovers Shiherlis asleep in his living room and begins briefing him on travel schedules.
- #004
The cave scene in which Jim Morrison wanders through the New Mexico desert was filmed at the Mitchell Caverns in the East Mojave Preserve in California. According to the tour guide there, Oliver Stone and the art department painted over Native American petroglyphs in the area. The state fined Stone and banned future filming in the caves.
- #005
Val Kilmer's voice is used in close-ups, while Jim Morrison's voice is used in long shots.
- #006
Ray Manzarek turned down many of Stone's requests to help with the film. Manzarek has since said the film is a terrible account of the band's history.
- #007
The bar that Jim Morrison and his friends frequented in the film is Barney's Beanery, a popular West Hollywood, California spot. It was the last place Janis Joplin visited before she died at the Landmark Motor Hotel in the early hours of October 4, 1970.
- #008
In the scenes where Jim Morrison is stoned, Val Kilmer wore special contact lenses that made his pupils appear dilated.
- #009
Because the film was shot out of order, Val Kilmer had to carefully gain weight for Jim Morrison's weight, so that in later years the flabbiness would be noticeable only in his belly and could be hidden when he played Morrison as a young man.
- #010
Val Kilmer reportedly became so absorbed in playing the character of Jim Morrison that he had to seek psychiatric help to get "Jim" out of his head.
- #011
The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger approved of and helped with the film because Stone's earlier film Salvador (1986) was one of his favorites and he could easily picture such a film about The Doors.
- #012
The scene in which Jim Morrison smashes a television in the recording studio actually happened in real life. Ray Manzarek vividly recounts it in his autobiography "Light My Fire."
- #013
The Doors' music was played constantly on set during filming.
- #014
Michael Madsen originally auditioned for the role of Jim Morrison. He later took the role of Tom Baker after Billy Idol, following his serious motorcycle accident, dropped the role of Baker and moved to the smaller role of Cat.
- #015
In the film, the band signs after being kicked out of the Whiskey-a-Go-Go. In real life, they were signed by Elektra Records on August 18, 1966. The Whiskey-a-Go-Go fired the band on August 21 after Jim Morrison used acid-fueled, disrespectful Oedipus Rex lyrics.
- #016
According to Oliver Stone, Val Kilmer drinks colored sugary water throughout the film.
- #017
During the concert scenes, Kilmer lip-synced to The Doors' master tapes without Morrison's lead vocals, performing his own singing.
- #018
In the Val Kilmer/U2 episode of Saturday Night Live (1975) from 2000, Val Kilmer reprises the role of Jim Morrison in a Behind the Music (1997)-style parody, in which Morrison — confused about why he didn't go to hell after arriving in heaven — forms a supergroup with Janis Joplin, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon and Louis Armstrong.
- #019
Jim Morrison's grave in Paris, France, is reported to be the fourth most popular attraction in the city, after the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and the Louvre.
- #020
The clothing worn during the band's performance on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) is accurate. The only incorrect outfit was Jim Morrison's. Val Kilmer wears a black shirt and black leather pants. Jim Morrison wore a white shirt and a leather jacket during the famous recording.
- #021
Keyboardist Ray Manzarek was traditionally the biggest advocate of immortalizing the band on film, but he opposed Stone's involvement. He was unhappy with the direction Stone would take in the film and refused to give his approval.
- #022
"Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram of "Jim Morrison."
- #023
The film features more than two dozen Doors songs, but only half of them appear on the accompanying soundtrack album. In the film, the band's original recordings were combined with Kilmer's vocal performances, but none of Kilmer's performances appear on the soundtrack album.
- #024
Val Kilmer had the same singing voice as Morrison and spent several thousand dollars of his own money to convince Stone he was right for the role, filming his own eight-minute audition video in which he sang and looked like Morrison at various stages of his life.
- #025
Kyle MacLachlan originally auditioned to play Jim Morrison, but Oliver Stone thought he was better suited to play Ray Manzarek. The supporting role was a more convenient schedule for the actor, who filmed his part between seasons of Twin Peaks (1990).
- #026
The graves shown in front of Jim Morrison at Père Lachaise are, in order: Frédéric Chopin, Georges Bizet, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Gioacchino Rossini and Molière. All had careers representing Jim's career and interests: Chopin, Bizet and Rossini were musicians. Balzac, Wilde and Proust were writers and philosophers. Bernhardt and Molière were live stage performers.
- #027
Before the audition, Val Kilmer memorized the lyrics to all the songs written by Jim Morrison. He also sent director Oliver Stone a video in which he performed several Doors songs; Stone claimed this hurt Kilmer's image of Morrison. Kilmer's audition tape, preparation and behind-the-scenes footage appear in the documentary Val (2021).
- #028
Filming the "The End" sequence took five days; it stretched to 24 takes before Stone got what he wanted, after which Kilmer was left completely exhausted.
- #029
In a 1991 interview with Gary James, Manzarek criticized Stone for exaggerating Morrison's alcohol consumption in the film: "Jim always with the bottle. That was so ridiculous… It wasn't about Jim Morrison. It was about drunk Jimbo Morrison. God, where was the sensitive poet and the funny guy? The guy I knew wasn't on that screen."
- #030
Jim Morrison claimed that when he was young his family was in a terrible accident in the desert, where a large number of Native Americans were scattered around and one of them entered his soul as a ghost. By all accounts, including Morrison's family's, this never happened. It was a harmless fender bender.
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