Chili Palmer
Encyclopedia
| Get Shorty Get Shorty (film) Get Shorty is a 1995 crime-comedy film based on Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, and Danny DeVito, the plot remained true to the book except for a few minor details.... /Be Cool Be Cool Be Cool is a 2005 crime-comedy film adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1999 novel of the same name and the sequel to Leonard's 1990 novel Get Shorty about mobster Chili Palmer's entrance into the film industry.The film adaptation of Be Cool began production in 2003. It was directed by F... character |
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| Occupation: | Record Record producer A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music... and Film producer Film producer A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The... |
| Race & Ethnicity: | Caucasian Caucasian race The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia... Italian Italian people The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people... , German |
| Residence | Hollywood, California California California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area... |
| Creator: | Elmore Leonard Elmore Leonard Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his... |
| Portrayed by: | John Travolta John Travolta John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease... |
Chili Palmer is a character from Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. , better known as Elmore Leonard, is an American novelist and screenwriter. His earliest published novels in the 1950s were westerns, but Leonard went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures.Among his...
's novels Get Shorty
Get Shorty
Get Shorty is a 1990 novel by American novelist Elmore Leonard. In 1995, the novel was adapted into a film of the same name.-Plot summary:...
, the movie adaptation of the same name
Get Shorty (film)
Get Shorty is a 1995 crime-comedy film based on Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, and Danny DeVito, the plot remained true to the book except for a few minor details....
, the sequel, Be Cool
Be Cool
Be Cool is a 2005 crime-comedy film adapted from Elmore Leonard's 1999 novel of the same name and the sequel to Leonard's 1990 novel Get Shorty about mobster Chili Palmer's entrance into the film industry.The film adaptation of Be Cool began production in 2003. It was directed by F...
and the movie adaptation of the same name. Chili is played in the films by John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
. His character and name are a tribute to Elmore Leonard's good friend Ernest 'Chili' Palmer from Brooklyn, New York, who had a cameo at the beginning of Get Shorty.
Get Shorty
Chili is introduced as a shylockLoan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
from Miami. He is sent to Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
to collect a bad debt. While on this journey, he runs into Harry Zimm (in the film, played by Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen "Gene" Hackman is an American actor and novelist.Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde...
), a Hollywood producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
of low-budget horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s; his girlfriend Karen Flores (Rene Russo
Rene Russo
- Early life :Russo was born in Burbank, California, the daughter of Shirley , a factory worker and barmaid, and Nino Russo, a sculptor and car mechanic who left the family when Rene was two. Her father and maternal grandfather were of Italian descent. Russo grew up with her sister, Toni, and their...
), a film actress who often appears in Harry's films; Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo
Delroy Lindo
Delroy George Lindo is an English actor and theatre director. Lindo has been nominated for the Tony and Screen Actors Guild awards and has won a Satellite Award...
), Harry's drug-dealing financier; and Martin "Shorty" Weir (Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...
), a well-meaning but self-centered movie star. While trying to get the $300,000 debt (the actual debt was only $15,000, the $300,000 was scammed from an airline), Chili also uses his experience in the mob to coach Martin Weir for a role as a mafia enforcer, and also to help Harry finance his latest movie, Mr. Lovejoy.
Be Cool
Ten years after becoming a film producer, Chili gets tired of being a filmmaker and is thinking that he might go back to being a shylock because they're "honest about being dishonest." His friend, Tommy Athens (James WoodsJames Woods
James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...
), a music producer, wants his own life as owner of NTL Records to be made into a film. Tommy tells Chili about an aspiring singer named Linda Moon (Christine Milian). However, shortly after, he gets killed by a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
boss named Roman Bulkin (Alex Kubik), leaving Tommy's business partner and widow Edie (Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
) in a sea of debt. That night, Chili meets Linda and decides that she has the potential to become a big star. However, Linda's current manager, Raji (Vince Vaughn
Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers...
), and his gay bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
, Elliot (Dwayne Johnson), an aspiring actor, won't let her go. Chili and Edie grow closer -- first as friends and then as lovers -- as they try to figure out how to make Linda a star despite NTL's financial woes. This is complicated by entanglements with debtors such as the Russian mob and hip-hop mogul Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer
Cedric the Entertainer
Cedric Antonio Kyles , known professionally by his stage name Cedric the Entertainer, is an American actor, comedian and director...
) and music rivals such as Raji and his business partner, Nick Carr (Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
).