Val Kilmer (1959-2025) was one of the most iconic actors of the 80s and 90s and beyond. He had natural charisma and played parts in various films as a leading man and supporting player in equally memorable ways. Kilmer was the youngest entrant to Julliard (at the time) at 21, was working regularly in theater, and made the leap to the big screen in 1984’s Top Secret! and the following year he was in Real Genius, then he was the Iceman in the box office smash Top Gun. A few years later he was the lead in Ron Howard’s Willow.
He gave a fantastic performance as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991). This is the role he will probably be best remembered for, as he completely inhabited the real-life singer. He relentlessly prepared, memorizing all the lyrics to the songs and dressing like Morrison for a year, even wearing black contact lenses to mimic being perpetually inebriated. As Morrison and in all of his performances, he had a level of unpredictability that made him compelling to watch.
He was incredible as Doc Holliday in Tombstone, as Elvis in True Romance, and as Batman in Batman Forever… He was also memorable in Heat, Pollock, The Salton Sea, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Deja Vu. He never stopped working in theater, and in 2012, he wrote and starred in Citizen Twain about the life of Mark Twain. He toured with this production until he had health problems in 2015. Kilmer had throat cancer, and while he survived it, it had damaged his larynx making performing near impossible. He spent his final years working as a consummate artist, creating a variety of mediums, including painting. He wrote a memoir – I’ll Be Your Huckleberry, and was the star of a documentary about him entitled VAL. His final film role reunited him with Tom Cruise in 2022’s massive box office hit Top Gun: Maverick.
Val Kilmer was an indelible artist who will be sorely missed.
