Val Kilmer, a gifted yet volatile performer who appeared in "Top Gun", "The Doors", "Heat" and "Batman Forever", has passed away on April 1st at the age of sixty-five. Kilmer had been struggling with throat cancer since 2015 and died from complications from pneumonia.
Born in Los Angeles, Kilmer was accepted into Juilliard School in drama and later appeared Off-Broadway in 1983. The following year he broke through after being cast as the lead in the latest comedy spoof by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker (the men behind "Airplane!") with "Top Secret!". Kilmer followed this up with "Real Genius", another comedy set in the world of science, directed by Martha Coolidge in 1985.
Kilmer shifted gears by appearing in "Top Gun", the military action-drama that help cement Tom Cruise as a movie star, in a supporting role that displayed the actor's dramatic intensity. The film was a huge success, helping Kilmer land other interesting roles. He starred in Ron Howard's fantasy-adventure, "Willow" where he co-starred with his future wife, Joanne Whalley in 1989 and then in the following year, Oliver Stone would have him portray the rock musician, Jim Morrison in the biopic, "The Doors" with the actor impressively singing the band's music. Other noteworthy films he appeared include "Thunderheart", "True Romance", the western, "Tombstone" (where he played Doc Holliday and received critical acclaim) and a supporting role in "Heat", the Michael Mann crime drama which paired Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for the first time on screen.
After Michael Keaton, who played the role for two films, dropped out of playing Batman, Kilmer was cast for the next adventure, "Batman Forever" with Joel Schumacher as the new director in 1995. The actor and the director clashed during the making of the film which began Kilmer's a reputation as "difficult". The reviews of "Batman Forever" (which also starred Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones and Nicole Kidman) were mixed but was still a box-office hit. Unhappy with the direction of film, Kilmer did not reprise his role in the follow-up feature (with George Clooney putting on the Bat-suit) although it doesn't seem he was encouraged since Schumacher was returning as director. He went on to star in "The Saint", "The Ghost and the Darkness", "At First Sight" and a remake of "The Island of Dr. Moreau" with Marlon Brando. This film was a very difficult production with the actors having personal issues, problems with each other and the original director, Richard Stanley who was fired and replaced with John Frankenheimer. Not surprisingly, the film would turn out to become a critical and box-office failure.
Kilmer would continue to do great work in film and on stage, creating a one-man show on writer, Mark Twain called "Citizen Twain" he began in 2012. During his treatment for cancer, he underwent chemotherapy and two tracheotomies which left him with a very raspy voice. For the long-awaited sequel to "Top Gun" released in 2022, Cruise insisted that Kilmer appear in the film as his character, Admiral Tom "Iceman" Kazansky although his voice would need to be enhanced somewhat with AI. Kilmer was married to Whalley for nine years, divorcing in 1996 and they had two children, Mercedes and Jack who are both working actors.
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