R.I.P. to Val Kilmer

[Monterey Jack]

Nick Rivers just performed his last concert.



https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/movi ... -dead.html

[TaranofPrydain]

He had been ill for so long, and had been frank about his trials, and yet his death seems unexpected and very sad. He was magnificent in Tombstone and hilarious in Top Secret. And I treasure his vocal performance in The Prince of Egypt.

[AndyDursin]

TOP SECRET and REAL GENIUS were, for most of us, the first exposure he had, and it's too bad he didn't do more comedies because he had a flair for it.

Obviously we point to the handful of big, juicy, colorful roles in TOP GUN, THE DOORS and obviously TOMBSTONE as being his big moments -- and having some "edge" in character was always better for him. When he tried the straight hero thing in WILLOW and BATMAN FOREVER it was never as interesting. Beyond that, we can also point to THE SAINT and THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS in the mid '90s as being the end of him being a viable leading man. From then on, sadly, he was mostly used in supporting roles, some throwaways at that in a lot of dreck, through the rest of his career.

I'd argue at another time he probably would've had a longer career, as his shelf life seemed specific to a very short point in time (mid 80s to mid 90s), but he had a specific persona and charisma that will always be missed.

The fact he was also, reportedly, hard to work with at times was undoubtedly a main factor in shortening that career window too.

Here's a good article from the Independent:

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-en ... 26010.html

He seemed, in the best and worst senses of the word, exhausting. He was a Method actor and mischief-maker, both nice ways of saying that a litany of filmmakers couldn’t stand him. On the set of 1995’s Batman Forever, one of his ill-fated attempts at name-above-the-title film stardom, he would show up late covered in blankets, clash with the crew, and say his lines so quietly that no one could hear them. “The two weeks where he didn’t speak to me [were] bliss,” its director Joel Schumacher once said. On The Island of Dr Moreau a year later, actors were so incensed by Kilmer’s surly behaviour that they’d ring up their agents begging to quit the film. Marlon Brando reportedly threw Kilmer’s phone in a bush and told him that he’d confused the size of his salary for the size of his talent. “I don’t like Val Kilmer, I don’t like his work ethic, and I don’t want to be associated with him ever again,” said the film’s director John Frankenheimer.

Many of the films he desperately wanted to star in – Goodfellas and Full Metal Jacket, most notably – were ones he didn’t get. Those he fought for and did get were directed by men who seemed to match his odd mix of slick, cocksure madness. When Oliver Stone dithered over casting him in The Doors, Kilmer spent thousands of dollars of his own money to fund an elaborate, multi-scene audition reel in full Jim Morrison drag that he shot in his Laurel Canyon home. Stone gave him the part. Ultimately, he was so convincing as Morrison – dropping to his exact weight and learning to sing 50 songs by The Doors despite only needing to sing 15 for the film – that the band’s surviving members admitted that they couldn’t tell the difference between Morrison and Kilmer’s singing voices.

[Chris Shaneyfelt]

Very sad to hear of Val Kilmer's passing. I was always amazed by how chameleon-like he was as an actor; how he seemed to disappear into his best roles. Of course, my favorite performance by him will always be Doc Holiday in TOMBSTONE. I was also amazed by how much he physically transformed into Billy the Kid for GORE VIDAL'S BILLY THE KID. There is a picture of him recreating the 1880's photo of Billy the Kid, and it's astonishing how he seems to really look like him - an odd-looking figure.

I also admired his performance in THUNDERHEART.