Val
In what I pray both is and is not an April Fool’s Day prank of the worst order, actor and writer Val Kilmer died today at the age of 65 from complications with pneumonia.
This one hits hard. Harder than almost any celebrity death I can personally imagine.
I’ve been a fan of Val since sometime around 1985 with the release of Real Genius in which he starred as big brained prankster Chris Knight. Then it was a flurry of cool roles in Top Gun, Willow, The Doors, True Romance, Tombstone, Batman Forever, Heat, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Saint, The Salton Sea, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, MacGruber, and Top Gun: Maverick.
In recent years, he’s suffered severe health issues. Things that have prevented him from acting regularly without major accessibility concessions made such as his speech assistance in Top Gun: Maverick.
It’s truly sad but we at least got to say good-bye in advance via the death of one his most iconic characters, Capt./Adm. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky.
But for me, it will always be his roles as Knight in Real Genius and Doc Holliday in Tombstone that I watch over and over from any point and have most lines memorized. They are two of my desert island movies.
This one hurts.
RIP Val.
Yeah, this one hurt a lot here. All of the movies you mentioned were ones I liked a lot. For me, my all time favorite role of his was Elvis in True Romance. I mean, that movies is one of my favorites anyway with Tony Scott directing and Tarantino writing. But it was such a background role that he nailed.
He will be missed, that's for sure.
Posted by: Marty Mankins | Friday, 04 April 2025 at 02:49 PM
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen True Romance. I need to watch it again.
Posted by: kapgar | Friday, 04 April 2025 at 05:08 PM