Val Kilmer, world famous movie star and lifelong West Coaster passed away after a long battle with throat cancer and pneumonia. In 2015 Kilmer underwent a tracheal procedure to treat the cancer that made it virtually impossible to speak. However, this didn’t stop him from enjoying and celebrating his life.
In 2021, Kilmer released a documentary, Val, about his life in Hollywood; all told through video footage he had recorded throughout his life and career and all narrated from his perspective. Kilmer attended Chatsworth High School and ended up transferring to Juilliard’s Drama School when he was just 17.
Kilmer would start his career as a stage actor in the play The Slab Boys (1983), about the lives of three young men who worked in the slab room of a carpet factory in the United Kingdom, after turning down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s film, The Outsiders.
His breakout role would come in the form of Nick Rivers, rock and roll star turned spy when he accidently becomes part of a ploy to save an imprisoned scientist, in the 1984 spoof comedy Top Secret!. Then after taking a short hiatus to backpack across Europe, Val came back to acting to star in Real Genius (1985), a comedy about two friends who unknowingly create a laser for the government. After that it was off to the races. Just a year later, after declining a role in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Kilmer was cast as Iceman in Top Gun along side Tom Cruise which went on to gross over $344 million. Then in 1988, Kilmer would be cast in Willow, a fantasy adventure film, where he would meet his later wife Joanne Whalley.
Then in 1991, Kilmer would star in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, that changed everything. Kilmer would give one of the most accurate and authentic performances as Jim Morrison, so much so that many of the Doors themselves believed Morrison had been reincarnated through Val’s performance. A few years later, Kilmer starred as the caped crusader himself, in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever. The movie was another box office hit and another star of Kilmer’s acting resume. Towards the end of the decade, in 1998, Val starred in an animated movie called Prince of Egypt which now has a cult following.
Kilmer would go on to play other lesser known roles here and there during the early 2000s, mostly making appearances on television. One of his more notable movie roles was alongside Denzel Washington in the 2006 box office hit Déjà Vu.
Val Kilmer was more than a movie star — he was a true artist, a soulful presence, and a storyteller who defied the odds time and time again. From the bold charisma of Iceman to the haunting, near-spiritual embodiment of Jim Morrison, Kilmer brought depth, vulnerability, and intensity to every role he played. His legacy is one of fearless creativity, quiet resilience, and an unwavering love for the craft. To those who knew his work, he was unforgettable. To those who loved him, he was irreplaceable. And to the world, he remains a shining example of how to keep creating, keep dreaming, and keep living — even when your voice is taken from you. As Val once said, “I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved in every way that a human being can behave. I have no regrets.”
