Remembering Val Kilmer

With the sad passing of Val Kilmer at the age of just 65, Cinema Paradiso reflects on the life of an actor who tried to play the fame game by his own rules.

'I don't really have too much of a notion about success or popularity,' Val Kilmer once declared. 'I never cultivated fame, I never cultivated a persona, except possibly the desire to be regarded as an actor.' Yet, for someone who took acting so seriously, Kilmer didn't always know what kind of actor he aspired to being.

His choice of projects suggest someone who wanted to be a character player, but who recognised the benefits of stardom. Thus, while he signed up to the odd blockbuster, he also turned down several iconic pictures and earned a reputation for prickly perfectionism on quirky selections that weren't always worthy of his talent.

Writer-director David Mamet had it right when he said, 'What Val has as an actor is something that the really, really great actors have, which is they make everything sound like an improvisation.' With his looks, presence, intelligence, and intensity, Kilmer could have been one of the all-time greats. But he had restless and self-sabotaging streaks that meant, as The Guardian so neatly put it, that he was also 'an actor who seems to enjoy accentuating his eccentricities'.

The Young Pretender

The middle boy of three, Val Edward Kilmer was born in Los Angeles on 31 December 1959. Father Eugene was of German, Irish, and Cherokee extraction, while mother Gladys had Swedish heritage that later prompted Kilmer to claim that she was as enigmatic as Ingrid Bergman. She was also a Christian Scientist and Kilmer found solace in his faith throughout his life.

Along with brothers Mark and Wesley, Kilmer was raised in the San Fernando Valley suburb of Chatsworth, where they were neighbours of cowboy star Roy Rogers and cult leader Charles Manson, who had installed his 'family' at the Spahn Ranch. At the age of seven, Val was persuaded by his brothers and five cousins to ring the bell of the Rogers home and ask wife Dale Evans if Roy could come out to play.

As Gene made a fortune from selling spare parts to the aerospace industry, he invested in land and built up an impressive portfolio. He even bought the Rogers house and Kilmer remembers being surprised to discover that the actor's horse and dog, Trigger and Bullet, had been stuffed and put on display.

Success, however, caused Gene to stray and, when Val was eight, Gladys tired of his infidelities and sued for divorce. She married Bill Leach in 1970 and moved to Wickenburg, Arizona, where she lived until June 2019. Gene used his wealth to obtain custody of the boys, whose every whim was indulged. Wesley excelled at art and coaxed his father and siblings into acting in his homemade movies, which included a remake of Blake Edwards's The Great Race (1965) and a film called Teeth that copied Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975).

Val also acted at school, as he moved from Berkeley Hall School in Los Angeles to Chatsworth High School, where his classmates included Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham, who became the first in a long line of girlfriends that would include Cher, Cindy Crawford, Angelina Jolie, and Daryl Hannah. Kilmer had discovered that he enjoyed making people laugh in a 5th grade production of The Mouse That Roared (which had been filmed by Richard Lester in 1959 ). He was also part of the troupe that took first prize at the Valley One Act Festival with Tales From Chatsworth.

The young Kilmer showed signs of temperament as early as 12, when he stalked off the set of a hamburger commercial because he didn't feel sufficiently motivated to promote a product he didn't believe in. No wonder he counted Marlon Brando among his heroes. He also cited the influence of John Garfield, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, John Gielgud, Burt Lancaster, Paul Muni, and Charles Laughton. He also admired Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Greta Garbo 'for their beauty' and 'really loved' Orson Welles.

Such was Kilmer's passion for acting that he hoped to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. However, he was too young to apply and the 17 year-old became instead one of the youngest ever to be accepted by the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. Before he took up his place, however, Kilmer lost his younger brother, Wesley, who drowned in the family jacuzzi during an epileptic fit. He was only 16 and Gene never forgave himself for not having insisted on his son taking his prescribed medicine. Over the next few years, his business ran into difficulties and a trusting Val allowed his father to use his name on around 20 phantom companies in order to stay afloat. When faced with ruin, Gene asked Val to bail him out and he signed over a sizeable cheque. However, relations were strained and, when Gene died in 1993, Val and Mark fell out over the estate and became estranged.

Looking back on his time at Juilliard (where Kelly McGillis was a contemporary), Kilmer claimed, 'It was quite an emotional time for me, and in a way, the extremely high standards and the activity of the school I'm sure were good for me, because I was forced to really challenge myself about my very life, you know - what I believe about life and death.' Reflecting on the tough regime, he recalled, 'I had a mean teacher once, who kind of said, 'How dare you think you can act Shakespeare? You don't know how to walk across the room yet," - and in a way, that's true.'

But he was growing in confidence and, in Leo Scott and Ting Poo's documentary, Val (2021), he can be seen arguing with a tutor because he always had very definite ideas about how things should be done. Kilmer had a camcorder and filmed everything (he amassed over 800 hours of footage), which makes this a riveting study to watch, even though it clearly has an agenda in presenting events from Kilmer's rarely objective perspective. Nevertheless, it's a shame it's not available on disc, especially as it's so honest in its depiction of the actor's tragic later years.

An Actor's Life For Me

At Juilliard, Kilmer took the leading role of German radical Michael Baumann in How It All Began, a play he had co-written with his fellow cast members. Such was its success that producer Joseph Papp staged it at the Public Theatre. Indeed, Papp was so taken by Kilmer that he cast him as Hotspur's servant in Henry IV, Part One (1981) and as Orlando in As You Like It (1982). Kilmer's aim, however, was to play the Dane and he got his chance when Hamlet was presented at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder in 1988. Four years later, he would return to the Public Theatre to play Giovanni in John Ford's Jacobean tragedy, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Yet, while he relished the challenge of taking these complex roles, Kilmer never returned to the classical repertoire, although he did make periodic returns to the theatre.

Instead, he largely stuck to contemporary scenarios or those set in the recent past after making his Broadway bow John Byrne's The Slab Boys in 1983. According to Kilmer, he was cast in the lead, but dropped down the credits when Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn became available and he wound up playing Alan Downie, who is the butt of all the jokes. The show got him noticed, however, and he was offered a part in Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders (1983).

Forced to decline because of his stage commitments, Kilmer did make his debut on camera in One Too Many (1983), an ABC Afterschool Special about drink driving that also starred Mare Winningham and Michelle Pfeiffer. He became so drawn to the latter that he wrote her a book of poetry, My Edens After Burns, which he self-published in 1983.

The following year, Kilmer dressed as Elvis Presley to audition for Top Secret! (1984), a Cold War comedy in which rock singer Nick Rivers foils a plot to reunite 1950s Germany. Directed by Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker, this spy movies lampoon not only gave Kilmer the chance to demonstrate his comic touch, but also his singing ability and he released an album in his character's name. He was miffed, however, when the co-directors told him to learn the guitar and then forced him to mime because it looked funnier.

'The boys always wanted me to have more fun,' Kilmer recalled of the experience, 'but I wanted to be good and I took it all way too seriously.' Zucker remembers his star as being so moody 'it was hard to predict which Val would show up on any given day'. However, they started bonding after Zucker had joked that he hated everyone at a drinks party and Kilmer had concurred.

Even though Cher visited the Pinewood Studios set (and kept telling her boyfriend what a 'monumentally stupid movie' he was making), Kilmer had become smitten with Joanne Whalley after seeing her in Danny Boyle's production of The Genius at the Royal Court Theatre. After attending several performances, he had followed her and some castmates to a nearby pub, but had been too shy to introduce himself.

Having taken time off to backpack across Europe, Kilmer returned to California to play the hard-partying Chris Knight, in Martha Coolidge's Real Genius (1986), which co-starred Gabe Jarret and Jonathan Gries as dorm buddies Mitch and Lazio, who help him prevent the Crossbow laser they have invented from being used for nefarious purposes.

Somewhat bizarrely, these two romps persuaded David Lynch that Kilmer was right to play Jeffrey Beaumont in Blue Velvet (1986). Even though he had a crush on Isabella Rossellini, he spurned the invitation because 'it was really graphic and I was just too shy back then'. In later years, he claimed to have turned down Robert Altman on two or three occasions. According to Tinseltown gossip, he was also considered for or passed on such pictures as Dirty Dancing (1986), Captain America, Flatliners, The Godfather Part III (all 1990), Point Break, Backdraft (both 1991), Indecent Proposal, In the Line of Fire, Sliver (all 1993), Fair Game, Crimson Tide, Se7en, Johnny Mnemonic (all 1995), A Time to Kill (1996), The Insider, The Matrix (both 1999), Bandits (2001), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Ask the Dust (2006), Dark Matter, Enchanted (both 2007), and Eye For an Eye (aka The Poison Rose, 2019).

What a CV they would have made! Kilmer even resisted reunions with Tom Cruise on Interview With the Vampire (1994) and Collateral (2004), while their proposed collaboration on the Second World War saga, The Few, came to nothing. He was desperate to appear in Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986), Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas (1990). But, even though he went to considerable time and expense to produce audition tapes, he was overlooked for each feature. Fortunately, he had second thoughts about the assignment that made him a star - but he very nearly blew it.

The Iceman Cometh

Kilmer didn't want to do Top Gun (1986). When director Tony Scott offered him the part of Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky, he merely shrugged. As Kilmer later recalled: 'I told Tony at the meeting, "Frankly, I don't like this." I loved what I'd seen of his work, but I just didn't want to do that movie. He said, "Don't worry, your hair will look great." He thought that would make a difference. He was infectious that way.'

Such was Kilmer's determination to get out of the project that he deliberately under-performed at his audition. 'I read the lines indifferently,' he claimed, 'and yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part. I felt more deflated than inflated.' Once, he was cast as the US Navy fighter pilot in competition with Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Tom Cruise), however, Kilmer set about creating a backstory that wasn't in the screenplay. He invented a demanding father whose lack of affection had turned his son into an arrogant perfectionist. Moreover, Kilmer ensured that the rivalry with Cruise and Anthony Edwards (as Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw) persisted on the set, so he could stay in character.

With Maverick's relationship with instructor Charlie Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) providing romantic relief from the spectacular mid-air footage, Top Gun rustled up over $344 million at the global box office and sent Cruise and Kilmer into the Hollywood stratosphere. But, while Cruise went off to inspire Paul Newman to his Oscar in Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986), Kilmer had to settle for a couple of TV-movies, as he played Phillipe Huron in The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986) and Robert Elliot Burns in The Man Who Broke 1000 Chains (aka Unchained, 1987).

A story by George Lucas enticed Kilmer into taking the role of Madmartigan, the swaggering mercenary who helps an aspiring sorcerer protect a princess from a wicked queen. But his main motive for appearing in Ron Howard's Willow (1988) was to work with Joanne Whalley, who fell in love with her co-star and readily agreed to team with him again (following their marriage) in John Dahl's thriller, Kill Me Again (1989), which saw detective Jack Andrews (Kilmer) seek to protect crook Fay Forrester (Whalley) from her psychotic boyfriend, Vince Miller (Michael Madsen).

While settling into a ranch in New Mexico to raise children Mercedes and Jack, Kilmer took the role of William Bonney in a small-screen adaptation of Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid (1989). But he went into Method overdrive in order to prepare for his next role, singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). John Travolta and Richard Gere had been considered for this long-gestating biopic and Kilmer himself had doubts about doing a film that could be seen to encourage drug abuse. But he believed that Morrison had gone off the rails because he had picked the wrong heroes and sought to impress Stone by learning the lyrics to 50 of the band's songs before his audition.

Once cast, Kilmer took to wearing leather trousers and hanging out in Morrison's favourite haunts on Sunset Strip. On set, he insisted that everyone called him Jim and increased the pressure on himself by singing live. So good was his impersonation that surviving Doors Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek couldn't tell the difference between Kilmer and Morrison. However, the latter disliked the portrayal, while critics picked up on historical inaccuracies in the screenplay. Consequently, a bravura performance was overlooked during awards season. Indeed, Kilmer never received a single Oscar, BAFTA, or Golden Globe nomination, although he was cited at the Grammys in the Best Spoken Word Album category for his work on The Mark of Zorro in 2012.

On seeing Kilmer's turn as part-Sioux FBI Agent Ray Levoi in Michael Apted's whodunnit Thunderheart (1992), however, critic Roger Ebert opined 'if there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it.' The film was a modest success, unlike Russell Mulcahy's The Real McCoy, which saw Karen McCoy (Kim Basinger) rely on J.T. Barker (Kilmer) to pull off a bank job in order to recover her abducted son. During a temper tantrum during the shoot, he let off a prop gun. However, Kilmer was on his best behaviour as he enjoyed himself as Elvis Presley in Tony Scott's True Romance (both 1993), which had been scripted by Quentin Tarantino.

Kilmer's most impressive performance in this period, however, came as Doc Holliday in George P. Cosmatos's Tombstone (1993). which cast Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, and Bill Paxton as Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp. As Doc got to play a Chopin nocturne, Kilmer spent months perfecting the piece, along with Holliday's aristocratic Southern accent. He also insisted on lying on a bed of ice to replicate the tubercular pain that Doc must have been feeling during his final meeting with Wyatt. Cosmatos was particularly impressed by Kilmer's devotion to his craft. 'He works harder than most actors to make it look believable,' he enthused. 'He's in the ranks of the great actors in America like Pacino or De Niro.' But co-star Michael Biehn was less awed. 'People ask me,' he said, 'what it's like to work with Val Kilmer. I don't know. Never met him. Never shook his hand. I know Doc Holliday, but I don't know Kilmer.'

In fairness to Kilmer, he lost his father in 1993 and some commentators have suggested that this had a deleterious effect on his focus and emotional flexibility. Yet, he proved suitably heroic as pioneering aviator Jean Mermoz in Jean-Jacques Annaud's 3-D IMAX short, Wings of Courage. Moreover, he seemed to the manor born as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever (both 1995), after Michael Keaton decided to follow Tim Burton out of the franchise and William Baldwin had proved unable to fit the picture into his schedule. So keen was Kilmer to play the Caped Crusader that he signed up without seeing the script. As a kid, he had loved the Adam West Batman (1966-68) series, which he, Mark, and Wesley had recreated in a home movie. Moreover, a friend of Gene's had arranged for them to visit the set and the young Val had been lifted into the Batmobile by his father.

Feeling the omens were good after he had learned he had been offered the movie while in a bat cave in Africa, Kilmer reported for work in high spirits. However, he had no idea how limiting the latex suit would be and he felt that Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey were able to steal scenes as Two Face and The Riddler because they could be more expressive. He also struggled to connect with director Joel Schumacher, who had little rapport with his high-maintenance star. 'I pray I don't work with him again,' Schumacher was reported as saying. 'We had two weeks where he did not speak to me, but it was bliss.' In 2020, the director clarified his remarks. 'I didn't say Val was difficult to work with, I said he was psychotic,' he joked before admitting, 'But he was a fabulous Batman.'

As soon as shooting wrapped, Kilmer joined Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on Michael Mann's Heat (1995). All the attention was on LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna and career criminal Neil McCauley. But Kilmer more than held his own as gun-toting factotum Chris Shiherlis, prompting Mann to write on his death: 'I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val's possessing and expressing character.'

Unable to face a return to Gotham City, Kilmer decided to follow in the footsteps of George Sanders and Roger Moore by playing Leslie Charteris's troubleshooter, Simon Templar. Cinema Paradiso users can see Sanders in action in The Saint Strikes Back, The Saint in London (both 1939), The Saint's Double Trouble, The Saint Takes Over (both 1940), and The Saint in Palm Springs (1941), while episodes from Moore's small-screen show, The Saint (1962-69), can be found in various guises. This is apt, as Kilmer played Templar as a master of disguise in Philip Noyce's The Saint (1997). But the critics proved indifferent and Kilmer found himself at a career crossroads.

Turbulent Times

It's hard to know how the Australian shoot of The Island of Dr Moreau (1995) could have gone any worse from Kilmer's perspective. Director Richard Stanley had wanted Bruce Willis to play shipwrecked UN agent Edward Douglas and was frustrated when he had to recast David Thewlis in the role because Kilmer had negotiated a 40% reduction in his acting time and had to be assigned the less onerous role of sinister vet, Dr Montgomery.

Dismayed to see the condition and lack of preparedness of hero Marlon Brando, Kilmer further had to endure the body blow of divorce papers being served on the set. He responded by acting out, with Stanley recalling, 'Val would arrive, and an argument would happen.' As a result, shooting fell behind schedule and Stanley was replaced by veteran director John Frankenheimer, who was under strict instructions to get the production wrapped as quickly as possible.

Sticking to his brief, Frankenheimer refused to broach suggestions from Brando or Kilmer. Moreover, he took exception to the latter filming everything on his camcorder. Consequently, the set remained in a state of near mutiny, as Brando delivered one of the most eccentric performances of his entire career (see Cinema Paradiso's article, Brando: A Centenary Celebration ). Often refusing to leave his trailer, Kilmer similarly infuriated the crew by declining to act and sitting on the ground with the camera rolling.

Frankenheimer was blunt in his assessment of his antics. 'I don't like Val Kilmer,' he said, 'I don't like his work ethic, and I don't want to be associated with him ever again.' He later went further: 'Even if I was directing a film called The Life of Val Kilmer, I wouldn't have that pr*ck in it.' The actor responded by stating, 'John Frankenheimer can say "action" and "cut" all day long and it will never make him a director.'

Relishing the chaos, Entertainment Weekly ran a feature entitled 'Psycho Kilmer', in which Brando had sniped that his co-star had confused 'his talent with the size of his pay check'. Speaking to Deadline towards the end of his life, Kilmer reflected on his feud with Frankenheimer: 'The film is just as bad when I'm not in it. I always wondered how he could have made that claim with all the evidence against him, till I realised no one ever saw the ending!!! And some very fine execs were tortured about the fiasco, and some blamed me without ever getting the true story.'

Relations with Michael Douglas were no more cordial when Kilmer went to Kenya to play Colonel John Henry Patterson in Stephen Hopkins's The Ghost and the Darkness (1996). Douglas accused him of being unprofessional, but Kilmer had his own theory about why he kept being defamed. 'When certain people criticise me for being demanding, I think that's a cover for something they didn't do well. I think they're trying to protect themselves. I believe I'm challenging, not demanding, and I make no apologies for that.'

Kilmer may have been paid $6 million for The Saint (on which the crew were forbidden to have eye contact with him), but he was still curious enough about acting to take roles like the therapist, Dr Dark, in Adam Coleman Howard's self-starring indie thriller, Dead Girl (1996). This was barely seen and Kilmer remained off camera to voice Moses and God (which some joked was typecasting) in Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells's animated take on the biblical Book of Exodus, The Prince of Egypt (1998).

When asked about the hardest role he had ever had to play, Kilmer had no hesitation in choosing Virgil Adamson, the blind masseur who falls for client Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) in Irwin Winkler's At First Sight, which co-starred Kelly McGillis as Virgil's over-protective sister. However, he went against type for the first time as abusively alcoholic father Bob Henry in Frank Whaley's Joe the King (both 1999). Both directors spoke warmly of their collaborations, with Winkler describing it as a 'wonderful experience' in declaring, 'Some people expect an actor to be like a wooden Indian, to do what he's told and never open his mouth. But Val has lots of great ideas and he should be listened to.'

As the millennium approached, Kilmer had yet to find his niche in Hollywood. He had not enjoyed the attention that blockbuster roles had brought, but felt privileged to be paid huge sums for his services. Over the next decade, he would continue to take high-profile parts, but he often seemed to be given greater latitude to explore his character and try new things in secondary roles or in indie productions. Looking back on this sometimes turbulent period in his career, Kilmer would write: 'I wouldn't know what I know now spiritually without turning away from the success as often as I did. I did my "time in the wilderness" in a very serious way, and today I know who I am, and can look any man on earth, in the face, with love, empathy and forgiveness.'

Busy, Busy, Busy

Any resolutions that Kilmer might have made about being less confrontational on the set came to nothing when he brawled with Tom Sizemore while playing engineer Robby Gallagher in Antony Hoffman's Red Planet (2000). According to Sizemore's memoir, Kilmer had boasted that he was being paid $10 million for the picture while Sizemore was only getting two. The pair seemingly came to blows after Sizemore had hurled a 50lb weight at his co-star.

The film flopped and Kilmer moved on to essay Dutch-born American abstract expressionist painter Willem de Kooning in Ed Harris's Pollock (2000). There were also no reported ructions on D.J. Caruso's The Salton Sea (2002), which saw speed freak Danny Parker live a double life as trumpet player Tom Van Allen in a teasing neo-noirish thriller that was made interesting by its rougher edges. It was better reviewed than Predrag Antonijeviæ's Hard Ca$h (aka Run For the Money, both 2002), which went direct to disc, despite following FBI Agent Mark C. Cornell's pursuit of paroled thief, Thomas Taylor (Christian Slater).

Returning to the sphere of biopics, Kilmer played porn star John Holmes in James Cox's Wonderland before writing a letter of apology to Ron Howard for his behaviour while making Willow in order to secure the role of Lieutenant Jim Ducharme in The Missing (both 2003), which was set in New Mexico in the 1885. A busy year continued with Renny Harlin's Mindhunters, which cast Kilmer as FBI Agent Jake Harris opposite Christian Slater in a thriller that sat on the shelf until 2005, and Michael Haussman's Blind Horizon, a conspiracy thriller that opened with Frank Kavanaugh being found unconscious in New Mexico and ends with an assassination attempt on the US president.

After such a complex role, Kilmer must have enjoyed being able to hang out with new friend Bob Dylan to play an animal wrangler in Larry Charles's Masked and Anonymous (2003), which the star and director co-wrote under the pseudonyms, Sergei Petrov and Rene Fontaine. Suitably refreshed, Kilmer underwent Delta Force-like training in order to play Robert Scott, the ex-Marine detailed to recover the president's kidnapped daughter in David Mamet's Spartan (2004).

Having essayed Marine Staff Sergeant Skeer in Revenge Anselmo's Stateside, Kilmer returned to the stage as Moses in The Ten Commandments: The Musical, which opened at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. He also took an uncredited cameo as El Cabillo in Tom Reeve's little-seen Crusades saga, George and the Dragon, and guested as a cannabis-growing Sherpa in an episode of Entourage (2004-11). Rounding off a hectic year, Kilmer took the role of Philip of Macedon in Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004), which proved something of a frustration, as he had hoped to play the lead, but Stone had decided he was too old and cast Colin Farrell instead.

When plans fell through with Mormon film-maker Richard Dutcher to make Prophet: The Story of Joseph Smith, Kilmer accepted the role of private investigator 'Gay' Perry van Shrike in Shane Black's comic noir, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). Initially, he irritated the life out of co-star Robert Downey, Jr. ('I'm sure this can't be news to you that he's chronically eccentric.'), but they ended up rubbing along famously. It was Kilmer's idea to model Perry on fashion designer Tom Ford. Recalling the shoot, he claimed, 'I said, "We gotta get a little colour in here. We gotta juice it up a little. I think I should be gay. I think I should kiss Robert Downey in the middle of the film. Maybe even earlier. Several times."' He also teased, 'Maybe this wasn't my first gay role. Maybe that was Top Gun.'

If all this wasn't enough, Kilmer came to the West End in the summer of 2005 to play the drifter in the stage version of James M. Cain's hard-boiled masterpiece, The Postman Always Rings Twice, which had been filmed as Ossessione by Luchino Visconti in 1942 and under its original title by Tay Garnett in 1946 and Bob Rafelson in 1981, with John Garfield and Jack Nicholson respectively playing Frank Chambers.

Back on screen, Kilmer embarked upon a run of undistinguished pictures that saw him play The Wanted Man in Piotr Uklañski's Polish Western, Summer Love (aka Dead Man's Bounty), Andrey in María Lidón's catacombs thriller, Moscow Zero, and gangland cleaner Dillon in Sean Stanek's Played, all of which went straight to disc. The latter was the most interesting, as it reunited Kilmer with Joanne Whalley in an entirely unscripted crime thriller that took three years to complete.

Also in 2006, Kilmer guested as torture expert Mason Lancer in an episode of Numb3rs (2005-09) before cropping up as Murtha in Robert Moresco's 10th & Wolf, the story of a Philadelphia turf war that also included Dennis Hopper and Brian Denehey among his fellow cameoers. Still not done for the year, Kilmer hooked up with Tony Scott again to play FBI Special Agent Paul Pryzwarra inviting ATF Agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) to help him investigate a terrorist bombing in New Orleans in Déjà Vu (all 2006).

After such a prolific patch, Kilmer took things easier in 2007, as he appeared as Henderson in Brad Isaacs's Have Dreams, Will Travel, a 1960s rite of passage that was also known as West Texas Lullaby, A West Texas Children's Story, and Dream It Out Loud. For all of its alternative titles, it was barely seen and nor were Adam Marcus's Conspiracy or Ric Roman Waugh's Felon (both 2008), a pair of direct-to-disc thrillers that cast Kilmer as Iraq War veteran William 'Spooky' MacPherson and San Quentin lifer, John Smith. The former was inspired by John Sturges's Bad Day At Black Rock (1955) and would make an intriguing Cinema Paradiso double bill.

In all, Kilmer graced 28 movies between 2008-13. Many were helmed by neophyte directors and few reached cinemas. Yet this jobbing phase of Kilmer's career was skirted in the documentary, Val, and barely merited mention in the various obituaries and tributes that have followed his death. Having voiced General Bogardus in Marc F. Adler and Jason Maurer's animated fantasy adventure, Delgo, Kilmer stepped in anonymously at the eleventh hour to replace Will Arnett as KITT the car in the retooled series of Knight Rider. He then went to Toronto to join a New Year's Eve heist as Maz in Philip Guzman's thriller 2:22 before taking on the role of John, a thief trying to patch things up with his wife in Charles Burmeister's Columbus Day. Then, having cameo'd as himself in Marco Schnabel's comedy, The Love Guru, Kilmer appeared in three episodes of the mini-series, Comanche Moon (all 2008), as Inish Scull.

Moving into 2009, he headlined Philippe Martinez's The Steam Experiment (aka The Chaos Experiment), as James Pettis, who claims to have trapped six people in a Turkish bath in order to demonstrate the damaging effects of global warming. Next up, he was Detective Andy Devereaux alongside Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson and Sharon Stone in Charles Winkler's crime actioner, Streets of Blood. Then, he was Sheriff Todd Inglebrink, the older brother of an agoraphobic heroin addict in Mark David's comedy, American Cowslip. Temporarily quitting the law, he was Dr David Kruipen discovering the carcass of a woolly mammoth in Mark A. Lewis's The Thaw (all 2009).

It was back behind the badge as Detective Stevie Pruit alongside Nicolas Cage in Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), which followed on from Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (1992). This was easily Kilmer's best performance of this period and it's interesting to consider why his films have failed to acquire the same cult following as Cage's after both slipped away from the mainstream.

Back to the future, Kimer found himself working for the Hope Corporation as Virgil Kirkhill in Ernie Barbarash's dystopian thriller, Hardwired. He then alternated between being Dr Nicholas Pinter and John Charter after he's mistaken for a spy while working for Doctors Without Borders in Dennis Dimster's Double Identity. And just to stay busy, Kilmer ended 2009 as Mongoose, the antagonist in NBC's live tele-adaptation of the XIII video game.

At the start of 2010, Kilmer played a stranger confessing to murder before returning as a vengeful spirit after he's killed in police custody on Christmas Eve in Michael Oblowitz's The Traveller. He was Warren, one of Kris Kristofferson's three sons learning about their musician father's 40 years on the road in Shane Dax Taylor's Bloodworth (aka Provinces of Night) before he got another chance to show off his comic chops as the villainous Dieter Von Cunth alongside Will Forte and Kristen Wiig in Jorma Taccone's Saturday Night Live spin-off, MacGruber. But he finished the year back in the bargain bucket, as he re-teamed with 50 Cent as the gun-running Angel in Jessy Terrero's crime clunker, Gun (all 2010).

Narrating in addition to playing Detective Joe Manditski, Kilmer teamed with Ray Stevenson, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Christopher Walken in Jonathan Hensleigh's Kill the Irishman, which was based on the life of 1960s mobster, David Greene. Luke Goss and Vinnie Jones joined 50 Cent in Jason Hewitt's Blood Out, which cast Kilmer as Arturo, the head of an international people trafficking racket. He was a Dutch journalist in South Ossetia in Renny Harlin's 5 Days of War before he fulfilled the long-held ambition of working with Francis Ford Coppola, as Hall Baltimore, the struggling artist who enters an alternative dream reality after stumbling on to a small-town murder in Twixt (all 2011), a horror that was re-issued in 2022 with the new director's cut title of B'Twixt Now and Sunrise.

Fresh from playing a bearded spiritual guide helping an alcoholic turn his life around in Christopher Cain's Deep in the Heart, Kilmer found himself trapped in a time warp in a cursed house as Bill McCormick in Kevin Carraway's 7 Below (aka Se7en Below) He then retraced his steps to the old West to play the older lawman in Michael Feifer's Wyatt Earp's Revenge (all 2012), which flashes back to Dodge City to show how Earp (Shawn Roberts) teamed with Bat Masterson (Matt Dallas) to find the killer of his singer sweetheart, Doris Hand (Diana DeGarmo).

The year also saw Kilmer take two roles that lampooned his image. He presented an exaggeratedly washed-up version of himself in Harmony Korine's 'Lotus Community Workshop' segment of The Fourth Dimension before donning a Batman mask for an episode of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's TV series, Life's Too Short, in which he badgers diners into giving him money for a sequel to Willow. He then turned up as Dale, the husband Gina Gershon suspects of robbing a bank in Jesse Baget's Breathless (all 2012). This was yet another direct-to-disc offering and it leaves one wondering what the actor was seeking to achieve by taking roles in features that were evidently unworthy of his talent. Was he striving to help young film-makers get their start or was he simply trying to stay busy in a fickle industry in which yesterday's heroes are quickly forgotten?

Around this time, Kilmer joined Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, and Natalie Portman in the cast of Terrence Malick's Song to Song. As Duane, he got to saw an amplifier in half with a chainsaw during a festival set with The Black Lips. However, the eight-hour rough cut took time to edit down and the film didn't appear until 2017. The new year saw Kilmer's Sheriff Richards try to stop a female student looking for her missing brother from digging into the history of a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of a small Pennsylvania town in John O. Hartman and Nicholas Mross's Riddle.

In an amusing nod to their shared past, Kilmer and Anthony Edwards voiced Bravo and Echo in Klay Hall's children's animation, Planes, before the former reunited with D.J. Caruso, as shady sheriff's deputy Perry Hofstadder menacing a couple of summer camp runaways in Standing Up. More noteworthy, however, was his turn as Stewart in Gia Coppola's Palo Alto (all 2013), as he got to co-star with his son, Jack, who plays Teddy, a California stoner who falls for shy classmate, April, who was played by fellow actor Eric Roberts's daughter, Emma.

Courage

Kilmer had always been fascinated by Mark Twain. In 2002, he started to write a screenplay about the author's feud with Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science church. It took a decade for the text to come together, but Kilmer presented a workshop version of his one-man show, Citizen Twain, in Hollywood in 2012. As a result, he was cast as the writer in Jo Kastner's Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2014). Moreover, Kilmer took the show on the road and made his directorial debut with Cinema Twain, which was released in 2019.

As had become the norm, Kilmer kept his diary full by guesting in episodes of Ghost Ghirls (2013), Robot Chicken, and The Spoils of Babylon, in which he played General Cauliffe as part of the all-star cast enacting scenes from the latest novel by the acclaimed author, Eric Jonrosh (Will Ferrell). He also took the role of Detective Dobson in the series finale of Psych (2006-14).

However, he underwent tests after losing his voice on tour and discovered he had throat cancer. Denying rumours in the press, Kilmer agreed to have treatment. But, when he confirmed that he had recovered from throat cancer in 2017, the Christian Scientist attributed the 'healing' to prayer as much as to surgery. The procedure, however, reduced his voice to a rasp and he had to plug an electric voice box into his trachea in order to speak. Kilmer would later discuss his ordeal in I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir (2020) and in the self-produced documentary profile, Val.

Refusing to let his changed circumstances end his acting career, Kilmer returned to the screen as alcoholic police inspector Gert Rafto in Tomas Alfredson's The Snowman, a thriller based on a novel by ScandiCrime legend Jo Nesbø that sees Norwegian cops, Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) and Katrine Bratt (Rebecca Ferguson) cross into Sweden to investigate when a young woman vanishes. Another disappearance drove the action in Stephan Rick's The Super (both 2017), in which Kilmer played a sinister building supervisor named Walter.

Having cameo'd as himself and Reboot Batman in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Kilmer appeared as President Biden in a single scene in Ali Atshani's comedy, 1st Born (both 2019), which was billed as the first Iranian-American co-production. The following year, he reunited with director Michael Feifer for the postbellum Western, A Soldier's Revenge, in which he played CJ Connor, the father of a veteran-turned-bounty hunter (Neil Bledsoe) who vows to save his ex-wife and their children from a vengeful former comrade. He next found himself in the company of Luke Goss again, as Sheriff Tucker, in Christian Sesma's Paydirt (both 2020). But what made this assignment so special was that he got to work with his daughter, Mercedes.

Still helping young film-makers get their break, Kilmer played crime boss Uncle Angelo in Jimmy Giannopoulos's The Birthday Cake (2021), an Italian American saga that co-starred Ewan McGregor as the parish priest. Aware of the developments in digital voice enhancement, Kilmer collaborated with the London-based Sonantic company to find a match among 40 voice models for use in future projects. However, his voice was merely digitally altered for clarity as he bowed out with a poignant single scene as Admiral 'Iceman' Kazansky meeting up with old pal Captain 'Maverick' Mitchell (Tom Cruise) in Joseph Kosinski's Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

On 1 April 2025, Val Kilmer died of pneumonia in Los Angeles. He was 65. At CinemaCon, Tom Cruise asked for a minute's silence: 'I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.'

Reflecting on his career, Kilmer wrote about the importance of projecting a persona on screen. 'A leading actor has something extra that's fun to watch,' he began. 'But it isn't usually about acting. Bogart was a leading man, but he was an ugly guy. He was tiny. He didn't have that wide a range as an actor. But to watch him on screen - he just had a fantastic persona.'

He also addressed his 'difficult' reputation: 'I didn't do enough hand holding and flattering and reassuring to the financier. I only cared about the acting and that didn't translate to caring about the film or all that money. I like to take risks and this often gave the impression I was willing to risk their money not being returned, which was foolish of me. I understand that now. And sometimes when you are the head of a project and the lead actor is usually the reason a film is being made, unless it's a superstar director, then [it's] only fair to make people feel good and happy they are at work. I was often unhappy trying to make pictures better.'

In his memoir (which opened with the line, 'Welcome to the pinball machine of my mind'), Kilmer continued: 'In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honour the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio.' While he tried to be conciliatory, however, he insisted on justifying his motives. 'I'm sure I could've been more diplomatic but all I've ever tried to do is deserve the privilege of being able to entertain for a living.'

Ultimately, Kilmer's career was not studded with myriad classics worthy of his mercurial talent. But he did things his own way. 'I have behaved poorly,' he admitted in Val. 'I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed. And I am blessed.'