RIP Mad Mardigan 🖤
I got a reply from him on Reddit once. Well, maybe his assistant, but whatever. What a bummer. Definitely thought is peak role was on Top Secret. Loved that film so much! Guess I’m going to have to go watch it again
Tombstone and kiss kiss bang bang are my favorites
Does anyone else have a mandela effect about Val Kilmer being dead already? I feel like I have read about his death mutliple times over the past decade and then had a mandela effect that I thought he had already died, but then also when I heard any story about him I also have a mandela effect that I thought he was dead.
He was very sick for a bit and hid it for awhile so there was lots of talk about his health for a bit then he disappeared from the public eye for awhile because he was fighting cancer and recovering. He never rejoined the public eye to the degree he used to be. He was in Top Gun Maverick though which I remember being kind of a big deal because he hadn’t been in much for awhile and of course had had lots of trouble with speech following the cancer I believe.
No, but I knew he’s been pretty bad off for a long time
This dude made movies so good.
Tombstone Batman Top gun The saint Prince of Egypt Red planet
Shame his career was cut short. I assume he lost his speech because God needed it after watching Prince of Egypt.
SIR/MADAM! I call foul! Most foul!
Your list is horribly disingenuous, due to the absence of Val Kilmer’s greatest movie:
Ah hell no.
Real Genius. That’s where it’s at
One of my favorites. I own that film. He died way to young.
I watched that one much later in life but it was in fact good.
It is a cinematic triumph. Peter Cushing himself called it his greatest role! Well, he might have said that.
Fun fact that I actually just learned today. The cast made from Mr Cushing’s face for his scene in Top Secret was used by the SFX wizards working on Rogue One to digitally recreate the actor for the movie.
Imagine that, a casting for a prosthetic made over 40 years ago was used to recreate the image of Peter Cushing so that he could appear as Grand Moff Tarkin again.
Have to admit, that rather stunned me when I read it.
a casting for a prosthetic made over 40 years ago was used to recreate the image of Peter Cushing so that he could appear as Grand Moff Tarkin again.
They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
In the end it was really creepy to have a dead person have so much screen time in a movie.
Wow
The greatest movie ever made in fact ☻ (IMO of course). I just watched it this morning after hearing the news. RIP Nick Rivers
Uhh, Heat???
One of my favorite movies of all time. The gun battle in the streets is an all-time great scene.
Im going to have to re-watch. I remember being so bored when I was a kid.
It’s a long movie, but so so so excellent
His role as Gay Perry in Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang is underrated. He owned the role and outshone even the protagonist!
R.I.P. legend.
How has Willow not been mentioned? He was really good as a halfling!
But Kilmer didnt play a halfling
Shhhh! I’m trying to get people to watch it!
But it has Kilmer in it, that’s all you have to say
And Joanne Whalley (who was briefly married to Val Kilmer)
If Gary Oldman can play a little person, why can’t Val Kilmer play a halfling?
How has nobody mentioned Real Genius yet?
That was the first movie I saw him in. He defintely stole all of the scenes with his great acting chops.
He was so great as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s Doors movie. The only one who could have played that role.
Here are some cool facts about the movie:
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- Val Kilmer didn’t just play Jim Morrison—he became him. Before CGI, before deepfakes, there was Val Kilmer. He spent six months rehearsing, learned 50 Doors songs, and recorded vocals so convincing that Ray Manzarek couldn’t tell them apart from Jim’s. Kilmer even paid out of his own pocket to film a full performance demo for Oliver Stone. But it wasn’t just mimicry—it was method acting gone full Lizard King. He wore Morrison’s leather pants, spoke like him between takes, and according to crew memos, requested not to be addressed by his real name on set. Now that’s rock ’n’ roll commitment—or possession.
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- The real Patricia Kennealy plays the priestess in her own fictionalized wedding scene. Talk about meta. Rock journalist and Wiccan high priestess Patricia Kennealy, who actually participated in a handfasting ceremony with Jim Morrison in real life, appears in the movie—but not as herself. Instead, she plays the priestess marrying Meg Ryan’s Pamela Courson and Kilmer’s Morrison. The kicker? Kennealy has denounced the film’s portrayal of her, claiming much of her dialogue was given to Courson’s character instead. She called it a betrayal, but in a twist worthy of Morrison’s own poetry, she helped perform her own cinematic erasure.
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- The script was filtered through dozens of people—including Morrison’s parents and Elektra Records. Oliver Stone didn’t just write a rock movie—he had to negotiate with lawyers, estates, labels, and parents. Morrison’s family only allowed dream-like flashbacks. Pamela Courson’s parents restricted any implication that she influenced Jim’s death. Meanwhile, the band members weren’t all on the same page: Ray Manzarek refused to participate, while John Densmore and Robby Krieger consulted on the film, each bringing their own version of the myth. The result? A movie as much shaped by censorship and grief as by art and music.
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- Kilmer’s live performances in the film weren’t lip-synced—they were sung live over original master tapes. Most music biopics fake it with overdubs or studio trickery. Not The Doors. Val Kilmer sang live, blending his voice with the original multitrack recordings of the Doors, minus Jim’s lead vocals. The effect was chilling. He rehearsed daily and performed so hard during the five-day shoot of “The End” at the Whisky a Go Go recreation that he nearly lost his voice. This wasn’t a musical performance—it was a séance, captured on film and played back like a ghostly echo from the Summer of Love.
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- Nearly everyone turned it down before Oliver Stone picked up the torch. Before Stone got behind the camera, the Doors biopic passed through Quentin Tarantino, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and more. Bono, Michael Hutchence, Johnny Depp, and even John Travolta were considered for Morrison. But it was Stone’s obsession and Kilmer’s uncanny embodiment that finally got the film made. Stone even had to abandon Evita (sorry, Madonna) to make room for the psychedelic circus that The Doors became. The studio fights, lawsuits, casting drama—it’s a miracle the film ever made it to theaters. But like the band it depicts, it survived in chaos and emerged as something unforgettable.
https://www.thatericalper.com/2025/04/02/5-wildly-unknown-facts-about-the-doors-movie/--
Thanks so much for writing this! That movie was an absolute trip. Got me way into the doors and trust me, it was obvious that Kilmer became Morrison by knowing very little outside just about watching the movie. But all these details you wrote here make it so much more interesting!
I remember stopping the DVD to Google if he was actually singing because it felt so goddamned authentic to the actor on screen, and yet also sounded almost exactly like him Morrison.
A helluva movie. Truly one of the greats.
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When the music’s over…
He was in a movie called Spartan. It’s about the same plot as Resident Evil 4. Badass soldier rescues the president’s daughter. Rarely see that movie mentioned but I thought it was very classic Val, just floating in that zone of crazy good acting and chewing up the scenery. Tombstone is probably my favorite of his movies but Spartan is a close second. I’m glad we all got to see this legend of an artist. May he rest in peace.
Spartan was a fantastic David Mamet movie, and he was great in it… like everything.
The Snowman movie with Michael Fassbender his voice was so bad (due to throat cancer) he had to be dubbed over with another voice. I was really excited seeing him in it though. Broke my heart learning about his voice and now his death.
Top Secret! is a gem of a movie and I will be watching it tomorrow in his honour.
Okay, what’s the name of the movie? Yes, what’s the name of the movie. What movie? Top secret? Yes! What’s the name of the movie? That’s the name! The movie’s name is that? If you’re referring to the top secret, then yeah, that’s the name of the movie!
What fake doggy doo?
Telling that, as of now, most comments mention a different film of his. Kilmer was great in so many things! I’ll just add Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to the pile, RIP to a great actor
Open the dictionary and under the word idiot, what do you see?
A picture of me?
No! The definition of the word idiot! Which you are!
(done from memory, so likely not 100% accurate)
Heat.
I’ve read that he was a bit of a pain in the ass to work with, but I’ve always appreciated the results. So many great rolls. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is great, Tombstone, etc. I’ve not met too many people who mention The Salton Sea. That’s in my top 3 for his performances.
Second for KKBB. I love that movie. Always have. Also, bonus to Doc Holiday, as people say I look like him.
Damn. Val was a great actor.
Any day we lose a Batman is a bad day. RIP Iceman.
Another one to throw into the mix of mentions here. The first Val Kilmer movie that I actually always think of is The Island of Dr. Moreau. A bit offbeat I suppose but one of my absolute favourite childhood movies and I rented the VHS on more than one occasion. Think I might need to rewatch now.
Did you know the original director was fired, made himself up like one of the abominations and lived out in the jungle stalking the production for a while?
I love that movie.
Haha I did not know but that is awesome. Makes the movie even better lol.
