French postcard by Editions Mercuri, no. 1620. Photo: Warner Bros. Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
British postcard by Heroes Publishing Ltd., London, no. SPC 2895.
Iceman
Val Edward Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, in 1959. He was the son of Gladys Swanette (Ekstadt) and Eugene Dorris Kilmer, who was a real estate developer and aerospace equipment distributor. His family was a textbook example of mixed blood. He has Scottish, Swedish, Irish, Mongolian, and Cherokee blood in his veins, among others.
Val grew up in the San Fernando Valley. His parents divorced when he was 9 years old. His first auditions were for commercials at 13 years old. When he was 17 years old, his younger brother Wesley who was an epileptic, drowned in a jacuzzi at age 15. Kilmer learned acting at the famous Juilliard Drama School in New York. He was the youngest student in history to be admitted to Juilliard.
In 1983 he played his first television role and a year later he made his film debut with the lead role as blond rock idol Nick Rivers in Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, 1984), a spoof of Elvis films and WWII spy movies. Andrea LeVasseur at AllMovie: "An absurd role which Kilmer plays with complete sincerity, it reveals genuine musical talent and Kilmer achieves complete credibility as a rock star."
He had his big break in the role of Tom 'Iceman' Kazanski in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) starring Tom Cruise. Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. He gave a believable performance as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors (1991). He had spent close to a year before production dressing in Morrison-like clothes and had spent time at Morrison's old hangouts along the Sunset Strip. Kilmer did his own singing during the concert pieces and a number of his Doors songs were used on the soundtrack, sans dubbing.
Two years later, Kilmer played two more American legends, the spirit of Elvis Presley in True Romance (Tony Scott, 1993), which was written by Quentin Tarantino, and gunslinger Doc Holliday in the Western Tombstone (George P. Cosmatos, 1993).
British postcard by New-Line, no. 193. Photo: Paramount. Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Rick Rossovich, and Anthony Edwards in Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986).
Belgian postcard by Boomerang Free Cards. Photo: Warner Bros. Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
Batman
Val Kilmer took over the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne from Michael Keaton in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). Batman Forever was a success at the box office, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. Although he enjoyed playing Batman his working relationship with director Joel Schumacher was poor. Kilmer openly refused to repeat the Bruce Wayne role for Batman and Robin (Joel Schumacher, 1997), and he was succeeded by George Clooney.
Due to his persistent need for an on-set dialogue with his directors, Kilmer had clashed earlier with Michael Apted on the set of Thunderheart (1992) and later infuriated director John Frankenheimer on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996). However, others considered him a devoted, hard-working professional. Warwick Davis, Kilmer's co-star in Willow (Ron Howard, 1988), said he had very fond memories of working with Kilmer, stating that Kilmer had a great sense of humour and was very dedicated to the job. In addition to acting, Kilmer was also engaged in writing. In 1981 he wrote the play 'How It All Began', performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival. Later in the 1980s, he wrote a poetry collection, 'My Eden after Burns'. Kilmer also acted on the stage. He played Hamlet at the 1988 Colorado Shakespeare Festival. In 2004 he played Moses in a musical and in 2005 he starred in London in David Mamet's play 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'.
His other notable films include Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, the disappointing The Saint (Philip Noyce, 1997), and the action-comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Shane Black, 2005) with Robert Downey Jr. Another disappointment was the historical epic Alexander (Oliver Stone, 2004) in which he played the father of Alexander, King Philip, opposite Colin Farrell as Alexander. The Disney Studio's Sci-Fi-action thriller Deja Vu (Tony Scott, 2006) teamed Kilmer and Denzel Washington as feds who travel back in time to stop a terrorist's (Jim Caviezel) attempt to blow up a ferry. He also appeared in Werner Herzog's semi-sequel Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009), and Francis Ford Coppola's Horror opus Twixt (2011), with Bruce Dern and Elle Fanning.
Kilmer was a longtime board member of the New Mexico State Film Commission, which tries to persuade Los Angeles-based filmmakers and studios to film on location in New Mexico. From 1988 to 1996, Val Kilmer was married to British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while filming Willow (Ron Howard, 1988). They had two children: a daughter, Mercedes (1992), and a son, Jack (1995). Val Kilmer has gone through a battle with throat cancer. A procedure on his trachea reduced his voice to a rasp and rendered him short of breath. He underwent chemotherapy and two tracheotomies. In 2020, Kilmer reported that he had been cancer-free for four years and that he uses a feeding tube to feed himself because he can no longer eat.
Val Kilmer reprised his role as LT Tom 'Iceman' Kazanskin in the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2021). He also returned in the Twixt sequel B'Twixt Now and Sunrise (Francis Ford Coppola, 2022). He also wrote, directed and performed a one-man play about Mark Twain. Kilmer himself was a lifelong Christian Scientist. Val Kilmer died of pneumonia in 2025 in Los Angeles at age 65.
British postcard by Slow Dazzle Worldwide, no 10 in a series of 16. Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995).
British postcard by Boomerang Media. Photo: Paramount. Val Kilmer in The Saint (Philip Noyce, 1997).
Sources: Andrea LeVasseur (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Denise P. Meyer (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.