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I–K Entries Steve Ihnat Michael Jackson Russell Johnson Tor Johnson Nathan Juran Boris Karloff Val Kilmer Stanley Kubrick   KILMER, VAL (1959– ). American actor. SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND HORROR FILM CREDITS Acted in: Top Secret! (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker 1984); Real Genius (Martha Coolidge 1985); Murders in the Rue Morgue (tv movie) (Jeannot SZWARC 1986); Willow (Ron Howard 1988); Batman Forever (Joel SCHUMACHER 1995); The Island of Dr. Moreau (John FRANKENHEIMER 1996); Dead Girl (Adam Coleman Howard 1996); The Saint (Phillip Noyce 1997); The Prince of Egypt (animated; voice) (Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells 1998); Red Planet (Antony Hoffman 2000). Reviewing my previous entries, I notice that performers are frequently praised because they are intelligent, or because they are hard-working. In these comments, I convey a belief that, more than ill-defined and elusive qualities like "talent" or "charisma," the personal traits truly necessary for a successful acting career are only the intelligence to recognize what the medium demands, and the energy and determination to meet those demands—traits that may be especially important in the often unpredictable and inchoate worlds of science fiction film. Yet a third, unrelated characteristic may sometimes be enough to catapult an actor to prominence, and that is pure, dumb luck. To illustrate the point, since his dogged avoidance of science fiction and fantasy films relieves me of the obligation to examine Richard Gere, I will discuss Val Kilmer. He was a distant relative of Joyce Kilmer, a mediocre poet lucky enough to write one poem that became famous—"Trees"—and Val Kilmer inherited his luck. Born and raised in Los Angeles, and blessed with male-model attractiveness, he broke into major motion pictures in his early twenties; then, his leading role in the deservedly overlooked farce Top Secret! quickly forgotten, he drifted through the eighties without distinguishing himself. At the start of the 1990s, however, he got another lucky break: he happened to resemble the late Jim Morrison, he had a decent singing voice, and trendy young director Oliver Stone had just decided to make a film about The Doors (1991). Inevitably cast in the leading role, Kilmer suddenly found himself a major Hollywood star, although his dull and dutifully decadent performance had none of the vibrancy of Gary Busey's Buddy Holly (which is why Busey got an Oscar nomination, and Kilmer didn't). The next serendipitous boost to Kilmer's career came when both director Tim BURTON and actor Michael KEATON decided to abandon the Batman franchise, and director Joel SCHUMACHER was brought in to bring a lighter tone to the series; so Kilmer was suddenly asked to step into the role. And, one must admit, Kilmer was unexpectedly good as Batman—completely persuasive as indolent playboy Bruce Wayne, if a bit less persuasive as the obsessed crimefighter Batman, and much more comfortable amidst the gaudy special effects and overacting villains than Keaton ever was. It should have been the beginning of a wonderful relationship—yet Kilmer, displaying the lack of intelligence already apparent from his aimless career path, declined a part in the next Batman movie so that he could launch a series of his very own with The Saint—though, of course, a weak script and his own inadequate performance brought that "series" to an inglorious end after one film. As another ill-chosen follow-up to Batman Forever, Kilmer also accepted a role as a subordinate heavy alongside Marlon Brando's Moreau in John FRANKENHEIMER's The Island of Dr. Moreau; however, while other actors have been inspired by Brando's presence to do their very best, Kilmer assessed the situation differently: observing that Brando didn't really give a damn about his performance, Kilmer decided to emulate the Master. The trouble is, a lackadaisical Marlon Brando is a heck of a lot more interesting than a lackadaisical Val Kilmer—which is why, years after watching the film, you remember Brando and forget whatever it was that Kilmer was doing. With another debacle that a wise actor would have avoided—the bizarre Dead Girl—added to his filmography, it now seemed that Kilmer, no longer boyishly handsome, might be relegated to peripheral assignments like providing the voice of Moses for the animated film The Prince of Egypt. But he got yet another lucky break when, after several hotter actors declined the opportunity, he was invited to join the cast of Red Planet in a role that seemed tailor-made for his lazy dimwittedness—an astronaut who didn't have enough ambition to be the commanding officer, didn't have enough smarts to figure out which buddy to trust and which buddy to watch out for, and didn't have enough strength to finish an arduous trek across the Martian surface until he got a long-distance pep talk from commander Carrie-Anne Moss. Still, by being in the right place at the right time, and with a little help from his friends, Kilmer ended up as the hero—a part he will continue to play only as long as his luck holds out.

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