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(1959– ). American actor.
He was a distant relative of Joyce Kilmer, a
mediocre poet lucky enough to write one poem that became
famous—"Trees"—and Val Kilmer clearly inherited his luck. Propitiously
born and raised in Los Angeles, the center of the film industry, and blessed
with male-model attractiveness, he required no special skills or diligence to
break into major motion pictures at a relatively early age. However, displaying
little talent either for acting or for managing his own career, his
unremarkable performances in unremarkable films like Top Secret!, Real
Genius, and Willow made no lasting impression, so that as the
eighties drew to a close, Kilmer seemingly had little chance to establish
himself as a Hollyood icon. But he beat the odds with 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 had ever
been. It should have been the beginning of a wonderful relationship—yet Kilmer,
showing 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, regardless of his foibles,
and you 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, no one
would have expected to see Kilmer land another plum assignment. But he was yet
again blessed by Lady Luck when several hotter actors declined the opportunity
to star in a big-budget science fiction epic, Red Planet, forcing
producers to settle for Kilmer and giving him 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, Kilmer ended up being the hero
by happening to be in the right place at the right time—as luck would have it.
But how long can an inept actor's luck hold
out? Kilmer has undoubtedly been feeling overlooked during the first decade of
the twenty-first century, as few people paid any attention to a succession of
routine crime dramas interspersed with occasional oddities like Deja Vu
or The Ten Commandments: The Musical. He has also begun planning for
retirement by getting in some practice at providing voices for animated
movies—The Prince of Egypt and Delgo—although he proved hopelessly
inadequate in a role where it was seemingly impossible to be hopelessly
inadequate—the voice of the intelligent car in a dire revival of Glen A.
LARSON's Knight Rider. (William Daniels, please come out of
retirement!) But now, another strange set of circumstances may serendipitously
alter the course of Kilmer's career: the office of Governor of New Mexico will
soon be vacant, long-time New Mexico resident Kilmer has expressed an interest
in seeking the job, and as a Democrat in a Democrat-leaning state, he might
actually get elected. And, if he does end up emulating Arnold
SCHWARZENEGGER by retiring
from acting to pursue politics, then both Val Kilmer and his audience,
for once, will be in luck.
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