On-screen, he embodied Iceman, the Caped Crusader, Doc Holliday and the Lizard King. Off screen, Val Kilmer developed a reputation over his four decades in Hollywood for being difficult, enigmatic and “chronically eccentric,” as his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang costar Robert Downey Jr. once pointed out.
But when he died at age 65 on April 1, Val was hailed as an icon. “I always marveled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character,” his Heat director, Michael Mann, wrote on Instagram. “After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.” The actor died of pneumonia, surrounded by loved ones in LA, his daughter, Mercedes, told The New York Times. But he had spent his…
