Photo by Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0

About an hour ago, I found out that Hollywood legend Val Kilmer passed away at the age of 65 and need to process this here by reflecting on my fave roles of his and the time I begged a coworker to get his autograph for me because I was too shy.

For many, Kilmer’s portrayals of Jim Morrison and Doc Holliday are top faves. And don’t get me wrong, I adore those roles, too, hell, I even unironically referred to myself as the Lizard King in high school after seeing The Doors movie. (which, imo, is easily one of the best biopics ever made, along with What’s Love Got to Do With It?)

But I really loved when Kilmer stepped off the beaten path, with characters like Gay Perry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Cunth in MacGruber. A serious actor who could also make you bust a gut? That’s the stuff dreams are made of for film nerds. He was a first-rate A-List actor who was also underrated.

In the late 2000s, Kilmer’s work became a fixation of mine, and I used my 3-DVD Netflix plan to watch his entire filmography over the course of a few months. It was a delightful way to spend my evenings.

Around this time, Kilmer would sporadically come into the bookstore where I worked in Marina del Rey and drop hundreds of dollars on books. Every bookseller had nothing but nice things to say about him and their interactions, but my timing was always off. I was never on the clock when he showed up…except once.

I remember hiding behind a pillar to spy on him as he shopped, forehead covered in anxiety sweat, trying to work up the courage to approach the man whose work I had been inhaling for weeks. But I was shaken to my core with nerves. Eventually, I asked a coworker, who had assisted him on a few occasions, to get his autograph. In hindsight, this was such a 1993 request. We had phones with cameras, but the autograph was more important to me somehow.

So Kilmer finishes up and my coworker helps him take a dozen bags of books to his car—and returns with a signed postcard featuring Kilmer in a full Mark Twain get-up. He was playing the author in a stageplay and I later found out that Kilmer was as obsessed with Twain as I was with him. Layers!

Reader, when I tell you that that postcard remains among one of my prized possessions, know that I am not being hyperbolic. It is now a relic and memory of my Kilmer renaissance and the coworker who passed away.

It is a remarkable feat to touch so many hearts through your artistry and to have your work live on for posterity. I’m almost jealous of the future booksellers who will fall in love with his robust filmography and unforgettable characters for the first time.

Tonight, in his honor, I’ll be rewatching MacGruber for the umpteenth time and will try not to tear up during that celery scene.

Thanks for everything, Val. You will be deeply missed.