I was very sad to see that the great actor Val Kilmer passed away at the age of 65. He starred in a slew of great films in the 1980s (Top Gun, Real Genius, Top Gun) and 1990s (The Doors, Batman Forever, HEAT”). He was a great talent, able to transform into the character he was playing so that you really believed who he was. Also, he was not afraid to play all kinds of different characters.

In the 1970s and 1980s, movies would play in the theater for a long time. I remember JAWS played at my local theater the entire summer of 1975

NOTE: “(#Maplewood has a special connection to Jaws. Not only is its star Roy Scheider a Columbia High School graduate, but in Northern NJ the blockbuster played exclusively at our town’s movie theater for weeks. Ticket lines extended all the way to Baker Street! Can you imagine?“

This meant you would see movies multiple times in the actual theater. And after they ran in the theater, HBO would show movies like Top Gun and Real Genius” over and over. One of the jokes back in the day was “Q: What does HBO stand for? “A: Hey, Beastmasters on” as HBO played the Marc Singer classic what seemed like multiple times a day

All this leads back to the fact that I saw a lot of Val Kilmer’s early movies multiple times at a perfect age, and they have been a part of my history for 30+ years. This is part of what makes his passing so sad.

Also, really liked his performance in Heat as Chris Shiherlis. I actually read the sequel book “Heat 2” and could perfectly imagine Val as his character in the book.

REST IN PEACE Val Kilmer. You were a real genius and will be missed