Val Kilmer: 1959-2025
The celebrated actor appeared in Lucasfilm’s Willow as his career approached world-recognition.
Everyone at Lucasfilm mourns the loss of Val Kilmer. The actor was 27-years-old when he was cast as the roguish but lovable Madmartigan in the fantasy-adventure Willow (1988), which was directed by Ron Howard and executive produced by George Lucas. Playing opposite a teenage Warwick Davis in the title role, Kilmer’s Madmartigan packed an equal measure of comic relief and heroic compassion.
“We seem to have a set idea of what people should look or act like,” Kilmer told Lucasfilm’s fan club magazine during Willow’s production. “Hopefully, that can be influenced by actors who don’t fit into the typical mold. I think…that the story of Willow can influence people…. Usually in movies in the last six or seven years, they’ve been so commercial-oriented that that kind of hopefulness somehow gets lost…. But what I like about Willow is that it shows you can tell a story about something that is not attached to a product and stands for positive, good things. It’s a story with heart.”
Filmed on location in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, Willow was a showcase for Kilmer’s stuntwork, swordplay, and general derring-do. His nuanced performance as a down-and-out warrior who redeems himself formed part of the film’s emotional center. Madmartigan would prove a forerunner of iconic fantasy-adventure hero characters in succeeding decades.
Although Kilmer did not appear onscreen in the 2022 Willow series, Madmartigan’s presence was keenly felt in the form of Kilmer’s son, Jack (whose mother is Kilmer’s Willow co-star, Joanne Whalley). Having spoken for his father in the documentary, Val (2021), the younger Kilmer recorded brief lines for Madmartigan, which were then combined with the elder’s own voice. Christian Slater would also play a former comrade of Madmartigan’s, Allagash, in the new series. “It was fun to try and recapture some of that spirit [of the film and Kilmer’s performance],” Slater commented at the time. “And it was a challenge, a hard space to fill. Val is just such a legend and was so brilliant in this movie and, you know, I was such a fan of the movie and of his.”
Farewell, Val.
