The Top Gun star who crashed to earth: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS on Val Kilmer’s ‘psychotic’ side

The polite word is ‘perfectionist’ but most people in Hollywood simply called Val Kilmer a pain in the backside.

Kilmer, who has died aged 65 from pneumonia, following a painful battle with cancer, starred in a long list of blockbusters – including Top Gun opposite Tom Cruise, and Oliver Stone’s psychedelic rock biopic The Doors, as singer Jim Morrison.

Kilmer’s list of megastar girlfriends was even longer, among them Cher, Cindy Crawford, Daryl Hannah and Angelina Jolie, as well as his wife, British actress Joanne Whalley.
But he is most likely to be remembered for his truculence, vanity and impossible sense of entitlement – extraordinary even by the standards of an industry fuelled by narcissism.

On the set of Batman Forever in 1995, he stubbed out a cigarette in the face of a cameraman who dared to argue with him.

Turning up late for filming every day, often dishevelled and wrapped in a blanket, he insisted the crew address him as ‘Mr Kilmer