Perhaps the 2020 release Paydirt where Top Gun’s Val Kilmer stars with his daughter Mercedes in her debut on film will be remembered as a comeback triumph in the career of the storied Hollywood veteran actor, but for 2022 Kilmer hits a new benchmark with the Humanitarian Award from the International Press Academy.
This Honorary statuette recognizes more than just the actor’s smash hit roles on screen, from playing Iceman opposite Tom Cruise in his iconic jet flier turn directed by Tony Scott, or even as the coveted lead in Batman Forever, or title character Simon Templar in The Saint.
Known for his social commentary as Mark Twain in Citizen Twain and a keen interest in not only American storytelling but the American frontier in tandem with preserving Native American culture, Val Kilmer is also a fine artist, poet, playwright, gallery proprietor, and a beacon of hope as a throat cancer survivor. In 2003 he received the Prism Award for his gut-wrenching portrayal of addiction in The Salton Sea. He himself has admitted to first puffing a cigarette at age eight, as a precocious child who went on to create a star persona on stage and screen.
Directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo, the 2021 documentary VAL from Amazon Studios chronicles the real-life tapestry of the 62-year-old, born on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles. The man who would play Jim Morrison’s eerie twin Lizard King, Doc Holliday in Tombstone, with legend Marlon Brando on the Island of Dr. Moreau, is shown within the context of his highly creative family with look-back scenes voiced by his son Jack Kilmer.
To be presented on April 2nd, 2022 at the 26th Annual Satellite Awards, this Special Achievement category recognizes Kilmer’s tremendous resilience and courage as he continues to pilot a brilliant recovery from a tracheostomy in 2016 that required a new set of skills in order to communicate via a device known as a voice box.
While Val Kilmer is clearly one of the most prolific actors of our time, who came of age on Broadway with contemporaries such as Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon, the Juilliard-trained actor has opened up over the years as the person beyond the performer audiences know and love. The International Press Academy is proud to add Val Kilmer to the roster of storied recipients of the Humanitarian Award.
