I had the pleasure of seeing him as Mark Twain one night in LA —he was opening for Ryan Adams at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He absolutely crushed it, and I had no idea it was him until the end of his set. Just a huge talent. And a huge loss. RIP.
The Mark Twain thing is so interesting. Kilmer was a lifelong Christian Scientist, and Twain was a relentless critic of its founder, Mary Baker Eddy, penning dozens of essays about how she was a status-obsessed grifter.
Funny that Kilmer seemed to have such an affinity for both figures
I’ve heard he was terrific in the role, which isn’t an easy thing to follow - not just the man, but also the likes of Hal Holbrook (and Jerry Hardin!) memorably playing Twain as well
I saw his Twain. It was as good as Hal Holbrook’s. But different. For all he fought Mrs. Eddy on stage, his Twain believes in God. And that was believable.
They had a complicated relationship but that’s not how I would describe it at all. Twains daughter became Christian Scientist. And died after getting a treatable disease. So he blamed Eddy for her death. That’s the key factor in what he thought of her.
His daughter was healed through Christian Science. She later died of spinal meningitis which didn’t have widely available vaccines until the 1970s. She died a century before that.
Samuel Clemens believed his daughter died because she was an adherent to Mrs. Eddy’s teachings. He wrote an entire book about it. If you want to know how he feels, you can take a read. Or to the original post you can find a video of Val Kilmers show where he plays Twain and touches on that thread.
Comments
Looks good as Mark Twain, though...
Funny that Kilmer seemed to have such an affinity for both figures
Kilmer kept his soul and ability to play