Ali Fazal remembers Val Kilmer: You were 1st big ticket compliment I ever got

New Delhi: Actor Ali Fazal has paid a tribute to Val Kilmer, saying he was the first high-profile Hollywood star to praise his performance in the 2017 film "Victoria & Abdul".

Kilmer, who played Ice Man in “Top Gun”, Jim Morrison in “The Doors” and portrayed Batman in “Batman Forever”, died from pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends. The 65-year-old actor had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies.

In a post on ‘Instagram’, Fazal shared a photo of Kilmer from "The Doors", the 1991 biopic on Morrison by filmmaker Oliver Stone.

"RIP Mr Val Kilmer. I write this note because you were the 1st big ticket compliment I ever got from an actor of your calibre - for my attempt to portray a real person in 'Victoria and Abdul'," he wrote.

"Hell, I dare say, I know I got miles to go. But this from someone whose performance changed the way I saw acting at a time when I was lapping up the Brandos and the Pacinos of the world. You made a better Jim Morrison than Morrison that day for me. Live on, cuz this doesn’t end - we are privileged because we are in mediums that linger longer than times assigned," the "Mirzapur" actor added.

Kilmer's movie career also saw him feature in films like “MacGruber”, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”, “Tombstone”, “True Romance” and “Heat” with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.