This one hurts.

Actor Val Kilmer has passed away at age 65 from pneumonia, reports the New York Times.

Cocky, brash, and brilliant, the 80s icon and Hollywood heartthrob was famed as much for his onscreen swagger as he was for the occasional tabloid drama off it.

While casual movie fans likely remember him best for his iconic roles in Top Gun, Heat, and Tombstone, my favorite will always be the 80s cult classic Real Genius.

Kilmer plays Chris Knight, a science whiz and slacker savant with impeccable taste in thrift store t-shirts at the fictitious Pacific Tech (Caltech in all but name).

*Knight sports this “International Order For Gorillas” tee in multiple scenes throughout the film.*

When Knight and his uptight freshman protégé, Mitch, discover the top-secret laser they’ve been working on is earmarked for military use, they hatch a plot to turn the tables on their obnoxious professor (played here with scene-stealing aplomb by William Atherton, who carved out a late-career niche portraying prickly, love-to-hate-them antagonists in blockbusters like Ghostbusters and Die Hard).

Comedic hijinks ensue, as do a stream of endlessly quotable and brainy riffs on Socrates, moral imperatives, working weapons, license plates, and other evergreen dorm room musings.

Catch the trailer below:

Hanging at all times above my workstation in tribute: this lovely sketch of Kilmer as Knight by Todd Spence, which I commissioned a few years back. (See more of Spence’s art here, and drop him a line if something catches your eye.)

Thanks for everything, Val, I know what I’ll be bingeing tonight.