Val Kilmer once proclaimed that he’s almost been fired from all his movies. Thankfully for us, he wasn’t. Though he might have frustrated more than a few directors, they too knew the headaches were ultimately worth it. An actor’s actor, trained at Juilliard and forever fighting against the simplest way of being in movies — whether in self-proclaimed “fluff” like “Top Secret!” or more dramatic, meaningful fare like “Tombstone” — Kilmer, who died Tuesday at age 65, was a true original.
Here are some of his best and most memorable roles, and where to watch them.
“Top Secret” (1984)
There’s a bit of a Sliding Doors situation in which Kilmer might have been part of that young, promising cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” had he not had commitments in the theater — but Kilmer’s first major starring role would ultimately come in Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker’s deliriously nutty, spy-thriller-meets-Elvis-Presley movie “Top Secret!”
He played Nick Rivers, a 1950s rock ’n’ roll star playing in East Germany who inadvertently gets caught up in the resistance. It is supremely silly, and at the time had the misfortune of having followed “Airplane!” which most seemed to prefer. But Kilmer is sublime dancing and singing “Tutti Frutti.”
“I approached the character the only way I knew how: With everything I had,” he said in the documentary “Val.” Though he spent months learning how to play the guitar, the Zuckers said they thought it was funnier when he mimed it.
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on PlutoTV; available to rent on video on demand
“Real Genius” (1985)
In this quintessential 1980s comedy directed by Martha Coolidge, Kilmer plays a precocious tech genius named Chris who really just wants to hang out, party and chase girls. But when he discovers that the military is actually angling to use his invention as a weapon, he and his classmates endeavor to sabotage the plan. It might not be the deepest of roles, but it left an impression on moviegoers.
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on video on demand
“Top Gun” (1986)
Famously, Kilmer did not want to do “Top Gun.” He thought it was a silly, warmongering film, which he had a distaste for. Also, Iceman was not the deepest character on the page. But because of his contract with the studio, he didn’t have a choice, so he created his own depth and backstory of pain (deciding that his own father had ignored him) for the peacocking pilot who was obsessed with perfection and an antagonist to Tom Cruise’s Maverick. Plus, he appreciated the vision and energy of his director, Tony Scott.
He returned as Iceman in “Top Gun: Maverick,” a profoundly touching, realistic coda for a diminished but still proud military man.
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Paramount+ and Prime Video
“The Doors” (1991)
“Not playing Jim was not an option,” Kilmer says in “Val.” He’d already been making his own audition tapes for filmmakers he wanted to work with, like Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese, and did the same for Oliver Stone and the producers, singing The Doors’ songs himself. This time it worked and he “lived” Jim Morrison for a year, down to his movements and leather pants.
Though the film itself received mixed reviews, Kilmer’s committed performance as the self-destructive rocker who epitomized the psychedelic excesses of the 1960s was widely praised. Owen Gleiberman wrote in his Entertainment Weekly review at the time that Kilmer “captures, to an astonishing degree, the hooded, pantherish charisma that made Morrison the most erotically charged pop performer since the early days of Elvis.”
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on video on demand
“Tombstone” (1993)
Unlike Iceman, Doc Holliday was a character Kilmer found to be very well written in the 1993 Western “Tombstone.” Holliday is dying of tuberculosis in George P. Cosmatos’ film when he meets up with his old friend Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) in a classic showdown of outlaws and lawmen (even those attempting to retire).
Kilmer said he always saw the movie as a love story between two men. For his death scene, he asked the art department to fill his bed with ice to ensure he was feeling equal discomfort with his character as he tells Earp to go live his life.
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
“Batman Forever” (1995)
Uncharacteristically, Kilmer accepted the role of Bruce Wayne without reading the script. It was BATMAN, and he, like most American men, had loved the character since he was a boy. But the experience was a different kind of challenge, as he attempted to get a performance through the restrictions of the costume.
“Whatever boyish excitement I had going in was crushed by the reality of the batsuit,” he said in “Val.” “It was frustrating until I realized that my role in the film was just to shut up and stand where I was told.”
Was Kilmer the best or most memorable Batman? Does it matter? Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever” has become its own iconic rendition, rubber nipples and all.
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Max
“Heat” (1995)
Michael Mann’s “Heat” might be the Al Pacino and Robert De Niro show, but Kilmer gives an all-timer of a supporting performance as De Niro’s right-hand man, getting schooled in the art of detachment. That “heat around the corner” scene also gave Kilmer one of his most memorable lines: “For me, the sun rises and sets with her, man.”
Working with that cast and director, he said in his documentary, was pure joy.
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Netflix and The Criterion Channel
“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2005)
Shane Black’s black Christmas comedy is most remembered as a kind of career revitalization for Robert Downey Jr. but Kilmer as the private investigator “Gay” Perry van Shrike is an integral part of why the film works. Roger Ebert called his performance a “parody of gay parodies.”
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on video on demand
More notable Val Kilmer films:
1988: “Willow”
1992: “Thunderheart”
1996: “The Island of Dr. Moreau”
1997: “The Saint”
1998: “The Prince of Egypt”
1999: “At First Sight”
2000: “Red Planet”
2003: “Wonderland”
2004: “Spartan”
2008: “Felon”
2009: “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans”
2021: “Val”
2022: “Top Gun: Maverick”
