In a career spanning decades, Val Kilmer took on supporting and leading roles spanning from Batman to Doc Holliday.
Val Kilmer in a scene from Top Gun, where he played Iceman.
Val Kilmer in a scene from Top Gun, where he played Iceman.
Ned Hammond for
4 min read
Val Kilmer in a scene from Top Gun, where he played Iceman.YouTube
Val Kilmer, star of Top Gun and Tombstone, died this week aged 65.
He died from pneumonia, The New York Times reported, attributing Kilmer's daughter Mercedes Kilmer.
Kilmer took on supporting and leading roles from Batman to Doc Holliday in a career that started in the 1980s.
Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991).
Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991).AFP
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Stage to screen
Kilmer started his career on the stage in New York when he co-wrote and starred in the aptly named play How It All Began.
His commitment to the stage saw him turn down a role in director Francis Ford Coppola's film The Outsiders in 1983, but he would end up on the big screen anyway when he took the lead role as rock star Nick Rivers in the spy spoof Top Secret! in 1984.
He threw himself into the role, performing all his character's songs and releasing a companion album.
It was the start of a run of supporting roles for Kilmer, who appeared in 1986 action flick Top Gun as Iceman, the rival of Tom Cruise's Maverick.
In 1988, he appeared alongside Joanne Whalley and Warwick Davis in fantasy adventure movie Willow as the irreverent mercenary Madmartigan.
After meeting on the set, Kilmer and Whalley married in 1988 and had two children, before divorcing in 1995.
Kilmer reached stardom in 1991 when he took on the role of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's biographical film The Doors.
The film released to middling reviews, but critics were unanimous in their praise for Kilmer's portrayal of the troubled rock star.
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, but wrote that Kilmer's performance was "the best thing in the movie — and since nearly every scene centres on Morrison, that is not small praise."
1993's western Tombstone saw Kilmer relish in the swagger of Wild West gunfighter and dentist Doc Holliday in a performance nominated for Most Desirable Male at the MTV Music Awards.
Val Kilmer in Deja Vu (2006).
AFP
Two of his most notable roles came in 1995, with the releases of Batman Forever and Heat.
Batman Forever saw Kilmer taking over the role of the caped crusader from Michael Keaton, the sort of change that always sparks a whirl of discourse.
In a movie given generally lukewarm reviews, Kilmer's performance was praised by critics, including Peter Travers of Rolling Stone who wrote that Kilmer had a "deftly understated […] comic edge".
Val Kilmer and Nicole Kidman in the Batman Forever.
Val Kilmer and Nicole Kidman in the Batman Forever.
Michael Mann's crime thriller Heat released the same year, and featured Al Pacino and Robert De Niro as a cop and criminal on a collision course.
Kilmer played De Niro's right hand man in the film, which became a cult classic and is considered the gold standard for action sequences.
He worked solidly in Hollywood over the next two decades.
Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, daughter Mercedes Kilmer said.
Val, a 2021 documentary about his life, showed him needing a breathing tube.
Kilmer reprised his Iceman character for a cameo in Top Gun's 2022 follow-up Top Gun: Maverick, in what would become his final film appearance before his death.
Val Kilmer in the film Top Secret.
Val Kilmer in the film Top Secret.KINGSMERE PROPERTIES