Val Kilmer’s Best Film Roles Through the Years: Photos

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Val Kilmer’s Best Roles Through the Years: ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Tombstone’ and More

Truly iconic! Val Kilmer has had an illustrious acting career throughout his Hollywood tenure, with roles ranging from Batman in Batman Forever to the late Jim Morrison in the Doors biopic.

“Fame wasn’t my priority, and I had it,” Kilmer told The New York Times in May 2020, despite his lengthy list of movie credits. “I was gambling with being able to maintain the status, and I would’ve won my gamble, except for 2008. I just lost my home like a million other people. It was pretty awful.”

Following notable roles in the likes of Tombstone, Heat and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the actor quickly began choosing his future projects carefully based on his passions. Because of this, Kilmer was initially hesitant to play Iceman in the popular Top Gun film.

“I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” the actor wrote in his book I’m Your Huckleberry: A Memoir, noting that he barely tried during his audition. “My agent, who also represented Tom Cruise, basically tortured me into at least meeting Tony Scott saying he was one of the hottest directors in town. … I read the lines indifferently and yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part. I felt more deflated than inflated. I had to get out of there.”

While it took considerable convincing for Kilmer to join the 1986 picture, he was more interested in reprising his role for a quick cameo in the 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick.

“As the Temptations sang, ‘Ain’t too proud to beg.’ I’d not only contact the producers but create heartrending scenes with Iceman. Forget the fact that 30 years had passed … I remembered it like it was yesterday,” the California native wrote in his book, which was published in April 2020. “The producers went for it. Cruise went for it. Cruise couldn’t have been cooler. And the next thing I knew I was back. Tom and I took up where we left off. As far as the film’s plot goes, I’m sworn to secrecy.”

The actor has had a legendary career, which was explored in a self-titled documentary in July 2021 — produced by his children, Mercedes and Jack — and discussed his childhood, film experiences and throat cancer battle, which he first confirmed in 2017.

“I’ve lived a magical life and I’ve captured quite a bit of it,” the Tombstone star said in the trailer for the film before detailing his cancer recovery. “I was recently diagnosed with throat cancer. I’m still recovering, and it is difficult to talk and to be understood. But I want to tell my story more than ever. I’ve tried to see the world as one piece of life. It’s a story about my life that is also not my life.”

Scroll down to relive Kilmer’s best roles through the years:

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‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Kilmer reprised his iconic role as Iceman for 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick for a brief scene with Cruise’s titular character. “It was like no time had passed at all,” he told Entertainment Weekly about working with his co star once again via email. The emotional onscreen reunion also nodded to Kilmer’s battle with throat cancer, having Iceman communicate with his old rival primarily through the written word, as the now-Admiral Kazansky is suffering from an illness that has affected his ability to speak.

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Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky in ‘Top Gun’

Kilmer played Kazansky, a fellow recruit at the United States Navy training facility alongside Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The two actors both reprised their roles in the May 2022 sequel.

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  Madmartigan in ‘Willow’

The Cowboy Poet Outlaw Madman author starred as Madmartigan in Ron Howard’s 1988 fantasy film about a young farmer tasked with protecting a special infant from an evil queen’s reign.

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Jim Morrison in ‘The Doors’

Inspired by the 1960s-era rock band The Doors, Kilmer portrayed its late lead singer, Jim Morrison, in the biopic of his life.

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Doc Holliday in ‘Tombstone’

The 7 Below actor played Doc Holliday in the action-packed western film, which also starred Kurt Russell and Sam Elliott.

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Chris Shiherlis in ‘Heat’

The Palo Alto star acted with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, playing a trio of professional thieves who felt pressure from the Los Angeles police force after unknowingly leaving behind a clue on the job.

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Batman in ‘Batman Forever’

Kilmer joined an elite club of actors who’ve donned the Batsuit to portray the Caped Crusader. In the 1995 iteration, Kilmer’s Batman battled Harvey Dent (Two-Face) and Edward Nygma (The Riddler) alongside Dr. Chase Meridian and Robin.

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Moses in ‘The Prince of Egypt’

The Birthday Cake star voiced Egyptian folk legend Moses in the animated drama as the young prince sought to learn his true identity and destiny as the chosen deliverer of his people.

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Gay Perry in ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’

Kilmer acted alongside Robert Downey Jr. in the 2005 film where a New York-based thief is sent to Hollywood to train with a private detective for a prospective movie role before teaming up to solve a murder mystery.

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Dieter Von Cunth in ‘MacGruber’

The Spoils of Babylon alum played the villainous Dieter Von Cunth in the 2010 picture, who’s set on destroying Washington, D.C. using a dangerous nuclear warhead. Will Forte’s MacGruber is sent to defeat his former rival.

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Val in ‘Val’

Kilmer recounted his childhood, film roles and cancer battle in the 2021 documentary, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

“It feels like yesterday and yet it has been a lifetime. As I write this, my documentary is getting ready to premiere at Festival De Cannes. And as grateful as I am for being selected with this high honor, I look forward most to sharing my life’s story with all of you,” he tweeted that July, gushing about the emotional project. “Here’s to giving every day the opportunity to be the most beautiful of your life.”