A Julliard graduate, a movie star, an actor who could play anything from fantasy heroes to flyboy villains, bank robbers to superheroes, dashing lead roles or demented sidekicks \u2014 Val Kilmer was all of these things, and way, way more. (For insight into the exact nature of that \u201cmore,\u201d see:\u00a0Val,<\/a><\/em>\u00a0the autobiographical documentary he produced out of his dozens of home movies and self-shot video testimonials.) Despite the fact that Kilmer has been battling health issues off and on for a little over a decade, his death at age 65 still came as a shock. Yet we still have his movies, and the legacy he left behind could not be more of a testament to his talent, his presence onscreen, and his ability to not only take huge risks but to make them pay off, big-time. Here are our picks for his 10 best performances, from\u00a0Top Secret!<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Top Gun: Maverick.<\/em>\u00a0We\u2019ll miss you, Val.<\/p>\n As a teen, Kilmer had frequented the Kentucky Fried Theater in Los Angeles, where the unholy trinity of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker wrote sketch comedy that pushed the boundaries of good taste; he was a huge fan of\u00a0Kentucky Fried Movie,<\/em>\u00a0the 1977 film they\u2019d made with John Landis that captured their signature bits for posterity, as well. So when the ZAZ team wanted to cast Kilmer in the follow-up to their hit movie\u00a0Airplane!<\/em>\u00a0(1980), the usually dead-serious thespian was ready to go. A combo parody of Cold War spy movies and Elvis Presley musicals,\u00a0Top Secret!<\/em>\u00a0weaponized Kilmer\u2019s handsomeness and gave him an opportunity to prove his versatility from the outset \u2014 it\u2019s a hell of a screen debut. Plus he got to get the girl, had an early chance to play rock star (who could forget the immortal classic\u00a0\u201cStraighten the Rug\u201d<\/a>?), and put his Julliard training to use by delivering the line, \u201cLook, I\u2019m not the first guy who fell in love with a girl he met in a restaurant who then turned out to be the daughter of a kidnapped scientist, only to lose her to a childhood lover who she\u2019d last seen on a deserted island and who turned out, 15 years later, to be the leader of the French underground\u201d at warp speed.\u00a0\u2014David Fear<\/em><\/p>\n As Chris Knight, a science prodigy and soon-to-graduate senior at a West Coast engineering university, Kilmer taught his stunted brainiac roommate Mitch how to let loose \u2014 and gave us all a lesson in prioritizing fun in the process. This 1985 school comedy may not get the accolades of\u00a0The Breakfast Club<\/em>, or even\u00a0Weird Science<\/em>\u00a0(both released the same year), but\u00a0Real Genius<\/em>\u00a0holds up beautifully because of Kilmer\u2019s smartass charisma. Whether he\u2019s helping his fellow geeks create an ice-rink in their dorm or dropping effortlessly sharp quips \u2014 e.g. \u201cDo you still run?\u201d His reply: \u201cOnly when chased.\u201d \u2014 Kilmer\u2019s wiseacre Knight gave real-life students struggling with fitting in an escape, and maybe even a template to follow.\u00a0\u2014Joseph Hudak<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s Iceman \u2026it\u2019s the way he flies: Ice-cold. No mistakes.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Kilmer initially wasn\u2019t interested in being in Tony Scott\u2019s ode to fast jets and the need-for-speed men who fly them; he felt it was just another warmongering bit of military propaganda. (He\u2019s characteristically blunt about his first impression in his memoir: \u201cI didn\u2019t want the part. I didn\u2019t care about the film. The story didn\u2019t interest me.\u201d) But director Tony Scott was determined to cast Kilmer as Tom \u201cIceman\u201d Kazansky, the too-cool-for-flight-school rival to Tom Cruise\u2019s Maverick, and his passion eventually won the reluctant actor over. It\u2019s now impossible to think of the movie without Kilmer\u2019s performance as the unflappable pilot, offering the perfect contrast to Cruise\u2019s livewire, hothead energy, or the way he bestows his bromantic blessing on the new best-of-the-best flyboy with, \u201cYou can be my wingman anytime.\u201d When he finally watched the finished product, Kilmer rushed into the offices of producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson and screamed, \u201cYou\u2019ve done it!\u201d He knew an iconic blockbuster when he saw one.\u00a0\u2014D.F.<\/em><\/p>\n By the late Eighties, Kilmer had already established himself as one of the most suave actors on screen, whether he was playing a college genius who partied and casually built lasers or a naval aviator with a killer volleyball serve. In Ron Howard\u2019s fantasy film,\u00a0<\/em>he took that cocky, cool-guy persona to the next level. His goofy mercenary, Madmartigan, assists the title character on a quest to save a very adorable infant princess. Never mind that he spends a lot of his time trapped in cages and under a delirious love spell (with future wife, Joanne Whalley); he makes up for it by sword fighting shirtless in the snow and kicking lots of warrior ass. Kilmer wasn\u2019t able to join the failed\u00a0Disney+ sequel series<\/a>, but the role of Madmartigan is still part of his legacy. As he said\u00a0in 2013<\/a>, \u201c[I] can\u2019t go through an airport without someone saying, \u2018Peck peck peck peck peck peck!\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u2014Angie Martoccio<\/em><\/p>\n Before there were a million music biopics hitting the multiplex en masse, there was Oliver Stone\u2019s tribute to Jim Morrison \u2014 poet, songwriter, shamanic sex symbol and slithering frontman for the Doors. And to watch Kilmer\u2019s immersive, go-for-broke take on the \u201960s posterboy for rock & roll self-destruction is to understand why he may have been the\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0person who could pull such a monumental task off circa the early 1990s. He trained for months to match Morrison\u2019s baritone-tenor, and gave both Stone and the surviving members of the group recordings of songs he\u2019d sung in character, played next to Morrison\u2019s original vocals. None of them could tell which ones were Val singing and which ones were Jim\u2019s. He also managed to capture Morrison\u2019s moody, charismatic presence, and made you understand how the man who wrote \u201cThe End\u201dcould turn a mini-Oedipal drama into a hormonal showstopper. Kilmer virtually became the Lizard King; you believed he could do anything. \u201cI worked my ass off,\u201d he admitted, years later. \u201cBecause I had a calling. I could not\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>play Jim.\u201d\u00a0\u2014D.F.<\/em><\/p>\n All due respect to Kurt Russell, but director George P. Cosmatos\u2019 retelling of the 1881 \u201cGunfight at the O.K. Corral\u201d would have been just another Western without Kilmer in the scene-stealing role of Doc Holliday. As the tubercular dentist, card sharp, and gunfighter, the actor gave a magnetic, Oscar-worthy performance \u2014 the fact that he wasn\u2019t nominated remains one of the Academy\u2019s all-time flubs. His roguish Holliday, in between coughing up blood, was instantly quotable too, adding lines like \u201cSay when,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m in my prime,\u201d and, most famously, \u201cI\u2019m your huckleberry,\u201d to the lexicons of wannabe cowboys everywhere. The way Kilmer slurred the one-liners to underscore Holliday\u2019s illness (and perpetual drunkenness) added an unmistakable air of vulnerability to the character too. Not to mention loneliness: When a fellow gunslinger asks Holliday why he\u2019s so loyal to Russell\u2019s Wyatt Earp, he says it\u2019s because they\u2019re friends. \u201cHell, I got a lot of friends,\u201d the man says. Doc\u2019s reply: \u201cI don\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0\u2014J.H.<\/em><\/p>\n There\u2019s been a lot of ink spilled over the past few decades about the behind-the-scenes turmoil surrounding the third Batman movie, from Tommy Lee Jones being not-quite-a-fan of his costar Jim Carrey to Kilmer (and Carrey) grieving the respective deaths of parents \u2014 and that\u2019s not even taking into account the star\u2019s feeling about the batsuit, which hampered Kilmer\u2019s movements to the point that he described it as a literal \u201ctrap.\u201d The main reason he took on the role after Michael Keaton had defined the modern, darker take on the superhero in two previous entries, Kilmer said later, was that he\u2019d hoped the franchise would help him fund an artists\u2019 community in New Mexico, where he could \u201cwrite poetry and plays, and become the wild auteur I saw as my destiny.\u201d It\u2019s neither the best nor the worst of the various Batman films that have come out over the years. But when you take another look at this, what stands out to you now is Kilmer\u2019s total commitment to playing both a mythological Caped Crusader\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0the conflicted man behind the mask. He may have been hampered by a stiff rubber outfit and had to rely on expressing everything with just his eyes and mouth, yet you can clearly see him giving 100-percent. Kilmer himself declared the film kitschy. You can\u2019t say the same for his performance.\u00a0\u2014D.F.<\/em><\/p>\n Rather than go once more unto the breach in the batsuit \u2014 Kilmer had originally been tapped for a three-Batman-movie deal \u2014 the actor opted out of the superhero-movie business and chased after a crime thriller that Michael Mann was getting ready to shoot in Los Angeles. The real reason he wanted\u00a0Heat,<\/em>\u00a0Kilmer would confess years later, was the chance to work with two of his acting heroes, De Niro and Pacino: \u201cI\u2019ll get to call them Al and Bob for the rest of my life.\u201d All we can say is: He made the absolutely 100-percent correct choice. Kilmer is pitch-perfect as Chris Shiherlis, the loyal right-hand man to De Niro\u2019s Neal McCauley and a self-destructive romantic (\u201cFor me, the sun rises and sets with her, man\u201d) who, like his partner in crime, takes pride in being a consummate professional. Kilmer became so proficient at quickly reloading and firing an AR-15 assault rifle during the film\u2019s legendary gunfight that apparently Pensacola\u2019s naval training camp used it to show the proper way to do it. The fact that he won\u2019t be able to grace Mann\u2019s\u00a0potential cinematic sequel<\/a>\u00a0to the greatest heist movie of all time with a cameo is itself a crime.\u00a0\u2014D.F.<\/em><\/p>\n Kilmer spent the early part of the 2000s dodging his reputation for being \u201cdifficult\u201d on set and taking parts that ranged from intriguing supporting roles to the kind of scuzzy, off-the-beaten men who carried wore their pain and tough experiences on their sleeves. (We\u2019re particularly fond of his turns in the 2002 thriller\u00a0The Salton Sea<\/em>\u00a0and, playing a seedy and exhausted John Holmes, in 2003\u2019s\u00a0Wonderland.<\/em>) Screenwriter-turned-filmmaker Shane Black\u2019s buddy comedy-slash-crime flick was a great reminder, however, that Kilmer wasn\u2019t just an intense actor \u2014 he was someone who still had star power to burn. Yes, his character, a private detective who\u2019s teaching an actor (Robert Downey Jr.) the tricks of his trade, is saddled with the regrettable name \u201cGay\u201d Perry van Shrike. But his off-the-charts chemistry with his costar helps turn this skewed take on old noirs into something that\u2019s both hardboiled and almost breezy, even when things get dark; listen to the banter between him and Downey Jr.\u00a0in this interrogation scene<\/a>, followed by Kilmer\u2019s casual reading of \u201cI\u2019m going to break your nose now\u201d before hitting a suspect. It\u2019s one of the rougher gems in Kilmer\u2019s back catalog, and easily one of his most underrated performances.\u00a0\u2014D.F.<\/em><\/p>\n A 2014 throat-cancer diagnosis and the damage it did to his voice box slowed Kilmer\u2019s career down considerably. For the most part, the actor was content to make art at his home in the Hollywood Hills, spend time with his family and finish writing his memoir,\u00a0I\u2019m Your Huckleberry.<\/em>\u00a0When Tom Cruise was finally able to get the long-gestating\u00a0Top Gun<\/em>\u00a0sequel off the ground, however, he called on Kilmer for a cameo. And even viewers who aren\u2019t die-hard fans of the original film will find themselves getting severely choked up when watching these two movie stars share the screen one final time. Having come to the retired Iceman for counsel, Maverick tries to reconcile whether he should send a younger pilot on a mission (they have history, long story) or not. At first, the former-enemy-turned-buddy simply types out \u201cIt\u2019s time to let go,\u201d and lets his concerned expression do the talking. Then, after hearing Maverick\u2019s spiel, the Iceman speaks: \u201cThe Navy needs Maverick. The kid needs Maverick. That\u2019s why I fought for you. That\u2019s why you\u2019re still here.\u201d Then he needles his old pal about who the better pilot is. To hear Kilmer say all of this in a whispery rasp could not be more poignant. The same goes for the hug that the two characters \u2014 and old friends \u2014 share as the scene fades out. We wish that we could have had a dozen more moments of Kilmer onscreen in his later years. But you could not ask for a more fitting sequence to go out on.\u00a0\u2014D.F.<\/em><\/p>\n\u2018Top Secret!\u2019 (1984)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Real Genius\u2019 (1985)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Top Gun\u2019 (1986)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Willow\u2019 (1988)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018The Doors\u2019 (1991)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Tombstone\u2019 (1993)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Batman Forever\u2019 (1995)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Heat\u2019 (1995)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Kiss Kiss Bang Bang\u2019 (2005)<\/h2>\n
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\u2018Top Gun: Maverick\u2019 (2022)<\/h2>\n
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