From Batman to Top Gun: Val Kilmer's 10 greatest roles, ranked

Telegraph

02-04-2025

The critic Roger Ebert wrote of Val Kilmer, who has died of pneumonia aged 65, that 'if there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it.' He was right. Despite his formidable and hugely versatile talent, the Juilliard-educated actor found his mainstream career as a lead stymied from early on, amidst rumours that he was difficult to work with and overly demanding.
Although good-looking and hugely charismatic, Kilmer began his career as a comic actor, and it is no surprise that half the roles on this list are in comedies. His great skill was in subverting his heart-throb appearance early in his career, and embracing silly and full-on comic parts later on, after his handsome looks had faded somewhat. Even in his more serious roles, he was able to bring much-needed levity to the part.
Kilmer, unaccountably, never won an Oscar, although at least two of the performances here should have seen him nominated at the bare minimum. After he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015, he largely stepped away from acting – with one notable exception – but his 2021 documentary Val, focusing on his life and career, served as a living epitaph for a superbly talented, if never straightforward, figure. Here are 10 of his greatest performances – ranked.
10. Batman/Bruce Wayne, Batman Forever (1995)
The idea of a fully unhinged Kilmer, in full Jim Morrison or Doc Holliday mode, taking on the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman in Joel Schumacher's first, and considerably better, Dark Knight picture is a mouthwatering one. Alas, Kilmer's performance is one of his most restrained, perhaps because of the much-publicised clashes he had with Schumacher on set. Nevertheless, with Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey tiresomely vying with one another to steal scenes, a little dignity and nuance is to be greatly appreciated. Still, perhaps, the most underrated Batman.
9. Himself, Life's Too Short (2013)
For someone castigated for being hard to work with, Kilmer had a remarkable flair for self-deprecation, and this was seldom better demonstrated than in the final episode of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Warwick Davis-starring sitcom.
Playing a caricatured version of himself – the comic flip side to the Val documentary – Kilmer relishes the chance to satirise not only his Hollywood standing, but also his Method credentials. This is beautifully illustrated by the scene in which he dons his Batman mask (which, for some reason, he has on him at all times), and attempts to surprise Davis's secretary by dint of standing in front of her, blank-faced; she is unable to recognise him, even when he removes his mask.
8. Madmartigan, Willow (1988)
The point of Kilmer's appearance in Life's Too Short is to discuss a sequel to Willow, the George Lucas-produced fantasy epic in which he played the swashbuckling rogue Madmartigan opposite Warwick Davis's adventurer. Ironically, the sequel did, eventually, occur in a 2022 Disney+ series, but Kilmer was no longer well enough to participate in it. His absence left a considerable gap, as his amusing, dashing performance in the original film is one of its most successful elements.
7. Elvis Presley, True Romance (1993)
Tony Scott's Quentin Tarantino's screenplay is a feast of A-list cameos (Walken! Hopper! Oldman! Pitt!), all of them apparently attempting to outdo one another for iconic status. Just as well, then, that Scott, who had previously worked with Kilmer on Top Gun, cast the actor in the recurring role of Christian Slater's imaginary mentor: none other than Elvis Presley. (Although for legal reasons the character is simply credited as 'Mentor'.)
Coming off his legendary performance as Jim Morrison a couple of years before, Kilmer – who is never shown in focus – manages to be funny, charismatic and slightly chilling all at the same time as the ghostly Elvis, and perfectly of a piece with the rest of the superb film.
6. Chris Shiherlis, Heat (1995)
Inevitably, anyone who watches Michael Mann's modern-day crime masterpiece will also be most impressed by its stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, both at their peak, whether individually or in their brief moments together. With this in mind, Kilmer does a superb job as De Niro's volatile right-hand man, whose brilliance at robbing banks is only rivalled by the hot mess of his personal life. Kilmer's final, wordless scene, opposite Ashley Judd as his put-upon wife, shows precisely what this fine actor could do without lengthy monologues to rely on.
5. Nick Rivers, Top Secret! (1984)
Making his cinematic debut, Kilmer stars as the Elvis-esque American singer Nick Rivers in this riotous Second World War comedy action thriller, who is drawn into a knowingly complex web of cross-European espionage. Kilmer appeared at his audition dressed as Elvis, which impressed Abrahams: the writer-director commented that 'I like to think of it as the role Elvis never got but should have.'
Certainly, the King had many skills and qualities, but he never demonstrated anything like Kilmer's brilliance at comic timing, which allows his Rivers to react to even the most outlandish events and clowning with the same hilariously all-American enthusiasm. Kilmer also demonstrates a fantastic singing voice, which would come in very useful later in his career.
4. Perry Van Shrike, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
There may be a better character name in contemporary cinema than 'Gay Perry', but if there is, I am yet to discover it. Shane Black's peerless crime comedy may now be best remembered for being the picture that sent its star Robert Downey Jr on the road to A-list status and superstardom. But as the gruff, laconic and wholly hilarious private detective who has to help Downey Jr's petty criminal, Kilmer matches him every step of the way for the comic goods. Watching the two men banter in Black's inimitable fashion is a true joy (forget about the plot, you're here for the dialogue) and it is a minor tragedy that the film's box office failure did not lead to a reunion of these two inimitable, brilliant characters.
3. Iceman, Top Gun/Top Gun Maverick (1986/2022)
As Tom Cruise's macho rival Iceman in the original Top Gun picture, Kilmer was very fine indeed, but in truth the role was hardly a demanding one; most young, charismatic actors could have played it just as well.
The reason why the part is ranked so highly on the list is because of the scene in the film's vastly superior sequel in which a dying Iceman, who has now been promoted to Admiral and commander of the US Pacific Fleet, meets Cruise's Maverick for the final time. It's wholly affecting, because it acknowledges Kilmer's real-life issues with throat cancer and incorporates them into the character, and it is genuinely difficult to see where the line between fictitious figures and real-life actors is. Cruise, to his great credit, reportedly insisted on the scene being included, and Kilmer's swansong performance in cinema is the greatest moment in a very great film.
2. Doc Holliday, Tombstone (1993)
1993 saw two Wyatt Earp films released, a Lawrence Kasdan-Kevin Costner one, which was expected to be a timeless classic, and a Kurt Russell-Kilmer version from the director of Rambo, which most anticipated would be a mindless B-movie.
In a proper plot twist, Tombstone was not only the more commercially successful of the two, but also vastly better, thanks in large part to Kilmer's brilliant performance as the ailing but deadly gunfighter Doc Holliday. Whether he's exchanging Latin quotations over the card table with a nemesis or dispatching his enemies at the Gunfight at the O.K Corral with a vigour that belies his sickly pallor, Kilmer is magnificent.
1. Jim Morrison, The Doors (1991)
Whether you regard The Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison as a prophet and visionary, or tiresomely self-regarding poseur, there is no denying that Kilmer's performance as Morrison in Oliver Stone's biopic of the band is utterly extraordinary.
Kilmer inhabits Morrison so completely – even down to singing Doors songs in a fashion that might even be better than the original singer – that it's one of the most uncanny impersonations of a famous figure in cinema, a transformative marvel, done without prosthetics or CGI, that should have won him every award going.
That it did not – unbelievably, he wasn't even Oscar-nominated – might say more about the distaste that many more conservative viewers may have felt about the 'Lizard King' than it does about Kilmer's career-best work here.