Alabama actor who shared screen with Val Kilmer in ‘Tombstone' calls late actor one of the best of his generation

Yahoo

03-04-2025

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Despite sharing the screen with him in one of the most revered Westerns of the last 30 years, Michael Biehn did not know Val Kilmer.
They were not friends, they did not go out together and, to hear it from Biehn, there was something uneasy between the two actors. It was nothing personal; only in keeping with the characters they played in the 1993 film 'Tombstone,' where Biehn's character, Johnny Ringo, goes up against Kilmer's Doc Holliday and his group of gunslingers, including Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, leading up to a historic gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
'There was a tension between us because our characters didn't like one another, so we didn't even interact on the set,' said Biehn, who was born in Anniston and grew up in Arizona before becoming an actor. 'I had a tendency to hang out with (actor) Powers Booth, and he (Kilmer) had a tendency to hang out with Kurt (Russell).'
Nonetheless, it was abundantly clear to Biehn that the moment he stepped onto set, Kilmer was working on a different level as an actor.
'When we were doing our first read-through, I said to myself 'Michael, you better step it up here or he's going to walk all over you,' he said of the celebrated actor, who died Tuesday at the age of 65.
For one, Biehn said Kilmer brought a deep commitment to his portrayal of Holliday, a dangerous gunslinger suffering a slow death from tuberculosis. In order to do that, Kilmer felt it was necessary to feel the kind of pain Holliday experienced.
'He wanted the feeling of always being in pain and he used this glycerin spray on his face and neck,' Biehn said. 'It was really hurting him, but I was admiring the fact that he used that, because I know it can be really difficult.'
In one iconic moment from the movie, Ringo and Holliday have one last standoff, the camera pushing up on them as they get ready to try and kill one another. Biehn said the scene was largely something he and Kilmer had practiced and choreographed themselves to make the audience feel the urgency of the moment, avoiding the well-worn Hollywood trope of a final draw from yards away.
'We didn't want it to be standing still,' Biehn said, adding that he and Kilmer wanted something than,' Biehn said. 'We wanted an intimacy and a movement.'
Despite not being an immediate box office success, 'Tombstone' has grown into a cult classic over the years with many critics considering it not just one of the best contemporary Westerns, but one of Kilmer's best performances.
For Biehn, who appeared in other movies such as 'The Terminator,' 'Aliens,' 'Grindhouse' and many other films, he ranks Johnny Ringo as the best villain he's ever played.
'When I'm out and about, people want to talk to me about 'Tombstone' as much as anything else I've done,' he said.
Biehn said what set Kilmer apart from other actors was not only his intelligence, but the way he was able to access different parts of himself and translate them into the characters he played, inspiring his scene partners to step up their own performances in response.
'He was a true professional and was always fascinating to watch,' Biehn said, calling Kilmer one of the finest actors of his generation. 'You never knew what you were truly going to get, which would make it exciting.'
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