From Batman to Top Gun: Val Kilmer's 10 greatest roles, ranked
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘It was a buddy movie – and then they kissed': Stephen Frears and Hanif Kureishi on My Beautiful Laundrette at 40
It is a sweltering summer afternoon and I'm blowing bubbles over the heads of Stephen Frears and Hanif Kureishi while they have their pictures taken in a sun-dappled corner of the latter's garden. Perched in front of them as they sit side by side – Kureishi, who has been tetraplegic since breaking his neck in a fall in 2022, is in a wheelchair – is a silver cake made to look like a washing machine, commissioned to mark the 40th anniversary of their witty, raunchy comedy-drama My Beautiful Laundrette. Some of the bubbles land on the cake's surface, causing everyone present to make a mental note to skip the icing, while others burst on the brim of Frears's hat or drift into Kureishi's eyes. It is not perhaps the most dignified look for an esteemed duo celebrating an enduring Oscar-nominated gem. Don't think they haven't noticed, either. As the bubbles pop around them, Kureishi upbraids the photographer for trampling on his garden – 'Mind my flowers!' – while Frears grumbles: 'I could be watching the cricket.' Get them on to the subject of the film, though, and an aura of pride soon prevails. No wonder. My Beautiful Laundrette, which revolves around a run-down dive transformed into 'a jewel in the jacksie of south London' by an Anglo-Pakistani entrepreneur and his lover, did many things: it distilled and critiqued an entire political movement (Thatcherism), portrayed gay desire in unfashionably relaxed terms, and audaciously blended social realism with fable-like magic and cinematic grandeur. It launched a writer (Kureishi), a production company (Working Title, later the home of Richard Curtis), a prestigious composer (Hans Zimmer) and, most strikingly, one of the greatest of all actors: Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays Johnny, the ex-National Front thug teaming up (and copping off) with his former schoolmate Omar (Gordon Warnecke). Or 'Omo' as Johnny teasingly calls him even as he licks his neck in public or they douse one another in champagne. It is well known that Gary Oldman and Tim Roth were also in the running to play Johnny. Frears adds an unlikelier name to the mix. 'Kenneth Branagh came to see me,' says the 84-year-old film-maker. 'Half a second and you knew: 'Well, he's not right.' But good for him for wanting to do it.' The leading candidate seemed clear in Frears's mind, and not only because Day-Lewis threatened to break his legs if he didn't cast him. 'All the girls said: 'You want Dan.' He was top of the crumpet list at the Royal Court.' On screen, he is magnetically minimalist. 'Dan loved Clint Eastwood,' Kureishi points out. 'He loved how still Clint was. You can see the influence: Dan doesn't move very much.' Frears detected the echo of an even older star. 'I remember him standing by the lamppost under the bridge in the scene where he and Omar meet again, and I thought: 'Ah, I see. You want to play it like Marlene Dietrich.'' Kureishi, now 70, was already established as a young playwright before he wrote the film. Not that his father was impressed. 'He hadn't come to this country to see his son doing little plays above pubs,' he says in between sips of kefir. 'He thought I'd never make a living as a writer, so I really wanted to get moving.' Frears once likened reading My Beautiful Laundrette to 'finding a new continent'. In writing it, Kureishi combined scraps of autobiography with cinematic tropes. 'My dad had got me involved with a family friend called Uncle Adi, who ran garages and owned properties. He was kind of a grifter. He took me around these launderettes he owned in the hope that I would run them for him. They were awful fucking places; people were shooting up in there. So I thought I'd write about a bloke running a launderette. Then I thought: 'Well, he needs a friend.' It could be a buddy movie, like The Sting. But I couldn't get a hold on it. Then, as I was writing, they kissed – and suddenly everything seemed more purposeful. Now it was a love story as well as a story about a bloke going into business.' The tension between Omar and Johnny, his formerly racist pal-turned-lover, was drawn from Kureishi's own experience of growing up in south London. 'Lots of my friends had become skinheads. My best friend turned up at my house one day with cropped hair, boots, Ben Sherman shirt, all the gear. My dad nearly had a heart attack. He'd spent a lot of time trying not to be beaten up by skinheads. It was terrifying to be a Pakistani in south London in the 1970s.' Omar's uncle, exuberantly played by Saeed Jaffrey, was similarly lifted from life. 'He was based on a friend of my father's: a good-time boy who had a white mistress.' That lover was played in the film by Shirley Anne Field, star of the kitchen-sink classic Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. 'She was a woman of such grace and elegance,' sighs Kureishi. 'Dan and I would interrogate her all the time: 'Who's the most famous person you've slept with?' She'd slept with President Kennedy. And George Harrison!' He still sounds amazed. When Frears came on board, he made some invaluable suggestions. 'Stephen told me: 'Make it dirty,'' says Kureishi. 'That's a great note. Writing about race had been quite uptight and po-faced. You saw Pakistanis or Indians as a victimised group. And here you had these entrepreneurial, quite violent Godfather-like figures. He also kept telling me to make it like a western.' Frears looks surprised: 'Did I?' Kureishi replies: 'Yeah. I never knew what that meant.' There are visual touches that suggest the genre: a Butch Cassidy-esque bicycle ride, a Searchers-style final camera set-up peering through a doorway, not to mention a magnificent crane shot that hoists us from the back of the launderette and over its roof. 'I think what Stephen meant is that it's about two gangs getting ready to fight. The Pakistani group and the white thugs. There's something coming down the line.' His other note to Kureishi was that the film should have a happy ending. Why? 'We'd asked people to invest so much in these characters,' says Frears. 'And a sad ending is quite easy in an odd sort of way. This one's only happy in the last 10 seconds.' Kureishi agrees: 'Yeah. But you leave the cinema in a cheerful mood.' It was a happy ending for the film-makers, too. Frears recalls one reviewer observing that while Kureishi might not be able to spell, he could certainly write. That reminds me: the story goes that Kureishi deliberately misspelt the title as an indictment of his own education. But he scotches that rumour. 'I'm from Bromley,' he says. 'I thought that was how you spelled it.' If the film was a skyrocket for its writer, it heralded a new chapter for Frears. He had recently made his second film for cinema – the stylish, ruminative thriller The Hit starring Roth, John Hurt and Terence Stamp – 13 years after his debut, Gumshoe. Ironically, My Beautiful Laundrette, which was shot on 16mm for just £600,000, was only intended to be screened on Channel 4. But a rapturous premiere at the Edinburgh film festival, accompanied by acclaim from critics including the Guardian's Derek Malcolm, made a cinema release the only possible launchpad. Kureishi recalls that trip with fondness. 'I was in Edinburgh with Tim Bevan [of Working Title] and Dan, and we all slept in the same room. I made sure I got the bed, and the others were on the floor. Dan didn't even have a suitcase, just a toothbrush. Every night, he'd wash his underwear and his socks in the sink and put them on again the next day.' Blown up to 35mm, this low-budget TV film became a magnet for rave reviews here and in the US (the New Yorker's Pauline Kael called it 'startlingly fresh'), bagged Kureishi an Oscar nomination and helped reinvigorate Frears's movie career, paving the way for later hits including Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters and The Queen. Neither of them has seen it recently. 'I don't watch my old films,' Frears says with a grimace. 'You either sit there thinking: 'I should have done that better.' Or else: 'That's rather good. Why can't I do that any more?'' I assure them that the picture looks better than ever, whether it's the visual panache of Oliver Stapleton's cinematography or the enchanting subtlety of Warnecke's performance, which was rather overshadowed by Day-Lewis at the time but can now be seen to chart delicately Omar's gradual blossoming. It goes without saying that My Beautiful Laundrette was ahead of its time, especially in its blase approach to queerness. When the picture was released in the UK at the end of 1985, homophobia was becoming more virulent and widespread in the media as cases of Aids escalated. The Conservative government's section 28 legislation, outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality by local authorities, was just over two years away. The timing of the film's re-emergence today is not lost on its author. 'It's so hard to be gay now,' says Kureishi. 'There's all this hostility toward LGBT people, so it feels important that the film is out there again in this heavily politicised world where being gay or trans is constantly objectified. It's a horrible time.' Interviewed in 1986 by Film Comment magazine, however, Kureishi dismissed the idea of it as a 'gay film', and derided the whole concept of categories. 'There's no such thing as a gay or black sensibility,' he said then. How does he feel today? 'I still don't want to be put in a category. I didn't like it when people called me a 'writer of colour' because I'm more than that.' The film, too, is multilayered. 'It's about class, Thatcherism, the Britain that was emerging from the new entrepreneurial culture. I didn't want it to be restricted by race or sexuality, and that hasn't changed.' I wonder if it rankles, then, that My Beautiful Laundrette was voted the seventh best LGBTQ+ film of all time in a 2016 BFI poll. And it does – though not for the reason I had anticipated. 'What was above it?' demands Frears in a huff. 'Why didn't it win?' Still, both men are thrilled that the film was embraced by queer audiences. 'If Stephen and I have done anything to make more people gay, we'd be rather proud of that.' My Beautiful Laundrette is in cinemas from 1 August. Frears, Kureishi and Warnecke will take part in a Q&A following a screening on 25 July at the Cinema Rediscovered festival in Bristol
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Only those with genius IQ can get eight out of 10 questions right
Consider yourself the brains of the family? Reckon you have an IQ so high you could get into Mensa without even trying? Well, now it's time to put that modest theory to the test Put your intellect to the ultimate test with this deceptively difficult quiz that's leaving swathes of Brits utterly stumped. Solving brainteasers, puzzles and riddles is a great way to pass the time when boredom strikes - and is a foolproof way to keep the little ones entertained for a couple of minutes. However, research has also suggested they can positively impact your central nervous system, resulting in a slew of cognitive benefits. Now, they may not make you the next Albert Einstein or get you into Mensa. But, they could improve your attention span and better your concentration levels, which is still pretty impressive. Curated by TikTok quiz master Mahan Lankarani, these 10 questions may seem like your bog standard pub quiz setup - but they're actually much more difficult. In fact, the average person can only get seven out of 10 right - meaning you'll need to score at least eight to prove you're a modern-day genius. You only have three seconds on each question before you need to move on to the next. If this is too intense for you, pause the video and read the questions below instead. However, if you've not got the answer after 10 seconds, you may as well pass. Which part of the human body contains the three smallest bones? According to legend, which King would gather with his knights at the round table? What animal is the largest land carnivore by mass? What bird completes the title of the famous book 'To Kill A...'? In what decade did India gain independence from Britain? In the human body, what is the scientific name for the voice box? Caracas is the capital of which South American country? What is the scientific study of the weather called? Who played Bane in the 2012 Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises? "Load up on guns, bring your friends. It's fun to lose and to pretend," are lyrics from which famous song? If that rapid-fire quiz was no match for a boffin like yourself, don't worry. It's now time to ramp things up a notch with this baffling riddle that requires some serious analytical skills. So, what are you waiting for? "Mrs. Watt has 5 children. The oldest four children's names are Lala, Lele, Lili, and Lolo," the riddle reads. "What is the name of the youngest child - why do people laugh at her name?" Most people will quickly guess the child is called Lulu. This is because the first four children have the same name with different vowels - and 'U' is the last one available. However, this isn't right, and the riddle isn't that easy to solve. Feeling stuck, or reckon you've finally cracked it? Check your answer here, but no cheating! ANSWERS: Ear King Arthur Polar Bear Mockingbird 1940s Larynx Venezuela Meteorology Tom Hardy Smells Like Teen Spirit Article continues below
South Wales Guardian
14 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Spacey told actor ‘don't worry about it' after alleged assault, documents claim
Ruari Cannon is suing Mr Spacey as well as two organisations connected to the Old Vic Theatre in London, claiming he suffered psychiatric damage as a result of sexual and emotional abuse. The 33-year-old has waived his anonymity in the claim. In court documents seen by the PA news agency, Mr Cannon alleges that Mr Spacey, who was a 'powerful figure and a world-famous actor and celebrity' at the time, assaulted him in about June 2013, when he was 'a very vulnerable young man'. Oscar-winning actor Mr Spacey has previously denied allegations of inappropriate behaviour and wrongdoing, and details of his defence are not yet available. According to the documents, filed in June, Mr Spacey was working as artistic director at the Old Vic Theatre at the time of the alleged assaults on a production of a play by Tennessee Williams known as Sweet Bird Of Youth, and Mr Cannon was a member of the cast in this production. They claim that Mr Spacey 'took a particular interest' in Mr Cannon for 'reasons of sexual interest' and sent him a 'lavish' gift of a framed poster of the 1985 production of the play directed by Harold Pinter. After the press preview of the show on June 12 2013, Mr Cannon attended a party at The Savoy in London organised by The Old Vic Theatre Company (The Cut) and The Old Vic Theatre Trust 2000. It is claimed that one of the alleged assaults took place at the event. Setting out the allegations, Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel KC, for Mr Cannon, said: 'Kevin Spacey pulled the claimant towards him, turned him around through 45 degrees and placed his left hand on the claimant's buttocks and lifted up the recess material of his suit.' It is alleged that Mr Spacey then pushed Mr Cannon's underwear 'as far up' into his bottom as possible, 'so as to cause pain and distress'. Ms Gumbel added: 'Mr Kevin Spacey pulled the claimant closer to him and whispered into the claimant's ear 'Don't worry about it'. 'Mr Spacey made more uncalled for and unwelcome advances to the claimant during the evening.' The following day, Mr Cannon reported the alleged assaults to his stage manager at the Old Vic Theatre, but no action was taken. According to the documents, it is accepted that Mr Cannon did not ask for any action to be taken, and was scared about how any further action might affect his career. Later that year, during the run of the show, Mr Cannon saw Mr Spacey at the Old Vic bar. Mr Spacey allegedly said to him, 'I hear you have a dirty secret', and then said: 'Open up.' Ms Gumbel said: 'Kevin Spacey then forced open the claimant's mouth with his fingers and thumbs and commented 'quite a bad boy' before the claimant could pull away. 'The claimant then left the bar. The forcing open of the claimant's mouth was another assault for which Kevin Spacey was responsible and for which the second and/or third defendants were vicariously liable. 'Further in 2017 when the Old Vic set up a confidential complaints email on October 31 2017 the claimant reported the above complaint again to the Old Vic.' She added that the alleged assaults were carried out by Mr Spacey in the course of his work for the organisations connected to the Old Vic, and they are 'vicariously liable' for the alleged assaults carried out in the context of a theatre production. Law firms Carter-Ruck, which is representing Mr Spacey, and Clyde & Co, representing the companies, have been approached for comment.
