From Top Gun’s Iceman to Tombstone’s Doc Holliday, there are a ton of iconic performances that the late, great Val Kilmer will always be remembered for. Kilmer sadly passed away on April 1, 2025, at the age of 65, leaving behind a legendary body of work. After rising to prominence with scene-stealing supporting roles in the 1980s, Kilmer became one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood throughout the 1990s. As Tinseltown’s most unsung leading man, Kilmer landed coveted roles like Robert De Niro’s right-hand man in Heat and the Dark Knight himself in Batman Forever.

Kilmer’s 2020 autobiography I’m Your Huckleberry: A Memoir and the brilliant 2021 documentary Val shed some light on the actor’s early-career struggles, personal and professional setbacks, and recent battle with health issues. Through it all, Kilmer remained committed to his art and committed to serving his fans. As tragic as this loss is, Kilmer’s best movies and the unforgettable performances he gave in them will live on forever. From Jim Morrison in The Doors to an imaginary Elvis Presley in True Romance, Kilmer gave a wide range of iconic performances throughout his career.

Elvis Presley In True Romance

Not all of Kilmer’s most memorable roles were major players in their respective films; he could give an iconic turn in a cameo, too. Quentin Tarantino’s first completed screenplay, True Romance, revolves around a comic book geek named Clarence Worley, who falls in love with an escort, murders her pimp, and goes on the run with a briefcase full of drugs. In an homage to Woody Allen’s interactions with Humphrey Bogart in Play It Again, Sam, all throughout the film, whenever Clarence is alone, he speaks to a hallucination of his idol, Elvis Presley, played by Kilmer.

Kilmer’s Elvis impression is spot-on. He dials it up for comic effect, but not so much that it becomes a cartoonish impersonation. Kilmer’s Elvis is responsible for one of True Romance’s best lines: “Clarence, I like you. Always have, always will.”

Nick Rivers In Top Secret!

Kilmer’s first ever film role is still one of his most memorable. Just under a decade before he would play Elvis himself in True Romance, he played an Elvis-inspired role in Top Secret! After the blockbuster success of Airplane!, the comedy dream team of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker could do whatever they wanted for their follow-up film. With Top Secret!, they chose a much more obscure target for cinematic satire: a mashup of Elvis musicals and Cold War spy movies.

In his first movie role, Kilmer stars as American rock star Nick Rivers, who travels to East Germany for a concert and gets swept up in the resistance. Nick falls in love at the drop of a hat and breaks into song and dance every chance he gets. Kilmer threw himself into the uniquely absurdist ZAZ brand of comedy, nailing every one-liner, slapstick gag, and over-the-top musical number.

Jim Morrison In The Doors

Long before music biopics were ten a penny, Kilmer starred as frontman Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors. The movie plays into Morrison’s public persona as a larger-than-life rock icon, and Kilmer seizes every opportunity to chew the scenery within that portrayal of the character. Kilmer’s mesmerizing portrayal of Morrison embodies the old adage that the brightest flames burn the fastest. Kilmer’s three-dimensional performance in The Doors captures both Morrison’s positive and negative qualities. He leans into his free-loving hippie lifestyle, but he also leans into his interpersonal troubles and his morbid obsession with death.

Gay Perry In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Shane Black had a long history of creating iconic on-screen double acts — Lethal Weapon’s Murtaugh and Riggs were his invention — before he made his directorial debut with the criminally underrated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a tongue-in-cheek satire of hard-boiled detective fiction, but it’s also a hilarious buddy comedy pairing up Kilmer’s private eye “Gay” Perry van Shrike with Robert Downey, Jr.’s fledgling actor Harry Lockhart. Initially, Perry is hired to give Harry some on-the-job guidance before he screen-tests for a P.I. role, but they end up making a surprisingly effective crimefighting duo.

Kilmer showed off his rarely-seen comedic chops in this role. He shares hysterical on-screen chemistry with Downey as they bicker their way through deadly situations. Perry is constantly losing his temper due to Harry’s terrible impulsive decision-making, and Kilmer nails the deadpan delivery of every biting insult and exasperated rant.

Bruce Wayne/Batman In Batman Forever

After Batman Returns was met with criticism for its overly dark tone and underperformed at the box office, Warner Bros. did a tonal 180 with the franchise. The studio brought in Joel Schumacher to replace Tim Burton in the director’s chair and bring a lighter, more family-friendly feel to the property. When Burton was ousted, Michael Keaton refused to don the cowl a third time, so the search was on for a new Caped Crusader — and Kilmer, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood at the time, landed the part.

Schumacher’s take on the character, reviving the shamelessly campy tone of the ‘60s Adam West series in a modern blockbuster style, was deeply divisive. But Kilmer’s portrayal of Batman was widely praised. Kilmer nailed the Bat’s quips, but he also captured the brooding intensity and underlying sadness of his alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

Chris Shiherlis In Heat

Michael Mann’s crime epic Heat finally put Robert De Niro and Al Pacino on-screen together. But they only share a couple of scenes; De Niro’s most prominent scene partner in the film is Kilmer as his criminal cohort Chris Shiherlis. Heat subverts the typical cops-and-robbers formula by humanizing the bank robber characters just as much as the cop characters.

The friendship between Kilmer’s Chris and De Niro’s Neil McCauley feels totally real. When Chris is having problems in his marriage, he can always rely on Neil to give him a place to stay and put a good word in with his wife. Kilmer is one of the actors whose dedication to weapons training made Heat’s shootout sequence so intensely realistic.

Iceman In Top Gun & Top Gun: Maverick

One of the early roles that put Kilmer on the map was LT Tom Kazansky, better known by his callsign “Iceman,” in the action movie classic Top Gun. Iceman is the long-time rival of Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Over the course of the film, Maverick and Iceman gradually come to begrudgingly respect each other, leading to a perfect payoff in the third act. Kilmer’s portrayal of this character is pitch-perfect; he establishes who Iceman is without saying a word, exuding unbearable smarm as he chews gum with a smug grin.

Kilmer reprised his role in the acclaimed sequel, Top Gun: Maverick. By this point, Kilmer had lost his voice due to throat cancer. But he shares a touching scene with Cruise in which Iceman gives Maverick some crucial guidance at a key turning point in his arc. That scene was a fitting swansong for this screen legend.

Doc Holliday In Tombstone

Kilmer gave a lot of great performances, but the one that defines his career will always be his turn as Doc Holliday in Tombstone. Tombstone is technically a biopic of Wyatt Earp, and Kurt Russell is the star, but Kilmer’s Holliday steals the show. Snubbing Kilmer for a Best Supporting Actor nomination has to be one of the most egregious decisions in Oscars history. Kilmer’s performance elevated a very good latter-day western into one of the genre’s all-time greats.

Throughout the film, Kilmer is burdened with depicting Holliday’s descent into illness and alcoholism. But he still manages to bring plenty of charisma to the character and steal every scene he’s in. Val Kilmer gave a lot of terrific performances in his career, but his work in Tombstone stands out as his crowning achievement.