Here are some of his best and most memorable roles, and where to watch them.
Val Kilmer once proclaimed that he’s almost been fired from all his movies. Thankfully for us, he wasn’t. Though he might have frustrated more than a few directors, they too knew the headaches were ultimately worth it. An actor’s actor, trained at Juilliard and forever fighting against the simplest way of being in movies — whether in self-proclaimed “fluff” like “Top Secret!” or more dramatic, meaningful fare like “Tombstone” — Kilmer, who died Tuesday at age 65, was a true original.
Here are some of his best and most memorable roles, and where to watch them.“Top Secret” (1984)
There’s a bit of a Sliding Doors situation in which Kilmer might have been part of that young, promising cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” had he not had commitments in the theater — but Kilmer’s first major starring role would ultimately come in Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker’s deliriously nutty, spy-thriller-meets-Elvis-Presley movie “Top Secret!”
He played Nick Rivers, a 1950s rock ’n’ roll star playing in East Germany who inadvertently gets caught up in the resistance. It is supremely silly, and at the time had the misfortune of having followed “Airplane!” which most seemed to prefer. But Kilmer is sublime dancing and singing “Tutti Frutti.”
“I approached the character the only way I knew how: With everything I had,” he said in the documentary “Val.” Though he spent months learning how to play the guitar, the Zuckers said they thought it was funnier when he mimed it.
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on PlutoTV; available to rent on video on demand“Real Genius” (1985)
In this quintessential 1980s comedy directed by Martha Coolidge, Kilmer plays a precocious tech genius named Chris who really just wants to hang out, party and chase girls. But when he discovers that the military is actually angling to use his invention as a weapon, he and his classmates endeavor to sabotage the plan. It might not be the deepest of roles, but it left an impression on moviegoers.
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on video on demand“Top Gun” (1986)
Famously, Kilmer did not want to do “Top Gun.
