04/02/2025
RIP Val Kilmer. One of the Firepit Podcasts first big stars!. We had the pleasure of seeing Val in Top Gun, in one of his most famous roles as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in Top Gun. Top Gun as you all know was the film we used as our jump off to our first journey, the Road to Independence Day.
Val had a storied career, starting off in comedies like Top Secret and Real Genius, he later burst onto the mainstream scene as the aforementioned “Iceman” in Top Gun and Willow. It was movies like The Doors where he played the famed singer Jim Morrison and Tombstone where he played the famed gunfighter Doc Holliday, where Val really got to display his Bonafide acting chops. (He really should have gotten an Oscar nod for Doc Holliday in Tombstone.)
He is also well known for being in a small class of actors who have played Batman on screen. Val was cast as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman: Forever, which was a huge box office success despite the mixed reviews. Val had the unenviable task of following Michael Keaton in the role so some of the reviews either praised or criticized his performance. I (Dan) though he did very well. He decline to do another Batman film as he felt Batman was being marginalized in his own films for the villains. (He wasn’t wrong)
Val’s career would continue on into the 2000s and 2010s with both ups and downs but rarely a bad performance from him in the film. Such highlights and lowlights include The Saint, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Prince of Egypt, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and even reprised his role as “Iceman” in Top Gun Maverick.
I’ll end, as I always do with quote from a Val Kilmer movie. The obvious choice is Tombstone but not the one everyone quotes. "There's No Normal Life There's Just Life. Now Get On With It."
True words have never been said.
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