He made his film debut starring in the spy spoof "Top Secret!" (1984) before appearing in the comedy "Real Genius" (1985). He rocketed to stardom as Tom Cruise's co-star in the smash 1986 hit "Top Gun" (1986), playing naval aviator Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, and decades later appeared alongside Cruise again in the 2022 sequel "Top Gun: Maverick."
Kilmer starred in director Ron Howard's fantasy "Willow" (1988) and married his British co-star Joanne Whalley, with whom he had two children before divorcing.
One of his most challenging roles came in director Oliver Stone's "The Doors" (1991) in which he played Jim Morrison, the charismatic and ultimately doomed lead singer of the influential rock band The Doors. Kilmer's own singing voice is used in the film.
"The Doors" ushered in the highest-profile years of his career. In the 1993 Western "Tombstone," he played Old West gunfighter Doc Holliday. He had two commercial successes in 1995, co-starring with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the crime drama "Heat" and succeeding Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader in "Batman Forever," the third installment in the Batman series.
His Disney credits include the aforementioned Hollywood Pictures “Tombstone” (1993) where he played Doc Holliday, Paul Pryzwarra in the Touchstone Pictures “Déjà Vu” (2006), FBI Agent Jake Harris in the Miramax Films “Mindhunters” (2004) and he voiced Bravo in the Walt Disney Studios/Disneytoon Studios “Planes” (2013).
