However, his performance alongside Tom Cruise as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in Top Gun (1986) was what made him a global celebrity.
He returned to the character decades later in the popular follow-up Top Gun: Maverick (2022), in which Iceman had become the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Kilmer’s career took off when he was cast in the main role of Ron Howard and George Lucas’s fantasy epic Willow (1988),
Where he met Joanne Whalley, his future wife and co-star. Prior to their 1996 divorce, the couple had two kids, Mercedes and Jack.
One of Kilmer’s most famous roles is that of Jim Morrison, the leader of The Doors, in Oliver Stone’s 1991 film The Doors. Kilmer made an eight-minute video of himself singing.
