When you think about it, Val Kilmer has taken on some incredibly cool roles through the years. From Batman to Iceman, and key parts in excellent films like Heat, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and True Romance. But, his turn as Doc Holliday has now earned him the most prestigious award we can think of.
When Val Kilmer became a Batman actor, he probably thought that would be his coolest role ever. Of course, watching the Batman movies in order does become a bit of a chore when you get to Kilmer’s outing as the Caped Crusader, but even a bad Batman film is pretty cool. Perhaps, when he was part of the Top Gun cast, Kilmer may have thought he peaked.
But no. We have found Kilmer’s coolest role to date. In fact, it’s the coolest character anyone has ever played, and it comes in one of the best Westerns of all time.
Tombstone is one of the best ’90s movies around, and it stars Kilmer in the role of one Doc Holliday. The film is based on real events involving a number of lawmen and bandits from 1880s Arizona, with Holliday being one of them. Kilmer is joined in the cast by the likes of Kurt Russell, Bill Paxton, Sam Elliott, and Guardians of the Galaxy cast member, Michael Rooker.
It’s not a bad roster of talent, that’s for sure, but Kilmer’s depiction of Doc Holliday well and truly stood out. And, he has stood the test of time, too, as people on Reddit are declaring him the coolest movie character ever.
The original poster, InterviewBitter1647 said: “The epitome of badass and cool, practically every line Doc has in the movie is iconic and the performance of Val Kilmer is Oscar worthy in my opinion.” VectorJones agrees, too, adding: “Val Kilmer is one of the coolest actors of all time. He put every ounce of his coolness into that performance.”
The team here at The Digital Fix has some ideas for characters who could rival Doc Holliday, though. Personally, the silent, brooding Driver in the best Ryan Gosling movie, Drive, wins it for me. Staff writer, Charlotte Colombo puts forward one of the best Star Wars characters, Princess Leia, as her vote. Meanwhile our very own Star Trek king, James Osborne, rather predictably opts for William Shatner’s James T. Kirk (he is the best Star Trek captain, after all).
And finally, news editor Anthony McGlynn wants to give a shout out to Samuel L Jackson’s Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. Why? Well, “He’s calm, cool, commanding, theological, and wears a suit better than you.” A solid argument indeed. Throughout the history of cinema, some of the best movies of all time have seen some of the best actors of all time light up the screen as incredible characters.