ICEMAN. Val Kilmer was an underrated actor; he could do absolutely anything. He was the youngest person ever accepted into Juilliard's drama programme at the time. Turned up to that from Chatsworth, California, where his brother had drowned in a pool when they were teenagers. He carried that his whole life. Then Top Secret, Real Genius, and Top Gun as Iceman, which made him famous and also boxed him in. The proof he could really act is Doc Holliday in Tombstone. it's still the performance people quote. Then Jim Morrison in The Doors, where he learned around fifty songs and sang them himself well enough that surviving band members couldn't tell his voice from Morrison's. Heat opposite Pacino and De Niro. Batman. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Said he was chasing the work rather than being easy, and admitted he cost himself roles. Throat cancer took his voice in 2014. He kept working anyway, wrote a memoir, painted, made a documentary out of decades of his own home footage. Then Top Gun Maverick in 2022, where he appeared as Iceman using an AI-recreated voice, and that one scene with Cruise undid most people watching. He looked the part in everything too. The white dress uniform in Top Gun, leather trousers and beads as Morrison, waistcoats and a bow tie in Tombstone. Off screen he never bothered much. Long coat, sunglasses, open shirt, hair doing its own thing. He had that eighties film star look. He died in April last year, aged 65. RIP to a true legend. Find Highball's free newsletter in our bio. We find things worth your attention. 🔗 #cinema #mensfashion - @highballco