Val Kilmer is one of the great actors of his generation, starring in massive tentpole blockbusters like “Top Gun,” franchise flicks like “Batman Forever,” and even the occasional art film. He took his craft seriously no matter what the role entailed throughout his career, transforming himself to fit any kind of character. For the historically accurate(ish) Western “Tombstone,” he studied intensely with a dialect coach and tried to stay in the fatalistic mindset of his dying character, Doc Holliday, but he also utilized some of his personal talents as well.
“Tombstone” is one of the all-time great Westerns, and Kilmer’s nuanced performance of a man staring down the specter of death is a big part of it. In the movie, Holliday is playing poker with some ne’er-do-wells and it doesn’t go too well. He idly plays with a coin, moving it across his fingers with trained, fluid motions. It’s a small moment that doesn’t play too much into the greater scene, but later he also spins a cup around in the same manner as a skilled gunslinger might show off his gun. It makes a lot of sense that one of the fastest, greatest gunmen of the Old West would be extremely dexterous, and Kilmer’s ability to do those tricks is a great touch for the character, but it’s not the first or last time he’s done these kinds of tricks in the movies.
Skilled at sleight of hand
In the 1985 film “Real Genius,” a very early-career Kilmer plays slacker super-genius Chris, who has all kinds of unconventional lifehacks for getting through college. He rolls quarters across his fingers in the same way as the old coin in “Tombstone,” most clearly during a classroom scene. He also slices liquid nitrogen that’s the same size and thickness as quarters to steal from the school’s vending machines, and thankfully he’s not foolhardy enough to try and flip those across his fingers. Seriously, it would give “Iceman” a whole new meaning, and he might not have been able to do the trick ever again.
Speaking of Iceman, Kilmer also did a version of the coin trick in “Top Gun” in 1986 as well, except he did it with a pen instead of a coin. In both cases, it works for the characters, who are at the top of their respective fields and are highly skilled. It almost makes you wonder which came first in “Tombstone”: the coin and cup tricks or Kilmer being cast as Doc Holliday? Either way, it was a match made in heaven, as his role in “Tombstone” is often regarded as one of Kilmer’s greatest performances across a truly storied career. Some of that comes from the big, powerful moments of acting where he gets to deliver fun lines like “I’ll be your huckleberry,” but some also comes from the tiny details that make a character seem more real. Thank goodness that Kilmer is so good at both.