Val Kilmer easily turned in one of the best roles in his career as Doc Holliday inTombstone, and the fact he didn’t receive an Oscar nomination is deeply frustrating. Released in 1993,Tombstonetells the story of Wyatt Earp and his brothers’infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. One of two movies released around thesame time about Wyatt Earp’s life,Tombstoneremains the most popular of the pair, but critics mostly dismissed it that year, and it lived life as a mainstream blockbuster that became a cult classic.
Another part of the movie that deserved much more respect than it received when released in 1993 was Val Kilmer’s performance as Doc Holliday.Kilmer took the Doc Holliday character and made him the most memorable partof the film. He was sick and at death’s door throughout the entire movie. However, he used this trait to add so many great tics to his performance, and then hedelivered the best quotes inTombstone,proving he was not only the best character in the movie, but that he deserved awards recognition that never arrived.
Val Kilmer’s Performance Is What Elevates Tombstone Into Being An All-Time Great Western
Val Kilmer Stole Every Scene He Was In
Tombstonehad several actors in it that movie fans recognize, even three decades later. On top of the Earp brothers,played by Kurt Russell, Sam Elliott, and Bill Paxton, everyone from the villains to the supporting actors were either big names in movies or TV, or they would become major names after the Western played in theaters.
TheTombstonecast included everyonefrom Powers Boothe and Charlton Heston to Michael Biehn, Thomas Haden Church, Dana Delany, Michael Rooker, Billy Bob Thornton, Billy Zane, and many more. However, even with all those big names, it was Kilmer who stole the show as Doc Holliday. He had the best lines in the movie, from “I’ll be your huckleberry” to “Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave.”
Add in the fact he spent the entire movie looking like he was going to drop dead at any minute, and it proved that Kilmer brought 100 percent to the movie role. With all the talk about how difficult theTombstoneshoot was, that makes his amazing performance as Doc Holliday even more impressive.
Kilmer’s Doc Holliday Is More Memorable Today Than Most Oscar Nominees From That Year
Tommy Lee Jones Won ForThe Fugitive
Val Kilmer deserved a nomination, at the least, for his performance as Doc Holliday inTombstone. There was a lot of competition that year, and at least two of the other nominees deserved their praise.Tommy Lee Jones won for his roleas U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard inThe Fugitive,beating out Ralph Fiennes, who delivered a spectacular performance in Steven Spielberg’sSchindler’s List.Both deserved their nominations and both could have won.
Pete Postlethwaite
In the Name of the Father
The other three nominees are all immensely talented actors, but Kilmer deserved the nomination over most of them. Leonardo DiCaprio picked up his first nomination at 19 for playing a teenager with an intellectual disability inWhat’s Eating Gilbert Grape,which was an incredible performance by the young actor. The other two nominees included John Malkovich forIn the Line of Fireand Peter Postlethwaite forIn the Name of the Father.Once again, great acting turns, but ones that no one remembers today compared to Kilmer’sTombstoneperformance.
Why Wasn’t Val Kilmer Oscar-Nominated For Tombstone?
Tombstone Wasn’t Respected By The Hollywood System
There is one big reason thatVal Kilmer didn’t receive an Oscar nominationfor his performance inTombstone. Hollywood and the awards bodies didn’t take the movie seriously at all when it hit theaters. Much likeYoung Gunsa few years before it, many critics viewed the movie as a popcorn Western movie. Since it wasn’t a serious Western,like the classics with John Wayneor Clint Eastwood, no one took it as more than just a Hollywood blockbuster production.
The reviews were solid, with a 76% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, but even the positive reviews mentioned how this film had a great cast and a fun story, but"fun"is not usually what qualifies for Oscar nominations. Almost everyone who reviewed the movie praised Val Kilmer’s performance, so if anyone got an Oscar nomination, it would have been him. Sadly, the only awards recognition came at the MTV Movie + TV Awards, and Kilmer didn’t even win there.
The Oscars Loved A Western The Year Before Tombstone
Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven Won Best Picture
Another thing that hurtTombstonewas that the Oscars highly praised a Western movie the year before. For almost 20 years, the Western genre seemed dead. However, that all changed whenClint Eastwood directed and starred in the revisionist WesternUnforgiven.However, this movie was extremely different fromTombstone.WhileTombstoneseemed to be a very fun action movie with outstanding performances,Unforgivenseemed like a throwback Western.
Things inUnforgivenwere dark. Clint Eastwood and Kurt Russell both played Western archetypes who just wanted to retire and live their lives in peace. In both cases, they get pulled back in. While Russell, Kilmer, and company ended up in giant gunfights and delivered great quotes inTombstone,Eastwood’s former outlaw sought vengeance, and his killing of the corrupt lawman, Little Bill Daggett, was devastatingly brutal.
Clint Eastwood won an Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture, whileGene Hackman won Best Supporting Actorfor his role as Little Bill. Eastwood also received a nomination for Best Actor, and the movie won four total Oscars in nine nominations. Clearly, the Oscars foundUnforgivento be a “serious” movie andTombstoneto be a lesser Western.
Val Kilmer Deserved An Oscar Nomination At Some Point
Val Kilmer Could Have Won For The Doors
There is a big reason Val Kilmer never won an Oscar. Looking at his career, there was a very long period when Kilmer wasn’t getting any good roles. Kilmer developed a reputation as a very difficult actor to work with. This made many directors avoid casting him to keep from getting into these difficult situations.
However, there areseveral roles where Val Kilmernot only deserved to receive at least one Oscar nomination in his career, but he deserved to win it. The first came in 1991 when he starred in Oliver Stone’s biopicThe Doorsas Jim Morrison. The movie received mixed reviews for its inaccuracies about Morrison, but Kilmer received universal praise and really became Jim Morrison in the performance.
MacGruber (2010)
Most Compelling Documentary Subject
Won
There is also theVal Kilmer role that Tom Hiddleston saidwas “the great cinema performance” inHeat.In this Michael Mann movie, Kilmer did the unthinkable. He stole the movie from out under Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s noses. While all the talk went to Pacino and De Niro sharing a screen together, Kilmer was the best part of the incredible crime drama.
Val Kilmer never received an Oscar nomination in his career. He also never received a Golden Globes nomination, and he might be the most overlooked movie star of his generation for awards recognition. However, if any movie deserved to see Val Kilmer get his Oscar recognition, it wasTombstoneand his amazing performance as Doc Holliday.
