UPDATE: |One of the late Val Kilmer’s best films is airing on TV tonight News

Fans were left devasted by the actor’s passing earlier in the month

One of the late Val Kilmer’s best films is airing on TV for free across the UK tonight (April 15).

In a statement released on April 2, the much-loved actors daughter announced he had died from pneumonia at the age of 65.

Rising to fame as the cool and charismatic Iceman alongside Tom Cruise in the 1986 hit Top Gun, Kilmer went on to become a Hollywood legend.

With fans rushing to see him play Batman in 1995’s Batman Forever, Kilmer also received critical acclaim for his portrayal of musician Jim Morrison in the 1991 film The Doors.

Other notable Kilmer films include True Romance, Heat, Kiss Kiss Band Bang, MacGruber and The Snowman.

Fans didn’t know it at the time, but Kilmer’s emotional cameo in Top Gun Maverick in 2022 proved to be his final big screen appearance.

Often when an artist dies, there’s no better way to pay tribute than watch them do what they did best, and Tombstone is the perfect Kilmer film to do just that.

Released in 1993 and directed by Greek-Italian director George P. Cosmatos, Tombstone is one of the best westerns of all time.

Loosely based on real events that took place in the 1880s in Southeast Arizona, the film follows several Western outlaws and lawmen as they fight for power in the wild west.

Outside of Kilmer lighting up the screen, Tombstone features Kurt Russell, Sam Elliot Bill Paxton, Michael Biehn and Dana Delany.

Critics were a tad underwhelmed by the picture, scoring just it just 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences couldn’t get enough of the engrossing story and characters.

Thanks in part to Kilmer’s memorable performance as the hard-drinking Doc Holliday, Tombstone grossed a worldwide total of $73.2 million at the box office against a budget of $25 million.

Following Kilmer’s death, Russell revealed the unique gifts they gave each other after wrapping the picture.

He told GQ: “If you’re asking me if it was great working with Val Kilmer, who played Doc Holliday on Tombstone, the answer is absolutely.

“In those days, especially when you were working with people, sometimes at the end of the show you’d get them gifts or trade gifts. It’s not mandatory, it’s not something that you gotta do or that they’ve gotta do…

“I give Val this present and he looks at me and he turns to his driver and he says, ‘Give it to me.’ Because what I had gotten Val was a plot at Boothill, what Val had gotten me was an acre of land overlooking Boothill.”

Tombstone airs on Tuesday, April 15 at 9pm on Film 4 and channel4.com