Top Gun Cast: Since the first trailer, it was evident that the long-awaited sequel to 1986’s Top Gun would evoke nostalgia for the first picture. Top Gun: Maverick follows the Tony Scott-directed original, which grossed $356 million worldwide according to Box Office Mojo, from aerial battle to shirtless volleyball.
Top Gun turned Tom Cruise from a teenage heartthrob to a true leading man, one death-defying sequence at a time.
The Hollywood Reporter looks at what the Top Gun ensemble has done since landing more than three decades ago to celebrate the sequel. Let’s see where are the Top Gun Cast members now.
Top Gun Cast: Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise played Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as his fame was rising. After The Outsiders and Risky Business, Cruise was a rising celebrity when he flew an F-14 Tomcat against Russian MiGs.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
He starred in Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, and Michael Mann’s Collateral. Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia earned him three Oscar nominations.
Cruise returns as Top Gun: Maverick’s rebellious stick jockey and Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt.
Kelly McGillis
Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer hired Kelly McGillis as Charlie Blackwood in Top Gun Cast after seeing her play an Amish woman opposite Harrison Ford in Witness.
After Top Gun’s huge popularity, McGillis appeared in a few films, including 1988’s The Accused, but he largely stayed in the theatre. She has since appeared in other independent films, worked occasionally on TV, and performed in theatre.
Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer, like many Top Gun stars, was haunted. Kilmer played Iceman after leading the cast of Real Genius. In a heartwarming wingman moment near the film’s end, Iceman, who torments Maverick, warms to the hero’s rebelliousness.
Kilmer appeared in Willow, The Doors (as Jim Morrison), True Romance, Tombstone, Heat, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Kilmer appeared briefly in Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot after years of health issues. Iceman makes an appearance in Top Gun: Maverick.
Anthony Edwards
In the early 1980s, Anthony Edwards appeared in TV and short films, but his first prominent role as Gilbert in Revenge of the Nerds established him as a leading actor. Edwards played Goose, Maverick’s radar intercept officer and constant companion, in Top Gun.
Before playing Mark Greene on ER, Edwards appeared in many TV movies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was nominated four times for finest lead actor in a drama series. His TV success continues with recurring appearances in Billions, Law & Order, and Netflix’s Inventing Anna.
Miles Teller plays Goose’s kid, a newbie pilot under his father’s former wingman, in Top Gun: Maverick.
Tom Skerritt
Since 1962’s War Hunt, Tom Skerritt has been acting in films. He played soldiers and cowboys in Combat!, The Virginian and Gunsmoke throughout the 1960s. He played another soldier in Robert Altman’s 1970 satire MASH with Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould.
In Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror Alien, he played Capt. Dallas, the Nostromo’s captain. Skerritt played in Steel Magnolias, Cheers, and Picket Fences after Top Gun, winning an Emmy for his role as Sheriff Brock. He appeared in East of the Mountains with Mira Sorvino in 2021.
Michael Ironside
In 1981’s Scanners, Canadian-born Michael Ironside played conniving psychic Darryl Revok. Before playing Jester in Top Gun, he played several terrifying characters in low-budget films.
He played sci-fi parts in Highlander II: The Quickening, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers despite the genre change. He appeared in Tales From the Crypt, Walker, Texas Ranger, ER, and Desperate Housewives. Hulu’s The Dropout featured him recently.
Top Gun Cast: Tim Robbins
In 1982, Tim Robbins had a recurring part on St. Elsewhere despite graduating from UCLA with a drama degree. He played Merlin, Maverick’s backseater, in Top Gun. Bull Durham, followed by Jacob’s Ladder, The Player, and The Shawshank Redemption, where Robbins played the quiet but brilliant prisoner Andy Dufresne, was Robbins’ breakthrough.
Robbins played Reginald “Pop” Merrill in Hulu’s Stephen King-adapted anthology Castle Rock and a crooked DuPont lawyer in Dark Waters.
Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan had only featured in a few TV shows before playing Goose’s wife, Carole. Her career took off after appearing in Top Gun Cast, with hits including When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Courage Under Fire, You’ve Got Mail, and Kate & Leopold. With Ithaca (2015), Ryan became a director.
You May Also Like:
