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Val Kilmer, a movie star in the 1980s and ‘90s who played everything from Batman to Doc Holliday, died on Tuesday, according to his daughter Mercedes Kilmer, who released a statement to the New York Times and the Associated Press . He was 65. The cause of death was pneumonia, Mercedes Kilmer told the media outlets.
CNN has reached out to representatives for Kilmer and his family for comment. Kilmer had recovered from a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required tracheotomy surgery that altered his voice. He largely stepped away from acting, though he reprised his role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in the wildly successful and long-awaited film, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which released in 2022 after a two-year delay.
Kilmer’s “Iceman” was the cocky but cool rival to Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the original film. The sequel deftly blended Kilmer’s off-screen health issues into the film’s story, giving it a real-life emotional layer. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter’s chief film critic, wrote in his review that “Top Gun: Maverick’s” most “moving element comes during the brief screen time of Kilmer’s Iceman, whose health issues reflect those suffered by the actor in real life, generating resonant pathos.
” “There’s reciprocal warmth, even love, in a scene between Iceman and Maverick that acknowledges the characters’ hard-won bond as well as the rivalry that preceded it, with gentle humor,” Rooney wrote. As one of Kilmer’s last film roles, it concluded one of the most interesting — and bankable — careers in Hollywood history. Kilmer’s films made nearly $2 billion at the global box office, according to Comscore.
Kilmer’s acting career was rooted in the theater. Born and raised in California’s San Fernando Valley, he studied at the Hollywood Professional School before heading to New York where, at 21, he became the youngest student at the time to be accepted into Julliard School’s drama department. He began his film career in the 1984 comedy “Top Secret!” and acted in several movies throughout the ‘80s including his breakout role in 1986’s “Top Gun.
” Kilmer starred in a long streak of successful genre-spanning movies in the 1990s: Superhero films like 1995’s “Batman Forever” in which he played the Dark Knight, and memorable turns in Westerns as Doc Holliday in 1993’s “Tombstone,” biopics as Jim Morrison in 1991’s “The Doors” and in crime films as a bank robber in Michael Mann’s 1995 masterpiece, “Heat.” Kilmer shared an intimate look at his life and career in the 2021 documentary “Val” through interactions he had videotaped with his family and on film sets for years, including behind-the-scenes footage from “Tombstone” and the “Top Gun” cast partying after hours (“We were all at the start of our careers,” Kilmer recalled). At the time, Kilmer was recovering from throat-cancer surgery, so his son, Jack, read the actor’s written narration — sounding uncannily like his father.
Throughout his career, the roles that Kilmer played possessed an iconic quality while underscoring the way his career frequently zigged at the point where it could have zagged, to his detriment if not in terms of the quality of the work but how Hollywood and the public perceived him. Kilmer enthusiastically agreed to star as Batman, for example, but quickly soured on that experience, passing on another sequel in favor of the forgettable reboot “The Saint.” Similarly, he took a role in “The Island of Dr.
Moreau” in order to play opposite Marlon Brando, only to clash with director John Frankenheimer (exchanges caught on camera) and be disappointed when a detached Brando periodically refused to come to the set, letting a stand-in take his place. Kilmer spoke frequently about his desire to work with certain directors, showing audition videos that he shot for parts he failed to land in “Goodfellas” and “Full Metal Jacket,” seeking to impress directors Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick, respectively. He also documented his laborious auditioning and preparation process for portraying Jim Morrison in “The Doors.
” Kilmer is survived by his two adult children, Jack and Mercedes, from his marriage to “Willow” co-star Joanne Whalley. The younger Kilmers are both actors and have been involved in projects with their father. Kilmer co-starred with Mercedes in the 2020 film “Paydirt” and, in addition to voicing the “Val” documentary, Jack lent his voice to his father’s character on the Disney+ “Willow” series .
Despite his condition at the time of the 2021 documentary, and tragedies that included the death of his younger brother at age 15, Kilmer spoke of leading a “magical life.” He said that he found the silver lining even as he endured fans asking for the same “Top Gun”-inspired “You can be my wingman” autograph over and over at Comic-Con. “I feel grateful,” he said.
CNN’s Tricia Escobedo and Frank Pallotta contributed to this reporting..
