OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:06 PM – Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Renowned actor Val Kilmer, celebrated for his iconic performances in numerous blockbuster films of the 1980s and 1990s — has passed away at the age of 65.
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After recovering from his initial diagnosis of throat cancer in 2014, the 65-year-old eventually had to undergo grueling procedures, which included two tracheotomies. Nevertheless, the actor sadly succumbed to pneumonia on Tuesday night.
Mercedes Kilmer, Kilmer’s daughter, told The Associated Press via email that her father passed away in Los Angeles while surrounded by friends and family.
Kilmer made his final film appearance reprising his role of Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022).
Kilmer was hailed as a “chameleon” of acting who took on difficult and diverse parts, with frequently remarkable outcomes. He gave one legendary performance after another, notably in “Top Gun” with Tom Cruise in 1986. He was able to move fluidly between leading man and supporting parts.
In the 1991 Oliver Stone film “The Doors,” he played lead singer Jim Morrison. In the 1993 Western “Tombstone,” he played the witty Doc Holliday. In 1995, he reprised his role as Batman in “Batman Forever,” and portrayed a bank robber in Michael Mann’s crime thriller “Heat.”
As the 2021 documentary on his career, “Val,” came to a close, he expressed: “I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed. And I am blessed.”
Kilmer, a Juilliard graduate, went through the highs and lows of the celebrity life more than most. His breakthrough performance was in the spy parody “Top Secret!” in 1984, and the comedy “Real Genius” in 1985. Later in his career, Kilmer also displayed his comedic abilities in movies like “MacGruber” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”
His film career peaked in the early 1990s when he established himself as a memorable leading man. He costarred with Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in “Tombstone,” played Elvis Presley’s ghost in “True Romance,” and played a demolition expert who robbed banks in Mann’s “Heat” with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
However, Entertainment Weekly previously published a cover story about Kilmer in 1996 with the title “The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate.” The filmmakers who created “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” John Frankenheimer and Schumacher, described him as being extremely challenging to work with.
Frankenheimer declared that he would never do two things: climb Mount Everest and collaborate with Val Kilmer ever again.
Nevertheless, D. J. Caruso, who directed Kilmer in “The Salton Sea,” was among the filmmakers who defended him after the “hit piece” was released, arguing that the actor simply enjoyed hashing out film sequences and he loved having the director’s utmost attention.
″Val needs to immerse himself in a character. I think what happened with directors like Frankenheimer and Schumacher is that Val would ask a lot of questions, and a guy like Schumacher would say, ‘You’re Batman! Just go do it,’″ Caruso told The New York Times in 2002.
In his romantic life, Kilmer had married and divorced actress Joanne Whalley, and he dated Cher as well.
He is survived by his two children with Whalley, Jack and Mercedes.
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