Actor Val Kilmer, who starred in some of the biggest movies of the 1980s and 90s, including Top Gun and Batman Forever, has died at the age of 65.
He also appeared in 1991’s The Doors – playing the legendary band’s frontman, Jim Morrison – plus the Western Tombstone and crime drama Heat.
Kilmer died of pneumonia on Tuesday in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told US media. She said her father had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.
Tracheotomy surgery affected his voice and curtailed his acting career, but he returned to the screen to reprise his role as fighter pilot Iceman alongside Tom Cruise in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.
Paying tribute, Heat director Michael Mann said: “While working with Val on Heat I always marveled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.
“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news,” Mann wrote on Instagram.
Actor Josh Gad posted: “RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon.”
“See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you”, US actor Josh Brolin wrote alongside a picture of himself and Kilmer on Instagram.
“You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those”, he added.
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Actor James Woods wrote: “His rendition of Doc Holliday in Tombstone was what every actor dreams of achieving. So many wonderful performances. Sad to lose him so soon.”
Will Kemp, who appeared in 2004 film Mindhunters with Kilmer, wrote: “So many great memories of working with him. He was fun, unpredictable, generous and overall very kind to me when I was very new to the job.”
Born Val Edward Kilmer on 31 December 1959, Kilmer grew up in a middle-class family in Los Angeles.
His parents were Christian Scientists, a movement to which Kilmer would adhere for the rest of his life.
Aged 17, he became the then-youngest pupil to enroll at the Julliard School, in New York, one of the world’s most prestigious drama conservatories.
He made his name in the comedies Top Secret! in 1984 and Real Genius the following year, before cementing his acting credentials as Iceman, the nemesis to Crusie’s character Maverick in 1986’s Top Gun, one of the decade’s defining movies.
Kilmer went on to star in fantasy Willow and crime thriller Kill Me Again – both alongside British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he married in 1988. The couple had two children.
