American actor Val Kilmer, renowned for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever, and The Doors, has passed away at the age of 65, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
His daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, told the Times that the cause of death was pneumonia. She also noted that he had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.
Kilmer began his career as a stage actor before making his film debut in the 1984 Cold War spoof Top Secret!. He gained widespread recognition two years later as Iceman, the confident and largely silent rival to Tom Cruise’s Maverick in Top Gun.
A versatile performer, Kilmer took on leading roles in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, portraying Jim Morrison, and played Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever, stepping into the role between Michael Keaton and George Clooney.
As the youngest person ever accepted into New York’s prestigious Juilliard School, Kilmer aspired to create serious films. However, his career trajectory saw him starring in a mix of blockbuster hits and commercial misfires in the early 2000s.
Following a period of lower-budget films, Kilmer was staging a comeback in the 2010s with a successful stage production about Mark Twain, which he hoped to adapt into a film. His resurgence was cut short by his battle with cancer.
His life and career were chronicled in Val, a 2021 documentary that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, offering an intimate look at his journey through Hollywood and his struggles with illness.
In 2021, Kilmer made a brief but poignant return to the big screen, reprising his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 classic.