Val Kilmer death latest: Jim Carrey, Nicolas Cage and Cher lead tributes to Top Gun and Batman Forever star
Hollywood actor, known for his intense performances and iconic roles, dies of pneumonia
Celebrated Hollywood actor Val Kilmer, known for his intense performances and iconic roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and Heat, died of pneumonia, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer confirmed.
The American actor, also famed for his performances in Willow, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Tombstone and as Jim Morrison in The Doors, died at the age of 65.
Kilmer rose to stardom in the 1980s and 1990s, earning a reputation for his dedication to his craft as well as on-set tensions with directors and co-stars.
“When certain people criticise me for being demanding, I think that’s a cover for something they didn’t do well,” he told the Orange County Register in 2003. “I believe I’m challenging, not demanding, and I make no apologies for that.”
His breakthrough came with the 1984 comedy Top Secret! and the sci-fi comedy Real Genius (1985), but it was his portrayal of “Iceman” in Top Gun (1986) that cemented his star status. Decades later, he reprised the role in Top Gun: Maverick (2022) alongside Tom Cruise in what would be his final film.
Kilmer also took on the challenging role of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991), using his own singing voice for the film.
He was married to British actress Joanne Whalley, his co-star in Willow (1988). The couple had two children before divorcing.
Top Gun on X/Twitter: 'RIP Iceman'
The X/Twitter account for the Top Gun movies has posted their tribute to the star.
Sharing an image of Kilmer from the original 1986 film the post read: “Remembering Val Kilmer, whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations. RIP Iceman.”
Josh Brolin calls Kilmer a 'creative firecracker'
On Instagram, Josh Brolin shared a picture of himself with Kilmer and thanked the actor for some “amazing memories”.
In the caption, The Goonies actor wrote: “See ya, pal. I'm going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There's not a lot left of those. I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.”
Michael Mann praises 'brilliant' Kilmer
The director Michael Mann, who worked with Kilmer on the 1995 crime thriller Heat, has praised the actor and called his death “tremendously sad”.
In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter: Mann said “While working with Val on Heat I always marvelled 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.”
Val Kilmer’s career lows: Turmoil on ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ and Hollywood’s backlash
Val Kilmer followed up with The Saint (1997), transforming himself with wigs, accents, and disguises, before starring in The Island of Dr Moreau (1996) alongside Marlon Brando – one of Hollywood’s most notoriously troubled productions.
The chaos on set, detailed in the 2014 documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr Moreau, included a hurricane, Kilmer clashing with director Richard Stanley, and Stanley’s abrupt firing via fax – only for him to sneak back on set disguised as an extra.
Kilmer and Brando frequently rewrote scenes, with Brando telling him, “It’s a job now, Val. A lark. We’ll get through it”.
Kilmer later wrote that it was one of his saddest experiences on a film set.
By 1996, Entertainment Weekly dubbed him “The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate”.
Directors Joel Schumacher and John Frankenheimer, who salvaged Dr Moreau, called him difficult, with Frankenheimer declaring he would never “climb Mount Everest or work with Val Kilmer again".
Other artists came to his defence, like DJ Caruso, who directed Kilmer in The Salton Sea and said the actor simply liked to talk out scenes and enjoyed having a director's 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.
Val Kilmer on playing Batman: ‘It was a struggle to get a performance past the suit’
One career nadir for Val Kilmer was playing Batman in Joel Schumacher's goofy, garish Batman Forever with Nicole Kidman and opposite Chris O'Donnell's Robin – before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997's Batman & Robin and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns.
Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Kilmer was "hamstrung by the straight-man aspects of the role", while Roger Ebert deadpanned that he was a "completely acceptable" substitute for Keaton.
Kilmer, who was one and done as Batman, blamed much of his performance on the suit.
The Times was the first to report his death on Tuesday.
"When you're in it, you can barely move and people have to help you stand up and sit down," Kilmer said in his documentary Val.
"You also can't hear anything and after a while people stop talking to you, it's very isolating. It was a struggle for me to get a performance past the suit, and it was frustrating until I realised that my role in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to."
‘I have lost and found parts of myself I never knew existed’
Val Kilmer, who took part in the Method branch of Suzuki arts training, threw himself into parts. When he played Doc Holliday in Tombstone, he filled his bed with ice for the final scene to mimic the feeling of dying from tuberculosis.
To play Morrison, he wore leather pants all the time, asked castmates and crew to only refer to him as Jim Morrison and blasted The Doors for a year.
That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life, but always defending himself by emphasising art over commerce.
"In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio," he wrote in his memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry.
In a 2021 documentary on his career he said: "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, the youngest actor ever accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at the time he attended, experienced the ups and downs of fame more dramatically than most.
His break came in 1984's spy spoof Top Secret! followed by the comedy Real Genius in 1985. Kilmer would later show his comedy chops again in films including MacGruber and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
His movie career hit its zenith in the early 1990s as he made a name for himself as a dashing leading man, starring alongside Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in 1993's Tombstone, as Elvis' ghost in True Romance and as a bank-robbing demolition expert in Michael Mann's 1995 film Heat with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
Actors pay tribute to action star
In a post on Instagram, actor Josh Gad paid tribute to action star Val Kilmer.
He said: "RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon."
"You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker," he said in an Instagram post.
"There's not a lot left of those. I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts."
Actor Val Kilmer, star of ‘Batman Forever’, dies at 65, daughter says
Top Gun star Val Kilmer has died at the age of 65, his daughter has said.In a statement to the New York Times, his daughter Mercedes said the actor had died from pneumonia.
He rose to fame starring alongside Tom Cruise in the 1986 hit Top Gun.
Kilmer would go on to play Batman in 1995's Batman Forever and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of musician Jim Morrison in the 1991 film The Doors.
Kilmer's final acting role was a cameo on the 2022 blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Kilmer had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, discussing his diagnosis and recovery in his 2020 memoir, I'm Your Huckleberry.
Welcome to The Independent’s liveblog for 2 April 2025 where we provide the latest update on the demise of renown Hollywood actor Val Kilmer.
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