Val Kilmer -- star of Batman Forever, The Doors, and Tombstone -- died at age 65 on April 1, 2025, The New York Times reports and Variety has confirmed.
The actor had battled cancer for years -- losing his ability to speak due to throat cancer -- but his cause of death was reportedly pneumonia, according to his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer.
A Los Angeles native, the actor was born on December 31, 1959. Kilmer, a Juilliard-trained stage actor, starred on Broadway in Slab Boys opposite Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon before his big screen breakthrough in the comedy Top Secret! in 1984.
Kilmer followed that with another comedy, Real Genius, before finding broader mainstream success as Tom Cruise's rival "Ice Man" in 1986's Top Gun. (In one of his final screen appearances, Kilmer reprised the role for Top Gun: Maverick.) He also played the charismatic swordsman Madmartigan in director Ron Howard's fantasy film Willow.
Kilmer's stardom reached its zenith in the early to mid-1990s when he won many accolades for playing two dissolute historical figures: rock star Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors and outlaw John "Doc" Holliday in Tombstone.
By the mid-'90s, Kilmer starred in two Warner Bros. films that added to his career luster. He succeeded Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever, but would only play the Caped Crusader that one time. (Kilmer famously clashed with its director, Joel Schumacher, who nevertheless sang the actor's praises as Batman.) Kilmer then played a key member of Robert DeNiro's bank robbery crew in the Michael Mann crime classic Heat. He also played the ghost of Elvis Presley in the Quentin Tarantino-scripted True Romance.
Kilmer's star began to wane in the latter 1990s as some of his films underperformed and his reputation for being difficult on set spread. In those years, Kilmer starred in films such as Thunderheart, The Saint, The Real McCoy, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Prince of Egypt, The Ghost and the Darkness, and At First Sight.
He worked throughout the 2000s mostly in smaller indie films (The Salton Sea, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) or supporting roles in much larger movies (Oliver Stone's Alexander, Deja Vu). He portrayed porn star John Holmes in Wonderland and starred opposite Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.
In the latter 2000s. Kilmer often returned to his stage roots with his one-man show about Mark Twain.
Kilmer endured many financial, professional and health hardships in the latter half of his career, including a diagnosis of throat cancer that robbed him of his voice. Kilmer would act in a few direct-to-video films after that where another actor would dub his character's voice.
In 2021, Kilmer's personal life and career were chronicled in the documentary Val, wherein the actor opened up about his private demons and the professional behavior that may have derailed what could have been a longer and more successful career as a leading man.
Crediting Tom Cruise for fighting to include him, Kilmer's last major film appearance was in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick.
Val Kilmer is survived by his children Mercedes and Jack.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/val-kilmer-dies-batman-forever-the-doors-and-tombstone-star-was-65