Val Kilmer updates: Tributes pour in as Top Gun star dies aged 65 after years-long battle with cancer

By EMILY JANE DAVIES

Published: 06:26 BST, 2 April 2025 | Updated: 09:32 BST, 2 April 2025

Hollywood star Val Kilmer – famed for iconic roles in Top Gun, Batman and The Doors – has died at 65 after a long health battle.

His daughter Mercedes Kilmer, whom he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, revealed he passed from pneumonia in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The screen icon was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and underwent surgery, including a tracheotomy which significantly impacted his ability to speak. He was later declared cancer free.

Kilmer was known for his role as Iceman in the 1986 hit movie Top Gun and as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the 1995 Batman Forever. Despite his permanently damaged voice, he made a brief return to the screen in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.

He also famously played musician Jim Morrison in the 1991 film The Doors.

Aside from Mercedes, 33, he is also survived by son Jack Kilmer, 29. Kilmer was married to their mother Joanne from 1988 until 1996.

Follow MailOnline’s live coverage as tributes pour in to the Top Gun star. 

A look back at Val Kilmer’s most iconic roles

Emotional moment Val Kilmer’s lost voice was regenerated in Top Gun

Val Kilmer’s final ever film role left tears in fans’ eyes as he returned to screens as Lieutenant Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky in the Top Gun sequel.

The Hollywood star died at the age of 65 on Tuesday after a long health battle, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer confirmed.

Following the sad news of his death, his poignant final film appearance in Top Gun: Maverick alongside Tom Cruise has reemerged online.

Video: Looking back at the star’s top film roles

Read MailOnline’s main story here:

Inside his cancer battle

The screen icon was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and underwent surgery, including a tracheotomy which significantly impacted his ability to speak.

He was later declared cancer free.

Kilmer underwent both radiotherapy and chemotherapy for his cancer as well as a tracheostomy a procedure to create an artificial hole in this neck to help him breathe.

The latter permanently damaged his vocal cords and consequentially forever altered his speaking voice.

Filmmaker Michael Mann pays tribute

Michael Mann, the legendary filmmaker who directed Kilmer in Heat, praised the late star in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

‘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,’ he said.

‘After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.’

Love life

Aside from Mercedes, 33, he is also survived by son Jack Kilmer, 29. Kilmer was married to their mother, fellow actress Joanne, from 1988 until 1996.

In 2020, Kilmer revealed he had been single since the year 2000 in his memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry.

Val was pictured kissing Winona Ryder in 2005 and claimed to have dated his Alexander leading lady Angelina Jolie in 2004, but apparently they were not committed relationships.

Kilmer has loved some of the most beautiful women in the world including romances with Daryl Hannah and Cindy Crawford.

The Jay and Silent Bob Reboot actor has especially kind words for his ex-girlfriend Cher, who allowed him to move into her Malibu guest house after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015.

‘Once Cher works her way inside your head and heart, she never leaves. For her true friends, her steadfast love and loyalty never die,’ Val wrote.

Early life of a star

Kilmer was born December 31, 1959, in Los Angeles to Gladys Swanette and Eugene Dorris Kilmer.

His parents divorced in 1968 when he was 8 years old. His younger brother Wesley drowned in a jacuzzi at the age of 15.

Kilmer attended Chatsworth High School with Kevin Spacey, and later became the youngest person at the time to be accepted into the famed Juilliard School’s Drama Group.

He made his film debut starring in the spy spoof Top Secret! (1984) before appearing in the goofy comedy Real Genius (1985).

Val had starred in an Amazon Prime documentary

In 2021, in the Amazon Prime documentary entitled Val, Kilmer spoke candidly about living with the consequences of throat cancer including having to use an electric device called a voice box on the artificial hole in his throat to talk.

‘I obviously am sounding much worse than I feel. I can’t speak without plugging this hole [in his throat],’ he said.

A voice box device is most commonly a battery-operated machine that produces sound to create a voice, and is used to help those suffering with throat cancer communicate.

The actor, who also had to have meals through a feeding tube, explained some of the other challenges.

‘You have to make the choice to breathe or to eat. It’s an obstacle that is very present with whoever sees me,’ he said.

Val’s son provided the voice-over narration of the documentary but his lines were written by Val himself.

The role which made Val Kilmer a star

While Val Kilmer starred in a string of hit films, for many he’s best known as LT Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, the rival, and later ally of of Tom Cruise’s heroic LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

The 1986 film is considered one of the definining pictures of the decade, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the US Library Of Congress after being deemed ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’

Fans share heartfelt tributes to Val Kilmer after his tragic death

In 2021, Val made a return to the public eye with a documentary about his life, which earned critical praise when it was released on Prime Video.

With his son acting as the film’s narrator, the documentary made use of hundreds of hours of home footage the actor himself had recorded, offering a glimpse at the films he worked on, as well as his health battles.

Less than two months before his death, Kilmer published what would be one of his final social media posts on February 23, 2025.

He uploaded haunting footage of himself hanging out in a padded room with artist/musician David Choe, which was originally filmed in 2021.

The star looked relatively healthy with a slim build, clean-shaven face and his hair worn slightly long.

In the clip, Kilmer, whose vocal cords were damaged by his throat cancer treatments, spoke briefly before trying on a custom Batman mask made for him by Choe.

Kilmer, who famously played the caped crusader nearly 30 years ago, quips that it’s ‘been awhile’ since he’s relived his Batman glory days.

After putting it on, Kilmer stares into the camera before panning to a colorful Batman portrait that was presumably painted for him by Choe.

Along with the video, Kilmer also shared visuals of Choe’s other Batman-related artwork as well as clips of the artist talking about his love for the superhero.

Kilmer did not caption the February 2023 post, which garnered nearly 30,000 ‘likes’ from his 634,000 Instagram followers.

Kilmer’s actual final Instagram post was published on March 22.

It featured a photo of one of his original paintings, which he’d signed and posted on his website for sale.

‘It’s got that late-night glow,’ he wrote of the painting. ‘Cool tones with a low burn, like when the camp fire cools down but you’re still wide awake.’

The screen icon was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and underwent surgery, including a tracheotomy which significantly impacted his ability to speak. He was later declared cancer free.

Read the story in full on MailOnline:

‘His comedic chops were top notch’

Brian Lynch, the screenwriter behind Minions and Secret Life of Pets, wrote on Bluesky: ‘The Doors. Top Secret! Tombstone. Top Gun. Real Genius. Willow. Batman Forever. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. True Romance. Macgruber. Heat. There was nobody like Val Kilmer. May he Rest in Peace.’

Emmy-nominated TV writer and comedian Mike Drucker posted: ‘Val Kilmer felt like an actor who, no matter what the material, always understood the assignment.’

Pablo Hidalgo – a Lucasfilm executive – posted: ‘Oh man, not Val Kilmer. His comedic chops were top notch but he had a fascinating storm roiling beneath the surface. Madmartigan was an icon.’

Top Gun on X: ‘RIP Iceman’

The account for Top Gun on X posted a tribute to the actor.

Remembering Val Kilmer, whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations. RIP Iceman.

Tragic death of Kilmer’s brother as a teenager

Kilmer spent his formative years in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Chatsworth High School alongside future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and future Emmy winner Mare Winningham. At 17, he was the youngest drama student ever admitted at the Juilliard School in 1981.

Shortly after he left for Juilliard, his younger brother, 15-year-old Wesley, suffered an epileptic seizure in the family’s Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital. Wesley was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.

‘I miss him and miss his things. I have his art up. I like to think about what he would have created. I’m still inspired by him,’ Kilmer told the Times.

While still at Juilliard, Kilmer co-wrote and appeared in the play ‘How It All Began’ and later turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Outsiders’ for the Broadway play, ‘Slab Boys,’ alongside Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn.

Kilmer published two books of poetry (including ‘My Edens After Burns’) and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for spoken word album for ‘The Mark of Zorro.’ He was also a visual artist and a lifelong Christian Scientist.

He dated Cher, married and divorced actor Joanne Whalley.

He is survived by their two children, Mercedes and Jack.

‘Art over commerce’

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.

The actor – 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 emphasizing art over commerce.

One of his more iconic roles – hotshot pilot Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise – almost didn’t happen. Kilmer was courted by director Tony Scott for ‘Top Gun’ but initially balked.

‘I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,’ he wrote in his memoir. He agreed after being promised that his role would improve from the initial script. He would reprise the role in the film’s 2022 sequel, ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’

One career nadir 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.

‘I have no regrets’

Towards the end of ‘Val,’ the 2021 documentary on his career, Kilmer 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.

Touching tributes pour in for the late actor, celebrating his life and work

American writer Richard Roeper: Kilmer was an ‘incredible presence’

Josh Gad: ‘You truly were an icon’

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.’

He posted alongside this photo:

Josh Brolin: Kilmer was a ‘brave, uber-creative firecracker’

Actor Josh Brolin called Kilmer a ‘smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker’.

Alongside a picture of the two, he wrote on Instagram: ‘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.’

Kilmer pictured with his ex-wife Joanna Whalley in 1990

News of Kilmer’s death has shocked fans and Hollywood.

His daughter Mercedes Kilmer, whom he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, revealed he passed from pneumonia in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Aside from Mercedes, 33, he is also survived by son Jack Kilmer, 29. Kilmer was married to their mother Joanne from 1988 until 1996.

Val Kilmer died aged 65

Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s coverage after Top Gun star Val Kilmer died aged 65.

His daughter Mercedes Kilmer revealed that he passed away from pneumonia in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Kilmer was known for his role as Iceman in the 1986 hit movie Top Gun and as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the 1995 Batman Forever. Despite his permanently damaged voice, he made a brief return to the screen in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.

He also famously played musician Jim Morrison in the 1991 film The Doors.

:
Val Kilmer updates: Tributes pour in as Top Gun star dies aged 65 after years-long battle with cancer

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk