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Val Kilmer, who starred in a string of high-profile films such as Batman Forever and The Doors before receding from the silver screen amid health issues, died on Tuesday at the age of 65.
His daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, confirmed the actor’s death to The New York Times, adding the cause was pneumonia. She said Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered.
The actor shot to fame in the Eighties with features in Top Secret!, Real Genius, and the mega blockbuster hit Top Gun playing naval aviator Tom “Iceman” Kazanski alongside Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards. Although Kilmer had gained a reputation for being antagonistic and self-absorbed early in his career, the actor captured the screen with his magnetic and striking performances. “I didn’t do enough hand holding and flattering and reassuring to the financiers,” he said during a Reddit Ask Me Anything. “I only cared about the acting, and that didn’t translate to caring about the film or all that money.” “Val Kilmer, in a lifetime as an artist, created work that touched so many in so many mediums,” Edwards said in a statement. “Hoping he is at peace.”
Kilmer’s dedication to his craft was undeniable during his acclaimed portrayal of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic The Doors. To audition for the film, the actor put together an eight-minute video, singing and embodying Morrison throughout the different stages of the musician’s life. To prepare for the role, he learned 50 songs and sang 15 tracks live for the film, which combined Kilmer and Morrison’s vocals.
In his review of the film, critic Roger Ebert remarked, “There is never, not even for a moment, the sensation that Kilmer is not singing everything we hear,” adding, “Val Kilmer has always had a remarkable talent, which until now has been largely overlooked.”
When discussing his portrayal of Morrison, who died at the age of 27 in 1971, Kilmer explained his approach, “I didn’t get seduced into his style of living, but had to and needed to, for the role, to be as disciplined as he was in these escapades, he was a very disciplined drinker, as much as he was a disciplined artist. I mean, he was looking for inspiration every second of the day.”
“Working with Val Kilmer and watching him transform himself into Jim Morrison was life-altering for me as an actor,” says Frank Whaley, who played Doors guitarist Robby Krieger in the film. “I will always be in his debt for his brilliant work in my film Joe the King in which he simply disappeared into the role of Bob Henry, a role I wrote based on my own father. His commitment to his craft was mystifying to behold. Val was a truly gifted artist and a beautiful human being.”
“The gifted actor, Val Kilmer, who miraculously played Jim in The Doors movie has broke on thru to the other side,” added Doors drummer John Densmore. Added Kyle MacLachlan, who played Ray Manzarek, “You’ll always be my Jim. See you on the other side my friend.”
Kilmer would go on to play the scene-stealing Doc Holliday in 1993’s revered Western Tombstone, before replacing Michael Keaton for Batman Forever in 1995. With Kilmer donning the bat suit and starring with Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, and Chris O’Donnell, the Batman sequel garnered underwhelming reviews and Kilmer’s notoriety as being contentious to work with grew. After wrapping the project, director Joel Schumacher said, “I don’t like Val Kilmer, I don’t like his work ethic, and I don’t want to be associated with him ever again.”
Director John Frankenheimer, who helmed the infamous and troubled The Island of Dr. Moreau, said of working with Kilmer, “There are two things I will never ever do in my whole life. The first is that I will never climb Mount Everest. The second is that I will never work with Val Kilmer ever again.”
However, other filmmakers defended Kilmer’s dedication to his craft. In 1996, the actor played Robert De Niro’s henchman in Michael Mann’s drama Heat. “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,” Mann said in a statement. “After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.”
Kilmer would continue to star in films including The Ghost and the Darkness, The Saint, Red Planet, The Salton Sea, Wonderland (portraying porn icon John Holmes), and the 2005 crime comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where his performance opposite Robert Downey Jr. was critically acclaimed.
In 2014, a throat cancer diagnosis severely sidelined Kilmer’s acting career, and he struggled to speak after undergoing surgery. Over the past decade, he would occasionally appear in bit parts in movies like The Snowman and Terence Malick’s Song to Song. His final big-screen role was 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to the 1986 classic, sharing the screen with Cruise during one of the most heartfelt scenes.
“I just want to say that was pretty emotional,” Cruise said during a 2023 interview with Jimmy Kimmel. “I’ve known Val for decades, and for him to come back and play that character … he’s such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again.”
Kilmer reflected on his career and cancer diagnosis in the 2021 documentaryVal, which featured a treasure chest of video he shot throughout his life. As one of the industry’s most misunderstood stars, the film offered a glimpse of Kilmer’s childhood in Chadworth, California, where he and his two brothers grew up making their low-fi versions of blockbusters. It also followed his journey as a Juilliard prodigy and included footage he amassed while making some of his biggest Hollywood films.
“I spent decades finding my voice,” the actor said in the doc, “through characters, though movies.” At the end of the film, using a voice box to speak, Kilmer says, “I’ve tried to see the world as one piece of life.”
