Val Kilmer, 80s Screen Icon And Caped Crusader, Has Died Aged 65

Val Kilmer, an actor who was a force in some of Hollywood’s most memorable films in the 1980s and 1990s, has died at the age of 65.

The screen legend died of pneumonia, and was surrounded by loved ones at the time of his death, according to his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer. She also noted that her father had been diagnosed with throat cancer over a decade ago only to later recover.

A native of Los Angeles and initially a stage actor, Val’s charm and charisma at the start as his career — kicked off by comedies Top Secret! and Real Genius — soon took to the skies as Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in Top Gun.

Val, who starred opposite of Tom Cruise, revealed in his 2020 memoir I’m Your Huckleberry that he initially didn’t want the part and didn’t care about the film, before his agent “basically tortured” him into meeting director Tony Scott, who promised him that the initial script would improve.

He’d go on to reprise his role as Iceman in the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick” in an on-screen reunion with Tom Cruise that he described as “very personal and moving”.

This would wind up being Val’s final film performance, and reflected his speech challenges as a result of throat cancer.

After his first run in Top Gun, he later starred as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 90s biopic The Doors, a role that drew intense commitment from the actor.

“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 once told film critic and reporter Bobbie Wygant.

Val – whose films grossed $3.8 billion worldwide – further cemented himself as a Hollywood icon in Michael Mann’s Heat, Tony Scott’s True Romance and the classic Western Tombstone with a noteworthy performance as Doc Holliday.

The latter film left an impression on Batman Returns director Joel Schumacher who, after Michael Keaton said goodbye to his time as the Caped Crusader, cast Val as the next Dark Knight in the 1995 film Batman Forever.

Val, who visited the set of Adam West’s Batman TV series in the 1960s where he sat inside the Batmobile, admitted in the 2021 autobiographical documentary Val that “whatever boyhood excitement I had was crushed by the reality” of the Batsuit’s restrictions.

He would later walk away from the character after one film as Bruce Wayne, which led to George Clooney taking on the superhero in 1997′s Batman & Robin.

Joel Schumacher, in a 2011 interview with IFC.com, declared that Val was “the best Batman” despite his claims that he was difficult to work with on the set ― a reputation that followed him in Hollywood and one he would later reluctantly acknowledge.

Val is survived by his former wife and fellow Willow actor, Joanne Whalley, and their two children, Mercedes and Jack Kilmer.