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Val Kilmer, 'Top Gun,' 'Batman Forever' star, dies at 65

Bryan Alexander
USA TODAY
April 2, 2025

Val Kilmer, the charismatic and enigmatic actor best known as Iceman in “Top Gun” and for leading man roles ranging from Batman to The Doors rocker Jim Morrison, has died, according to reports. He was 65.

Kilmer died Tuesday night in Los Angeles from pneumonia, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, told The New York Times and The Associated Press. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, she said.

The actor had battled the disease publicly for much of the past decade, permanently losing his voice to a tracheotomy, but continuing to act and write.

Kilmer was a magnetic presence in Hollywood after the graduate of New York's Juilliard School made his movie debut in the 1984 Cold War spy-movie spoof "Top Secret!"

The actor became a global superstar as Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, the cocky rival-turned-wingman to Tom Cruise’s "Maverick" in Tony Scott’s 1986 blockbuster "Top Gun." The role almost didn't happen, despite Scott lobbying hard for Kilmer. But the headstrong young actor resisted and tried to tank his audition. “I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” Kilmer wrote in his 2020 memoir "I’m Your Huckleberry."

Cruise and Kilmer's onscreen tension helped fuel the film’s need-for-speed fighter pilot success and super-charged the careers of both actors.

In director Ron Howard's "Willow" (1988), Kilmer starred as the wisecracking swordsman Madmartigan and met his future wife, co-star Joanne Whalley, whom he married later that year. The couple had two children, daughter Mercedes (born 1991) and son Jack (born 1995), before divorcing in 1996.

Kilmer starred as rock star Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's 1991 drama "The Doors," where the perfectionist actor performed all of Morrison's vocals. Following Michael Keaton and before George Clooney, Kilmer donned the iconic cape and cowl to play Bruce Wayne/Batman in 1995's "Batman Forever," battling Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and the Riddler (Jim Carrey) in Gotham City.

He played the gunslinger Doc Holliday in 1993's "Tombstone" and master thief Chris Shiherlis in director Michael Mann's 1995 bank heist drama "Heat," alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.

The production-plagued and turmoil-filled 1996 drama "The Island of Dr. Moreau," in which Kilmer starred alongside Marlon Brando, proved to be a career turning point. Kilmer was already gaining a reputation in Hollywood for being difficult; a 1996 Entertainment Weekly cover story about the polarizing actor was titled ″The Man Hollywood Loves to Hate.″ After the critical and commercial disaster of "Dr. Moreau," Kilmer's brilliant career lost its leading man luster.

Kilmer stood out in independent films like 2002's "The Salton Sea" and as the doomed ’70s porn star John Holmes in 2003's "Wonderland." Kilmer earned plaudits for his role as no-nonsense private detective Gay Perry in 2005's "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." But his main professional passion revolved around deeply exploring the persona of Mark Twain: writing, directing, producing and starring in the one-man stage play "Citizen Twain," which he adapted into the 2017 film of the same name.

Decades after the original, Kilmer's return in 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick" as Admiral Kazansky − in a brief but emotional scene opposite Cruise − became the sequel’s most poignant moment. Kilmer, indifferent to earning his "Top Gun" role after his original audition, pleaded to Cruise, producers and director Joseph Kosinski for the "Maverick" part more than three decades later.

"As the Temptations sang in the heyday of Motown soul, ‘Ain’t too proud to beg.’ The producers went for it and Cruise went for it." Kilmer wrote in his memoir.

The two actors gave a final hug onscreen that was "straight from the heart," Kilmer told USA TODAY in June 2022. "I love Tom. We’ve always gotten along great."

The scene also showed the two former aces jokingly arguing over who was a better pilot, since Iceman won the Top Gun Trophy in the original film.

"One can always use a laugh," Kilmer told USA TODAY. "There can only be one Top Gun."

In "I'm Your Huckleberry," which was named for his love of Twain and a line in "Tombstone," Kilmer wrote about a vivid experience with an angel during a trip to New Mexico.

Kilmer wrote that the angel reached into his body and extracted his heart to replace it with a bigger one. “At first I thought it was the Angel of Death before realizing it was the Angel of Life. I wish I could elucidate the experience more than I have already done, but I can’t. It simply happened,” Kilmer wrote. "I have nothing else to say about this, except that I am grateful for the new heart. It has served me well. And I’ve only just begun to use it.”

HoHoinc

I love this man between playing Batman, Real Genius, Top Gun, his role in Tombstone is going to be my favorite role from him. RIP Doc

Rick Sanchez

I'm not much for westerns. However, Tombstone was one of my favorites. Doc Holliday was my favorite role of his.

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