LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Val Kilmer, an actor who starred in Hollywood blockbusters “Top Gun,” “Batman” and “Tombstone,” has died in Los Angeles, according to media reports Wednesday. He was 65.
Kilmer died of pneumonia, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer told The New York Times. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, she said.
One of his earliest roles was 1984’s Top Secret!, a parody of spy movies in which he plays an American rocker who stumbles into a East Germany reunification plot.
He followed his role in “Top Secret” with the lead in “Real Genius” in 1985, “MacGruber” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.”
In the 1990s, he traded comedy roles for more serious parts. He played Doc Holliday in “Tombstone” with Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, an Elvis ghost in “True Romance” and a bank robber in Michael Mann’s “Heat” with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in 1995.
“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 Tuesday night.
Actor Josh Brolin, a friend of Kilmer, also paid tribute to Kilmer.
“You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker,” Brolin wrote on Instagram. “There’s not a lot left of those.”
In 1991, Kilmer played rocker Jim Morrison in The Doors and the following year starred as an FBI agent investigating a murder on a South Dakota Indian reservation in Thunderheart.
In 1995, Kilmer starred in Batman Forever and in 1997 The Saint.
“Serious audiences will be less interested than ever in what’s under Batman’s cape or cowl,” Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times about Kilmer’s Batman. “There’s not much to contemplate here beyond the spectacle of gimmicky props and the kitsch of good actors (all of whom have lately done better work elsewhere) dressed for a red-hot Halloween.”
Kilmer grew up in Chatsworth and attended Chatsworth High School with Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey and Emmy Award winner Mare Winningham. At 17, Kilmer was admitted to the Juliard School in 1981. Kilmer dated Cher before marrying Joanne Whalley.
His 15-year-old brother, Wesley, had an epileptic seizure in their family’s Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital before Kilmer went to Juliard. Wesley Kilmer was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.
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.
In addition to his daughter, Kilmer is survived by his ex-wife Whalley, an actress who had met Kilmer on the set of “Willow,” and son Jack, also an actor.
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