Hollywood stars pay tribute to ‘brave’ Val Kilmer in emotional posts after his death at 65

Hollywood stars were shocked on Tuesday night to learn of the death of Batman Forever and Heat star Val Kilmer at just 65.

Leading the tributes to the fallen star — who died Tuesday in Los Angeles from pneumonia — was his friend and fellow actor Josh Brolin.

The No Country For Old Men star who shared a throwback photo of the two actors grinning ear-to-ear sometime prior to an emergency tracheotomy Kilmer had in 2014 after his throat cancer was discovered.

‘See ya, pal,’ Brolin captioned the photo affectionately. ‘I’m going to miss you.

He praised Kilmer — who left a haunting final social media post less than two months before his death — as a ‘smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker,’ adding, ‘There’s not a lot left of those. 

‘I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there,’ Brolin continued. ‘Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.’

The two actors don’t appear to have ever shot a film together, but Brolin was notably wearing a shirt for Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life album, while Kilmer was a notable fan of the legendary singer–songwriter.

In a 2013 appearance on KCRW, Kilmer recalled an awkward meeting he had with Dylan, who was a huge fan of his film Tombstone and asked him to recite some of the film’s iconic lines, though the famously tempestuous actor refused and turned the tables by asking Dylan to sing Blowin’ In The Wind for him.

He later collaborated with the singer when he had a small part in his film Masked And Anonymous. 

Matthew Modine paid tribute to Kilmer and said he ‘may never have been cast in FULL METAL JACKET’ if not for their ‘chance encounter at the Source in 1985.’

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.’ 

In a post on Instagram, the actor Josh Gad shared a photo of Kilmer in glories days from the filming of Top Gun.

‘RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon,’ he captioned the post.  

The comic actor and filmmaker Jorma Taccone, who is part of The Lonely Island with Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, simply wrote ‘love you, Val’ in a post on X (formerly Twitter). 

The sports guru and podcast Bill Simmons shared what looked like a photo of a polaroid of Kilmer in costume on the set of Heat. 

‘There wasn’t anyone quite like Val Kilmer. Really enjoyed his work. RIP,’ he wrote. 

The film critic Richard Roeper shared stills of Kilmer in Tombstone, Heat, Top Gun and The Doors. 

‘Val Kilmer should have been nominated for Vest Supporting Actor [Oscars] for “Tombstone” and for “Heat,”‘ he opined. ‘He was a brilliant presence in some of the most enduring films of his generation. Rest Well. Thank you for the incredible work.’ 

The porn star–turned–mainstream actress Sasha Grey called Kilmer an ‘absolute legend’ while highlighting some of his most iconic performances. 

‘He played some of my favorite characters in some of my favorite movies of all time. Condolences to his family,’ she wrote.

The popular crime novelist and political activist Don Winslow posted a still of Kilmer in Heat while calling the late star a ‘brilliant actor and a good man.’ 

The sports journalist Jemele Hill called Kilmer’s death ‘terrible news,’ adding, ‘Naturally, it made me thinking of some of my favorite scenes from Tombstone,’ one of which she shared. 

Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes Kilmer, whom he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, revealed his death 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.

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. 

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. 

Kilmer has previously detailed how he was unaware he had throat cancer until one day he coughed up ‘coagulated blood’ and called for an ambulance before passing out.

He then woke up in a Santa Monica hospital after an emergency tracheotomy for throat cancer. 

In 2020, Kilmer said he ‘healed very quickly’ following his throat cancer diagnosis, in an interview with Good Morning America.

‘This is a tracheotomy,’ he said while holding his hand to his throat, ‘to help me breathe because the glands in my throat swelled up as well.’

When asked what he misses the most about his voice, Kilmer told GMA: ‘That I had one! And that I didn’t laugh like a pirate.’

Kilmer was one of Hollywood’s most prominent leading men in the 1990s before numerous spats with directors and costars and a series of flops dented his career. 

Over the years, Kilmer gained a reputation as temperamental, intense, perfectionistic and sometimes egotistical. 

‘When certain people criticize me for being demanding, I think that’s a cover for something they didn’t do well. I think they’re trying to protect themselves,’ Kilmer told the Orange County Register newspaper in 2003.

‘I believe I’m challenging, not demanding, and I make no apologies for that.’

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

He rocketed to stardom as Tom Cruise’s costar in the smash 1986 hit Top Gun (1986), playing naval aviator Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, and decades later appeared alongside Cruise again in the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick.

Kilmer was thrilled for the opportunity to reprise his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick.

The actor was famous for playing the calm, cool rival to Tom Cruise’s Maverick in the original 1986 film.

However, when the actor admitted in a 2013 interview will Larry King that he had not been approached about appearing in a proposed Top Gun sequel, Cruise reportedly rallied the troops to ensure his buddy was included.

In an interview with People, producer Jerry Bruckheimer declared, ‘Tom said he wasn’t going to make the movie without him.’

As such, once the final script was approved, it made allowances for Ice who had been promoted to Admiral to take part in the fun.

‘So the fact that he was able to do it and he worked with us on the script,’ explained the producer, ‘to have him there and be a part of it was a really emotional day when we filmed him. Because you want to see those two on the screen again, Iceman and Maverick going at it. And that’s what movie making and audiences love.’

That particular element is one that received high marks from critics and fans alike.

Kilmer starred in director Ron Howard’s fantasy Willow (1988) and married his British costar Joanne, with whom he had two children before divorcing.

One of his most challenging roles came in director Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991) in which he played Jim Morrison, the charismatic and ultimately doomed lead singer of the influential rock band The Doors.

To try to persuade Stone to cast him, Kilmer put together an eight-minute video of himself singing and looking like Morrison at various points in his life. Kilmer’s own singing voice is used in the film.

The Doors ushered in the highest-profile years of his career. In the 1993 Western Tombstone, he played Old West gunfighter Doc Holliday.

He had two commercial successes in 1995, costarring with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the crime drama Heat and succeeding Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader in Batman Forever, the third installment in the Batman series.

Batman Forever was received tepidly by critics, and Kilmer was upstaged by costars Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey. Kilmer pulled out of the next Batman movie.

Director Joel Schumacher called Kilmer ‘the most psychologically troubled human being I’ve ever worked with.’