Hollywood star Val Kilmer – famed for iconic roles in Top Gun, Batman and The Doors – has died at 65 after a long health battle.
His daughter Mercedes Kilmer, whom he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, revealed he passed from pneumonia in Los Angeles 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.
Hollywood star Val Kilmer – famed for iconic roles in Top Gun, Batman and The Doors – has died at 65 after a long health battle; seen 2019
The actor died from pneumonia; pictured in a 1986 still from Top Gun
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.
His daughter Mercedes Kilmer, 33, whom he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, confirmed his passing to the New York Times; Mercedes and Val in Los Angeles in 2019
The screen icon was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014; pictured in 2019
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; seen with Angelina Jolie
Kilmer was known for his role as Iceman in the 1986 hit movie Top Gun
He also played Batman/Bruce Wayne in the 1995 Batman Forever
Aside from Mercedes, he is also survived by son Jack Kilmer, 29. Kilmer was married to their mother Joanne from 1988 until 1996; the siblings seen in 2021
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 co-stars 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.’
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