If you are a big fan of westerns or action movies, then you will be instantly familiar with the name Val Kilmer. That is why it breaks our hearts to learn that this veteran film star has passed away.
Breaking the sad news, his daughter Mercedes said that Val succumbed to pneumonia in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
The Hollywood actor warmed our hearts in blockbuster movies of the 1980s and 1990s, especially as the caped crusader in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, as Doc Holliday in Tombstone, and as Iceman in Top Gun.
Beyond these iconic roles, Kilmer molded into rock legend Jim Morrison for The Doors, before facing off against Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in the heist film Heat. His acting career took a turn after a battle with throat cancer that began in 2014.
Though his voice was hit badly by tracheotomy surgery following his cancer treatment, he made a touching comeback to the big screen in 2022 and reunited with Tom Cruise for Top Gun: Maverick.
Health and death – What caused Val Kilmer’s death?
The news of Val Kilmer’s death shocked many fans worldwide. His daughter Mercedes announced that pneumonia was the cause of death.
Kilmer had battled health issues for years, especially throat cancer which he was diagnosed with in 2015 but became public in 2017. Initially reluctant to seek medical treatment due to his Christian Science beliefs, he eventually underwent chemotherapy and two tracheostomies.
These procedures severely damaged his vocal cords. To speak, he often used an electric voice box connected to his trachea. Kilmer reported in 2020 that he had been cancer-free for four years, though he continued to face difficulties including the need to use a feeding tube.
Val’s early life
Val Edward Kilmer was born in 1959, in Los Angeles, California. He was the second of three sons born to Gladys Swanette and Eugene Dorris Kilmer. His childhood took a difficult turn when his parents divorced in 1968 and his mother remarried William Bernard Leach. He lost his epileptic younger brother Wesley at 15 when he drowned in a jacuzzi.
Kilmer attended Chatsworth High School with fellow actor Kevin Spacey. He was the youngest person at that time to be accepted into Juilliard School’s Drama Division, where he was part of Group 10.
Life on the big screen
Kilmer started acting in the early 1980s. After turning down a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders due to theater commitments, he appeared off-Broadway in The Slab Boys with Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, and Jackie Earle Haley in 1983.
That same year, he made his off-stage debut in an ABC Afterschool Special called One Too Many.
His great success arrived with the spy movie spoof Top Secret! where he played an American rock and roll star. Kilmer performed all the songs in the film and even released an album under his character’s name, Nick Rivers.
But it was his role as aviator Iceman in Top Gun that put him on the map. In a cast that featured Tom Cruise, the picture grossed over $344 million. He remained successful thanks to the roles in the fantasy film Willow, as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors.
Now, if you ask most people, they will likely point to Iceman, Jim Morrison, or Batman as his best film roles, and it is tough to argue against that. But we think we saw the best of Val Kilmer as the quick-witted, deadly gunslinger Doc Holliday in the 1993 western blockbuster Tombstone.
Playing a TB-hit gambler and loyal friend to Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp, Kilmer bagged every scene with copyable drawls and sharp one-liners like I’m your huckleberry. He was so good as Doc (of course, some credits goes to his cast mates) that Tombstone is now synonymous with the western genre.
No wonder Doc Holliday is the main character in Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, Nolimit City’s Tombstone RIP, and other popular video and slot games featured in platforms like Playstation, Xbox, and Casino Guru.
His second huge success came when he replaced Michael Keaton as Batman in Batman Forever. Though critics´ opinions about the movie differ, creator Bob Kane thought Kilmer gave the best Batman kick by them.
That same year, he joined Al Pacino and De Niro in Heat, now seen as a classic crime movie. He later played Simon Templar in The Saint and was the voice of Moses in The Prince of Egypt.
Nairobians are aware of Val Kilmer´s military railroad engineer Colonel John Henry Patterson in The Ghost and the Darkness. The Stephen Hopkins 1996 historical adventure film retold an exaggerated account of the Tsavo Man-Eaters, two aggressive lions that terrorized, killed or maimed many rail workers in 1898.
Though the movie featured real maasai warriors, it was actually filmed on location at South Africa’s Songimvelo Game Reserve instead of Tsavo, Kenya for tax reasons.
In the 2000s, Kilmer worked on both big movies like Red Planet and smaller films like The Salton Sea. Later, he took smaller parts in Déjà Vu and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. In 2010, he worked with his old friend Francis Ford Coppola on Twixt and played the bad guy in MacGruber.
Life off the screen
Val Kilmer led a colorful personal life off camera. He was married to actress Joanne Whalley from 1988 to 1996 after meeting her on the set of Willow. Together, they had two children: daughter Mercedes and son Jack.
He also dated several high-profile women including Cher, Cindy Crawford, Angelina Jolie, Daryl Hannah, and Ellen Barkin.
Throughout his life, Kilmer was a devout Christian Scientist. He was also passionate about environmental protection and Native American affairs.
In 2005, he made several trips to New Orleans to help with Hurricane Katrina disaster relief, owned a 6,000-acre ranch in New Mexico for many years, where he would fish, hike and raise bison, Before selling it in 2011, Val owned a 6,000-acre ranch in New Mexico for many years, where he would fish, hike and raise bison.
