Val Kilmer, star of 'Top Gun' and 'Batman Forever,' dies at 65 — report

Val Kilmer, who starred in films such as "Top Gun," "The Doors," and "Batman Forever" while earning a reputation as a Hollywood bad boy, has died, the New York Times reported. He was 65.

 

The cause of death was pneumonia, the paper said, citing his daughter Mercedes Kilmer.

The California-born, Juilliard-trained actor 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.

Kilmer starred in director Ron Howard's fantasy "Willow" (1988) and married his British co-star Joanne Whalley, with whom he had two children before divorcing.

Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments, as well as a tracheostomy that permanently gave him a raspy speaking voice. Post-cancer, his films included a "Top Gun" sequel, "The Snowman" (2017) and "Paydirt" (2020), which also featured his daughter Mercedes.

Born in Los Angeles on Dec. 31, 1959, Kilmer began acting in high school and became the youngest student accepted into the drama division of the famed Juilliard School in New York.

Reuters