Val Kilmer, the Top Gun and Batman Forever star, passes away at 65

Val Kilmer, the brooding, versatile actor who played fan-favourite Iceman in Top Gun, donned a voluminous cape as Batman in Batman Forever and portrayed Jim Morrison in The Doors, has died. He was 65. Val died from pneumonia. He had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies. His break came in 1984’s spy spoof Top Secret, followed by the comedy Real Genius in 1985. Kilmer would later show his comedy chops again in films like MacGruber and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

His movie career hit its zenith in the early 1990s as he made a name for himself as a dashing leading man, starring alongside Kurt Russell and Bill Paxton in 1993’s Tombstone, as Elvis’ ghost in True Romance and as a bank-robbing demolition expert in Michael Mann’s 1995 film Heat with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. One of his more iconic roles — hotshot pilot Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise — almost didn’t happen. Kilmer was courted by director Tony Scott for Top Gun, but initially balked. “I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” he wrote in his memoir. He agreed after being promised that his role would improve from the initial script. He would reprise the role in the film’s 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick.

One career low was playing Batman in Joel Schumacher’s goofy, garish Batman Forever with Nicole Kidman and opposite Chris O’Donnell’s Robin — before George Clooney took up the mantle for 1997’s Batman & Robin and after Michael Keaton played the Dark Knight in 1989’s Batman and 1992’s Batman Returns.