Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman star, dies at 65
FILE – Val Kilmer poses for a portrait, Jan. 9, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
LOS ANGELES – Val Kilmer, who starred in Hollywood blockbusters as “Top Gun,” “Batman” and “Tombstone,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 65.
Kilmer died of pneumonia, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer told The New York Times. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered, she said.
One of his earliest roles was 1984’s ”Top Secret!” – a parody of spy movies in which he plays an American rocker who stumbles into an East Germany reunification plot.
In 1991, Kilmer played rocker Jim Morrison in ”The Doors” and the following year starred as an FBI agent investigating a murder on a South Dakota Indian reservation in ”Thunderheart.”
In 1995, Kilmer starred in ”Batman Forever ” and in 1997 ”The Saint.”
“Serious audiences will be less interested than ever in what’s under Batman’s cape or cowl,” Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times about Kilmer’s Batman. “There’s not much to contemplate here beyond the spectacle of gimmicky props and the kitsch of good actors (all of whom have lately done better work elsewhere) dressed for a red-hot Halloween.”
Kilmer spent his formative years in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles. He attended Chatsworth High School alongside future Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and future Emmy winner Mare Winningham. At 17, he was the youngest drama student ever admitted at the Juilliard School in 1981.
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 including “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.
Kilmer published two books of poetry (including “My Edens After Burns”) and was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for spoken word album for “The Mark of Zorro.” He was also a visual artist and a lifelong Christian Scientist.
In addition to his daughter, Kilmer is survived by his ex-wife Joanne Whalley, an actress who had met Kilmer on the set of “Willow,” and son Jack, also an actor. (With CNS report)
