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• Wed Apr 2 2025

Top Gun and Batman actor Val Kilmer dies aged 65

1 hour ago Share Save Sofia Ferreira Santos BBC News Ian Youngs Culture reporter Share Save

WireImage via Getty Images

Hollywood actor Val Kilmer, known for his roles in some of the biggest movies of the 1980s and 90s, including Top Gun and Batman Forever, has died aged 65. He also starred in 1991's The Doors - playing the legendary band's frontman Jim Morrison - plus the Western Tombstone and crime drama Heat. Kilmer died of pneumonia on Tuesday in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told US media. She said her father had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered. Tracheotomy surgery affected his voice and curtailed his acting career, but he returned to the screen to reprise his role as fighter pilot Iceman alongside Tom Cruise in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick.

Getty Images/Warner Bros Kilmer played the Caped Crusader in 1995's Batman Forever

Paying tribute, Heat director Michael Mann said: "While working with Val on Heat I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val's possessing and expressing character. "After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news," Mann wrote on Instagram. Actor Josh Gad posted: "RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon." "See ya, pal. I'm going to miss you", US actor Josh Brolin wrote alongside a picture of himself and Kilmer on Instagram. "You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There's not a lot left of those", he added.

Watch: A look back at Val Kilmer's blockbuster roles (available in the UK only)