Val Kilmer has died at age 65 from pneumonia after his long, valiant battle with cancer. The beloved star was 65 years old.
Kilmer had a long, successful career before his fight with throat cancer sidelined him. He should have had an Oscar nomination for playing Jim Morrison in “The Doors,” played Batman in “Batman Forever,” and was a break out in “Top Gun.” Three years ago, he returned for one last appearance “Top Gun: Maverick.”doc
His other roles included a star turn in “Tombstone,” in 1993 as Doc Holliday, Michael Mann’s classic “Heat,” and Ron Howard’s “Willow.”
In 2016, I ran into him at a fancy Hollywood party where he told me all about his throat cancer, losing his voice box, and how Cher — a former girlfriend– had taken such good care of him. It was heartbreaking. But he had reinvented himself as an artist, and a poet, and eventually was the subject of a documentary about how his life. (The poet part was lovely, as his second cousin, twice removed, was the famed poet Alfred Joyce Kilmer, author of “Trees.”)
The fact that he soldiered on for more than a decade living in this condition was remarkable.
Condolences to his family and friends. Val Kilmer was handed a rotten deal and turned lemons into lemonade.
