Versatile Actor Val Kilmer Dies at 65

Val Kilmer, the brooding, versatile actor who played fan favorite 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.

Kilmer died Tuesday night in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Val Kilmer died from pneumonia. He had recovered after a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required two tracheotomies.

"I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some. I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed,"

Kilmer, the youngest actor ever accepted to the prestigious Juilliard School at the time he attended, experienced the ups and downs of fame more dramatically than most.

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.

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."

Actor Josh Brolin, a friend of Kilmer, paid tribute: "You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There's not a lot left of those."

Kilmer threw himself into parts. When he played Doc Holliday in "Tombstone," he filled his bed with ice for the final scene to mimic the feeling of dying from tuberculosis.

That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life, but always defending himself by emphasizing art over commerce.

Kilmer's iconic roles included hotshot pilot Tom "Iceman" Kazansky opposite Tom Cruise — almost didn't happen. He was courted by director Tony Scott for "Top Gun" but initially balked.

One career nadir 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."

Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Kilmer was "hamstrung by the straight-man aspects of the role," while Roger Ebert deadpanned that he was a "completely acceptable" substitute for Keaton.

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.

Shortly after he left for Juilliard, his younger brother, 15-year-old Wesley, suffered an epileptic seizure in the family's Jacuzzi and died on the way to the hospital. Wesley was an aspiring filmmaker when he died.

"I miss him and miss his things. I have his art up. I like to think about what he would have created. I'm still inspired by him," Kilmer told the Times.

He 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.

He is survived by his children, Mercedes and Jack. "I have no regrets," Kilmer told the AP in 2021. "I've witness and experienced miracles."