Val Kilmer, who starred in Hollywood blockbusters as “Top Gun,” “Batman” and “Tombstone,” died Tuesday 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 a 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.”
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.