Val Kilmer, the acclaimed Hollywood actor known for Top Gun, Batman Forever, and The Doors, has died at 65. News of his death emerged on April 1, 2025. His family confirmed that pneumonia was the cause. Kilmer was a prominent figure in film during the 1980s and 1990s. He earned recognition for both leading and supporting roles.
Here’s what we know so far about Val Kilmer’s death.
Val Kilmer cause of death explained
Val Kilmer, an acclaimed actor known for his roles in Top Gun and Batman Forever, died on April 1, 2025, in Los Angeles at the age of 65.
His daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said that the cause of death was pneumonia. Doctors diagnosed Kilmer with throat cancer in 2014, and he later recovered. (via The New York Times)
Kilmer was born in Los Angeles in 1959 and earned distinction as the youngest person at the time accepted into Juilliard’s Drama Division. His younger brother Wesley drowned in 1977 at age 15. “He was a genius,” Kilmer told The New York Times in 2002, recalling Wesley’s talent as a filmmaker.
Kilmer’s film debut was in the 1984 parody Top Secret!, where he performed as an Elvis-style American rock star caught in Cold War intrigue. He gained recognition in Top Gun (1986) as Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. “My guy didn’t like him but it was fun to not like him,” Kilmer said in a 2013 interview with Larry King about co-star Tom Cruise.
He portrayed Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991), performing Morrison’s songs himself. “He’s such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again,” Cruise said in 2023 of Kilmer’s brief return in Top Gun: Maverick.
In Batman Forever (1995), Kilmer starred as Bruce Wayne opposite Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones. “There’s not much to contemplate here beyond the spectacle,” Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times. He also appeared in Thunderheart (1992), The Saint (1997), and True Romance (1993.)
In 2021, Kilmer’s children produced Val, a documentary that captured his life. “He’s a lot of opposites that make him incredibly interesting,” Mercedes told PEOPLE. His children, Mercedes and Jack, survive him.
Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry on ComingSoon.net.
