By Abb Jones
The Reelness

Val Kilmer, the charismatic actor best known for such films as Top Gun, The Doors, Batman Returns and Tombstone, has died of pneumonia in Los Angeles. He was 65.

Born on New Year’s Eve in 1959, the Los Angeles native was the youngest person accepted at the time into the Julliard School’s Drama Division, a 1981 graduate of the school’s Group 10. Kilmer got his big break in the mid-1980s films Top Secret! and Real Genius, which led to his string of mega-hit films through the late 80s and 90s.

Kilmer had a reputation of being a perfectionist and being difficult to work with. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015. Val, a stirring 2021 documentary about his life, showed Kilmer needing a breathing tube.

In 2011, Kilmer sold his New Mexico ranch where he lived for 20 years and moved to Los Angeles. 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, in which he reprised his character Iceman, was Kilmer’s final film role. Kilmer is survived by two children, his daughter Mercedes and son Jack.