Val Kilmer, the actor who famously played Iceman in “Top Gun,” beat villains as Batman and quipped “I’m your huckleberry” as Doc Holliday in “Tombstone,” died Tuesday night at age 65, his daughter told The Associated Press.
Kilmer died from pneumonia in Los Angeles, surrounded by family and friends, Mercedes Kilmer said in an email to the news agency.
Kilmer has said “I’ve lived a magical life” and moviegoers would recognize him from a range of some of the most popular movies of his generation and beyond.
He played opposite Tom Cruise as Iceman in “Top Gun,” released in 1986, which catapulted him to fame. He returned to the role in “Top Gun: Maverick" in 2022.
Tributes poured in for Kilmer upon the news of his death. The "Top Gun" account on X said Kilmer's "indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations."
"See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker," actor Josh Brolin wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of him and Kilmer. "There’s not a lot left of those. I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts."
Francis Ford Coppola, who directed Kilmer in 2011's "Twixt," wrote that Kilmer was the "most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life."
"He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know — I will always remember him," Coppola wrote on Instagram.
In recent years, Kilmer faced health issues.
In 2017, he revealed he was recovering from throat cancer, and People magazine reported in 2021 that he had undergone a tracheostomy that permanently damaged his speaking voice.
"It isn’t easy to talk and be understood," the actor wrote on his website in 2022, discussing the effects of his cancer treatment. "I am improving all the time, but am not able to be out in the world the same way I had become accustomed."
Kilmer played Jim Morrison in the 1991 Oliver Stone film “The Doors,” and in 1993 delivered a memorable performance as the ailing but deadly Doc Holliday in “Tombstone,” in which he uttered the famous line, “I’m your huckleberry.”
Kilmer also starred alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the heist drama “Heat,” a 1995 film that also included Jon Voight and Tom Sizemore.
"While working with Val on 'Heat' I always marveled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val's possessing and expressing character," Michael Mann, who directed "Heat," said in an Instagram post. "After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news."
In his 2020 memoir, “I’m Your Huckleberry,” Kilmer revealed he did not want the role of Iceman in “Top Gun.”
“I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” Kilmer wrote, adding that he was surprised when he got the part.
“I read the lines indifferently and yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part,” he said. “I felt more deflated than inflated.”
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.”
"Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon," actor Josh Gad wrote on Instagram.
Kilmer’s presence on the silver screen diminished in the 2000s. The New York Times Magazine wrote in 2020, “His casting problem was solved for him when no one wanted to work with him anymore.”
The actor — who took part in the Method branch of Suzuki arts training — 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. To play Morrison, he wore leather pants all the time, asked castmates and crew to only refer to him as Jim Morrison, and blasted The Doors for a year.
That intensity also gave Kilmer a reputation that he was difficult to work with, something he grudgingly agreed with later in life.
“I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio,” he wrote in his memoir, according to The New York Times Magazine.
Kilmer also wrote that while he famously had relationships with supermodel Cindy Crawford and actor Angelina Jolie, he was heartbroken after splitting with Daryl Hannah.
“I know I would love her with my whole heart forever and that love has lost none of its strength. I am still in love with Daryl,” he wrote in the memoir, released 19 years after the pair briefly dated in 2001.
Kilmer also dated Cher, who he wrote cared for him after the throat cancer and treatment.
“He was at my house a lot of the time he was sick,” Cher told People in 2021. “He was brave the whole time. I saw how sick he was.”
Kilmer married actor Joanne Whalley in 1988. The pair, who were divorced, had two children, Jack and Mercedes.
Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, grew up in the Chatsworth neighborhood and attended Chatsworth High School alongside actors Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham. He was admitted to the Juilliard School at 17, which made him the youngest student at the prestigious school at the time he attended.
In 2021, “Val,” a documentary about Kilmer’s life, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. His son, Jack, narrated some lines in place of his father in the film. Kilmer said throat cancer made it hard to speak and to be understood.
“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,” he said toward the end of the film. “And I am blessed.”
