reader Posted yesterday at 05:37 PM Posted yesterday at 05:37 PM From CNN (From left) Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun.'Sunset Boulevard/Corbis Historical/Getty Images Val Kilmer, a movie star who throughout his career proved he was up for any task, from playing a cocky naval pilot to wearing the Batman suit, died on Tuesday, according to his daughter Mercedes Kilmer, who released a statement to the New York Times and the Associated Press. He was 65. The cause of death was pneumonia, Mercedes Kilmer told the media outlets. Kilmer had recovered from a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis that required tracheotomy surgery that altered his voice. In recent years, Kilmer largely stepped away from acting, but made a brief return to the craft in “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to the original film that launched him and that cast into superstardom. The sequel, which released in 2022 after a two-year delay, deftly blended Kilmer’s off-screen health issues into the film’s story, with his Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, the smug but cool rival to Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, ultimately succumbing to an ailment in the film. As one of Kilmer’s last film roles, it concluded one of the most interesting — and bankable — careers in Hollywood history. https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/02/entertainment/val-kilmer-death/index.html Quote
