Actor Val Kilmer, best known for his role in Top Gun, has died at the age of 65, his daughter Mercedes has confirmed.
Speaking to the New York Times, she said that Kilmer passed away from pneumonia.
Kilmer shot to fame as the cocky fighter pilot Iceman in Top Gun (1986), where his on-screen rivalry and eventual camaraderie with Tom Cruise's Maverick became a defining part of the film's legacy.
He went on to play Batman in Batman Forever (1995), starring opposite Jim Carey's Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones's Two-Face. Kilmer brought a brooding intensity to the Caped Crusader, though he later admitted the restrictive Batsuit made the role challenging.
He also earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of Jim Morrison in the 1991 biopic The Doors.
His final on-screen appearance was a cameo in the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick. Reflecting on the emotional moment, Cruise told Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2023: "I've known Val for decades, and for him to come back and play that character... he's such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again."
Kilmer's versatility saw him take on a wide range of roles throughout his career. He starred in Tombstone (1993) as the gin-slinging Doc Holiday, a performance widely praised by critics.
He also appeared in Heat (1995) alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and in The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) with Michael Douglas.
Despite never receiving an Oscar nomination, he earned a Saturn Award for The Doors and was nominated for the same award for Tombstone and Batman Forever.
His work in Top Gun: Maverick also earned him an honourary tribute at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards in 2021.
Born in Los Angeles on 31 December 1959, Kilmer began acting in high school and became the youngest student accepted into the drama division of the famed Juilliard School in New York.
Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later underwent radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and a tracheostomy, which affected his ability to speak. He discussed his health battle in his 2020 memoir I'm Your Huckleberry and the Amazon Prime documentary Val.
In Val, he reflected on the challenges he faced, saying: "I obviously am sounding much worse than I feel. I can’t speak without plugging this hole (in his throat). You have to make the choice to breathe or to eat. It’s an obstacle that is very present with whoever sees me."
Over the years, Kilmer gained a reputation as temperamental, intense, perfectionistic and sometimes egotistical.
"When certain people criticise me for being demanding, I think that's a cover for something they didn't do well. I think they're trying to protect themselves," Kilmer told the Orange County Register newspaper in 2003.
"I believe I'm challenging, not demanding, and I make no apologies for that."
Tributes have poured in from across Hollywood. Actor Josh Gad wrote on Instagram: "RIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon."
Fellow actor Josh Brolin remembered Kilmer as a "smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker." He added: "There’s not a lot left of those. I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there."
Kilmer married British actress Joanne Whalley in 1988 after meeting on the set of Willow. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1996.
