The famous Hollywood actor Val Kilmer, who, among other things, played Batman and Jim Morrison in his long career, died at the age of 65 in Los Angeles.

According to his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, Kilmer died of pneumonia.

It is recalled that in 2014, Val Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer but had managed to recover.

Val Kilmer made his film debut in the 1984 film Top Secret, playing an American singer in Berlin who becomes unwittingly embroiled in an East German plot to reunify the country.

In 1991, he transformed into the iconic Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991), and two years later starred in True Romance, a violent drug-chasing adventure written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott.

He had appeared in 1992 in “Thunderheart” where he played the role of an inexperienced FBI agent investigating a murder in an Indian camp in South Dakota.

In 1995, he appeared as Batman in the film Batman Forever alongside the “bad guys” Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey, with the film, however, not being the greatest success.

Among the roles that marked Val Kilmer’s career was that of pilot Tom Iceman Kazanski as Tom Cruise’s adversary in Top Gun, a role he initially turned down, but after the great success he reprised in 2022 in Top Gun: Maverick.

The death of his brother that marked him

Val Edward Kilmer, as he was given his full name, was born in Los Angeles on December 31, 1959, and grew up in the northwest section of the city. His father, Eugene, who was a real estate agent, and his mother divorced when Val was 9.

This was followed by the death of his younger brother, Wesley, who drowned in a swimming pool in 1977, an event that haunted the then 18-year-old Val for many years.

His memories of this loss were at the center of his performance in the film “The Salton Sea” (2002), about a man driven by guilt and seeking redemption after witnessing the murder of his wife and being unable to save her. “There are several points in the movie where the guy just can’t go on,” Mr. Kilmer said in a 2002 interview with The New York Times. “I didn’t really come back down to earth until about two or three years after my brother died.”

He started at 17

At the age of 17, he applied to the Juilliard School in New York City and was accepted, making Val Kilmer one of the youngest ever to be accepted into the acting program.

He made his Broadway debut in 1983 in “The Slab Boys”, a drama about young workers in a Scottish carpet factory, which also starred Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon.

His marriage

In 1988, Val Kilmer married British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he had met on the set of Ron Howard’s children’s fantasy film, “Willow” (1988).

In their 8 years together, they had two children, Mercedes and Jack, before separating in 1996, citing “irreconcilable differences.”