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\n\tFollowing a fierce battle against throat cancer in 2014 that required two tracheotomies that robbed him of his signature honeyed voice, actor Val Kilmer died on Tuesday (April 1) at age 65. The Julliard School-trained star who got his start on the big screen in the comedies Top Secret!<\/em> and Real Genius<\/em> in the mid-1980s and went on to stardom after his biting turn as Iceman in 1986\u2019s Top Gun<\/em> passed away in Los Angeles from pneumonia surrounded by his family and friends, according to the Associated Press<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe intense actor who also played Batman in 1995\u2019s loopy Batman Forever<\/em> and faced off with Al Pacino\u2019s cop in the heist flick Heat<\/em> that same year also lit up the screen in his mesmerizing, wraith-like portrayal of a tuberculosis-stricken Doc Holliday in 1993\u2019s Tombstone<\/em>. In a nearly four-decade career that spanned comedy, drama and historical epics, it was Kilmer\u2019s eerily method portrayal of Doors singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone\u2019s 1991 The Doors<\/em> biopic that became one of his signature roles.<\/p>\n \n\tActress Jennifer Tilly \u2014 who auditioned for the movie for the role that Meg Ryan landed as Morrison\u2019s girlfriend, Pamela Courson \u2014 posted a loving tribute to Kilmer<\/a> on X following the announcement of his death. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA long time ago, I was auditioning for the movie The Doors<\/em>. It was kind of a cattle call. They paired together potential Jims with potential Pamela\u2018s. And they were running behind so we were spilling out of the casting office, sitting on the porch, the lawn, and the driveway,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAll of a sudden, a sixties convertible came screeching up, blaring Doors Music at top volume. And a guy jumped out and strode inside: He had wild hair and he was barefoot, shirtless, and wearing nothing but a pair of tight leather pants,\u201d she added. \u201cWe all looked at each other like\u2026 Who is this guy? We were more than a little shook by the sheer audacity of his entrance. Well of course it was Val Kilmer and from that minute on, nobody else stood a chance. Rip King.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKilmer\u2019s final movie appearance was a sentimental return for the 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick<\/em>, in which he appeared after losing his voice to cancer, with his lines digitally enhanced due to the damage to his vocal cords following radiation treatment.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement, Heat<\/em> director Michael Mann paid tribute to the famously Method actor who threw himself full-bore into his roles, saying, \u201cWhile working with Val on Heat<\/em> I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val\u2019s possessing and expressing character.\u201d On Instagram, friend and fellow actor Josh Brolin wrote<\/a>, \u201cSee ya, pal. I\u2019m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCher, who dated Kilmer in the early 1980s, also honored the actor in her signature pithy way, posting on X<\/a>, \u201cVALUS Will miss u,U Were Funny,crazy,pain in the ass,GREAT FRIEND,kids U, BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJosh Gad also honored the \u201cicon\u201d who had a huge impact on him, posting a pic of Kilmer in his Top Gun<\/em> uniform, writing<\/a>, \u201cRIP Val Kilmer. Thank you for defining so many of the movies of my childhood. You truly were an icon.\u201d Director Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with Kilmer on the little-seen 2001 horror movie Twixt<\/em>, said on Instagram<\/a>, \u201cVal 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 \u2014 I will always remember him.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn addition to the lightweight Batman Forever<\/em>, Kilmer also appeared alongside Marlon Brando in the bizarre, famously troubled 1996 science fiction movie The Island of Dr. Moreau<\/em>, played painter Willem de Kooning in the 2000 biopic Pollock<\/em>, as well as 1970s porn star John Holmes in Wonderland<\/em> and Phillip II of Macedon in Stone\u2019s 2004 sword-and-sandals historical drama Alexander<\/em>. <\/p>\n \n\tKilmer continued to star in films throughout the early and mid-2000s, often in direct-to-video projects or in cameos in small films. His 2021 documentary, Val<\/em>, featured footage Kilmer filmed from throughout his career, including during his throat cancer treatment, with his son, Jack Kilmer, narrating the project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n