Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | News | April 2, 2025
Val Kilmer, the actor best known as Iceman in the Top Gun movies, Jim Morrison in The Doors, and as Gay Perry in my all-time favorite Kilmer movie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has died of pneumonia. He was only 65.
Kilmer, a Juilliard grad, had a hell of a run, particularly in the ’80s and ’90s, in comedic roles like Top Secret! and Real Genius, dramatic turns as Doc Holliday in Tombstone (for which he was robbed of an Oscar nom) and even in action flicks, where he led The Saint and played Batman in Batman Forever, which he starred in during the same year he also starred alongside Pacino and DeNiro in Heat.
Kilmer played badasses and was eccentric as hell — many who worked with him might even say “difficult,” particularly on the set of The Island of Dr. Moreau — although he became a beloved figure after a humbling series of flops and his battle with throat cancer, which didn’t stop him from acting despite a tracheotomy. Fittingly, Kilmer’s last role was his reprisal of Iceman in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.
Kilmer appeared at the SXSW Film Festival screening of MacGruber in 2010 — and this was after years of what were mostly flops (save for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) — and he got one of the loudest ovations I’d ever seen at the film festival. The place went nuts.
Kilmer is survived by two kids, Mercedes and Jack, with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, whom he met on the set of Willow. RIP Iceman. May his memory be a blessing.
