Val Kilmer tragically passed away from pneumonia on Tuesday at the age of 65, leaving behind a legacy of iconic roles in films such as Batman Forever, The Doors and Top Gun.
The esteemed actor, who also delivered memorable performances in Michael Mann’s Heat with co-stars Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, had previously battled throat cancer, diagnosed in 2014. Although he recovered, a subsequent trachea surgery resulted in the loss of his voice, devastatingly impacting his acting career.
In a New York Times Magazine feature from 2020, journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner provided an intimate look into Kilmer’s struggle with cancer. She disclosed that Kilmer experienced difficulty swallowing and had even awoken in a “pool of his own blood”.
Taffy recounted: “As near as I can tell, in 2014, as he was touring with ‘Citizen Twain’, Kilmer found himself in Nashville with a big lump in his throat. He was having a hard time swallowing. He canceled the show.”
She continued: “He’d been having symptoms for a while and had woken up in a pool of his own blood a time or two back in Malibu. A doctor eventually told him it was throat cancer, or as Kilmer told me Christian Science calls it, the ‘suggestion of throat cancer’.”
Kilmer explained this terminology, saying, “Meaning that in Christian Science, ‘the idea is rather than say I have it or possess it, there is a claim, there’s a suggestion that this is a fact.”
In a 2017 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Val, who is a Christian Scientist, shared that his health struggles had altered his perspective, admitting he was “too serious”. He also confessed that he would become “get upset” when accolades such as Oscars and other recognitions eluded him, reports the Mirror.
He remarked: “Meryl Streep must feel pretty good, you know? It must feel nice to know that everyone loves her. It’s about being loved”. Val found it challenging to accept his illness, having previously refuted Michael Douglas’ assertions that he had cancer in a 2016 Facebook post.
When questioned about this, Val responded: “He was probably trying to help me cause press probably asked where I was these days, and I did have a healing of cancer, but my tongue is still swollen altho healing all the time . ‘Because I don’t sound my normal self yet people think I may still be under the weather.”
In a 2021 documentary titled ‘Val,’ the actor offered a glimpse into his life through four decades of home recordings. The film also showed him using a voice box to communicate following his cancer surgery.
Born in Los Angeles in 1959, Val enrolled in the Juilliard School’s acting programme at 17. He started his career on stage before gaining fame with roles in films like Real Genius and eventually landing the role of Iceman in Top Gun.