Top Gun star Val Kilmer dies at 65

Val Kilmer, one of the biggest Hollywood actors of the 1990s who shot to fame playing Iceman in the original Top Gun, has died aged 65 after a career of memorable hits and on-set bust ups.

The cause of death was pneumonia, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer said on Tuesday.

He battled throat cancer after being diagnosed in 2014 and appeared in the Top Gun sequel and a 2021 documentary appearing physically diminished and with a raspy voice.

His film credits include blockbusters such as Oliver Stone's The Doors, in which he played Jim Morrison, as well as a short-lived stint as Batman in Batman Forever in 1995 opposite Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones.

After a cameo in Quentin Tarantino-written True Romance, Kilmer also went on to star alongside Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat.

But he developed a reputation as a difficult actor who sometimes clashed with directors and co-stars.

A 1996 Entertainment Weekly cover story dubbed Kilmer "the man Hollywood loves to hate," depicting him as a sometimes surly eccentric with exasperating work habits.

Tributes flowed in from some of his past directors, however.

Francis Ford Coppola, who worked with him for Twixt, wrote that Kilmer "was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know," while Heat director Michael Mann also praised his range and "brilliant variability."

Agence France-Presse