Val Kilmer, star of Batman Forever, Tombstone and Top Gun, dead at 65
Once one of Hollywood’s most prominent leading men, Kilmer also had a reputation for being difficult to work with
Val Kilmer, who starred in films such as Top Gun, The Doors, and Batman Forever while earning a reputation as a Hollywood bad boy, has died. He was 65.
The cause of death was pneumonia, The New York Times reported, citing his daughter Mercedes Kilmer.
The California-born, Juilliard-trained actor was one of Hollywood’s most prominent leading men in the 1990s before numerous spats with directors and co-stars and a series of flops dented his career. Over the years, Kilmer gained a reputation as temperamental, intense, perfectionistic and sometimes egotistical.
“When certain people criticise me for being demanding, I think that’s a cover for something they didn’t do well. I think they’re trying to protect themselves,” Kilmer told the Orange County Register newspaper in 2003.
“I believe I’m challenging, not demanding, and I make no apologies for that.”