Val Kilmer Passes Away, Leaving Behind a Legendary Career & Admirers Far and Wide
“I’m your huckleberry.”
In 1993, director George Cosmatos’ Tombstone came out, starring Kurt Russell as the legendary lawman Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer as his drunken, decidedly decent and invaluable partner Doc Holliday. By then, Kilmer was already a legend, having played Ice Man, the ying to Maverick (Tom Cruise, of course)’s yang in Tony Scott’s 1986 film Top Gun, and Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 film The Doors, one of those roles where it was truly impossible to imagine another actor on the planet being more perfectly positioned to inhabit a character, in this case the real life Lizard King himself, then Kilmer was. He’d even starred in a fantasy epic before his unforgettable turn as the gunslinger in Tombstone, playing Madmartigan in Ron Howard’s Willow. But it was as Doc Holliday that Kilmer’s offbeat charm and abundant charisma seemed perfectly channeled. While Russell’s Wyatt Earp might be the nominal hero, Kilmer’s witty, wheezing Doc steals the movie, and for folks of a certain generation, reciting Doc’s lines, even if you lived nowhere near a region where saying something like “I’m your huckleberry” made sense in any context, was a favorite pasttime. We all wanted to be Doc, failing liver and all.
By the time Kilmer revisited the role of Ice Man in Joseph Kosinski’s world-beating 2022 sequel Top Gun: Maverick, his health was already deteriorating enough that it was a plot point in the film. Ice Man was now an Admiral, and Cruise’s Pete Mitchell pays a visit to him, not long before his passing, to get some advice. It was one of the film’s most emotional, riveting scenes, and seeing the proud, still handsome Kilmer get to portray the character that made him a global superstar one more time was the film’s most undeniably emotional moment.
Kilmer has passed away at the age of 65 from throat cancer he’d been dealing with for years. He leaves behind a long, legendary career, which included playing Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever and co-starring in one of the greatest heist movies of all time, Michael Mann’s 1995 tour de force, Heat, as Chris Shiherlis, one of the expert criminals on Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro)’s team. [Mann revisited the scene’s flawless bank heist scene in Ava DuVernay’s One Perfect Shot, arguably one of the most riveting scenes in cinematic history.]
“While working with Val on Heat, I always marveled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character,” Michael Mann said in a statement. “After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.”
In 2021, the documentary Val utilized hundreds of hours of video that Kilmer had recorded over his life, including behind-the-scenes moments from sets and revealing the artist and soulful figure that Kilmer was. His son provided his voice.
“The result is undoubtedly a canny mediation on the vagaries of fame, but it feels more intimate and essential than that: a lifetime of searching and self-regard distilled, somehow, into a state of grace,” Leah Greenblatt wrote for Entertainment Weekly.
Mann wasn’t alone in sharing tributes to the singular star; Francis Ford Coppola, Josh Brolin, the official Top Gun Twitter page, and others also did so.
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Remembering Val Kilmer, whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations. RIP Iceman. pic.twitter.com/a3jQ8ENma9
— Top Gun (@TopGunMovie) April 2, 2025
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The titan visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic wrote a tribute to Kilmer on its official Instagram Threads account: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our friend and colleague, Val Kilmer. From his memorable roles as Madmartigan, Iceman, Doc Holliday, and Jim Morrison, Val cemented himself as one of the greats. He will be deeply missed, and our thoughts are with his family at this time.”
Kilmer was a one-of-a-kind talent, and he will be missed.
Featured image: HOLLYWOOD, CA – FEBRUARY 29: Actor Val Kilmer attends the 2004 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Mortons Restaurant, February 29, 2004 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images)
