Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun,’ ‘Batman Forever’ star, dies at 65
Val Kilmer portrayed larger-than-life characters, such as Jim Morrison, Doc Holliday and Batman, throughout his prolific acting career.
“Top Gun” fans are bidding farewell to Val Kilmer, the magnetic actor who commanded the screen as everyone from Batman to Iceman.
Kilmer, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, died Tuesday from pneumonia, his daughter told The New York Times and The Associated Press. He was 65.
Fans mourned the actor using his “Iceman” nickname from one of his most iconic movies, 1986’s “Top Gun.” Kilmer starred as Lieutenant Tom Kazansky, whose call sign was Iceman, in the classic Tom Cruise film. In one scene, it’s explained to Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell that Iceman is the best around and that his call sign speaks to the way he is as a pilot.
“That’s the way he flies: Ice cold. No mistakes,” Nick “Goose” Bradshaw tells Maverick. “He just wears you down. You get bored, frustrated, do something stupid, and he’s got you.”
Iceman is initially a rival of Maverick, whom he scolds for his dangerous and unsafe flying. But they come to respect each other by the end of the film, with Iceman telling Maverick in the finale, “You can be my wingman any time.”
In his memoir “I’m Your Huckleberry,” Kilmer revealed he initially “didn’t want” the part of Iceman in “Top Gun” because the story didn’t interest him, but his agent pressured him to audition.
“I showed up looking the fool, or the goon,” Kilmer wrote. “I wore oversize gonky Australian shorts in nausea green. I read the lines indifferently. And yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part. I felt more deflated than inflated.”
Kilmer reprised the role in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” which revealed that Iceman was now an admiral. By the time the sequel was filmed, the actor had undergone a tracheotomy impacting his ability to speak, a factor that was incorporated into the movie.
In an emotional scene, Maverick goes to visit Iceman, who is battling an illness, and they have a conversation where Iceman talks by typing on a computer. At the end of the scene, Iceman stands and begins speaking to Maverick in a raspy voice, saying that the “Navy needs” him. Iceman later dies off screen, and Maverick is seen attending his funeral.
Kilmer told USA TODAY in 2022 that he was “very moved” the first time he saw the scene in “Top Gun: Maverick.”
“It is nice to see Iceman reach such success in the career he loved,” he said. “It’s a good story arc. And it was very exciting to be back at it with Tom.”
After initially not wanting his role in the original “Top Gun,” Kilmer also wrote in his memoir that he begged for a part in the sequel. “The producers went for it,” he said. “Cruise went for it. Cruise couldn’t have been cooler. … Tom and I took up where we left off. The reunion felt great.”
Contributing: Barbara VanDenburgh, Bryan Alexander
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