Val Kilmer stepped away from film acting to focus on battling throat cancer. Nearly three years after appearing in Top Gun: Maverick as his iconic character “Ice Man,” the late 65-year-old actor died on April 1, 2025. Although most fans who are mourning his loss assumed Kilmer’s cause of death was from cancer, the actor was in remission before he died.
Below, learn more about Kilmer’s life, career and death.
The late Los Angeles native appeared in a slew of well-known films. Initially, Kilmer appeared in comedy films, such as Top Secret! and Real Genius in the 1980s. He then branched out to other genres, eventually landing the role of Iceman in Top Gun. Throughout the 1990s, Kilmer starred in the films Tombstone, True Romance, Batman Forever Heat and The Prince of Egypt.
By the 2000s, Kilmer steadily landed film and television roles, even reprising his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, which would be his final movie performance before his death.
In 2015, Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer. In January of that year, reports about his hospitalization emerged, but the actor claimed that no cancerous tumor had been discovered in a Facebook post, per TMZ.
“Thank you for all your sweet support. But I have not had a tumor, or a tumor operations, or any operation,” Kilmer wrote. “I had a complication where the best way to receive care was to stay under the watchful eye of the [UCLA] ICU. Friends have assisted who know my spiritual convictions and have been most sensitive and kind for the extra effort in making sure there’s minimum gossip and silly talk. I am praying for a speedy return to the boards as they say. God bless you all and please don’t worry.”
Two years later, Kilmer acknowledged that he was battling throat cancer during an April 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. The outlet reported that he had undergone a procedure on his trachea, which caused his raspy voice and shortness of breath.
