Val Kilmer passed away on April 1st in Los Angeles. His daughter, Mercedes, told The New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia. Kilmer was 65 years old and had been battling throat cancer for several years.
Kilmer met his future wife, actress Joanne Whalley, while filming Ron Howard’s fantasy film *Willow*, and later appeared with her in the 1989 movie *Kill Me Again*. They divorced in 1996. The couple had two children: daughter Mercedes and son Jack.
In the 2000s, Kilmer’s career began to decline. In 2016, it was revealed that he was fighting throat cancer, which ultimately caused him to lose his voice completely. A computer now spoke for him. In 2021, a documentary about his life, *Val*, was released. His son voiced Kilmer in the film, which used hundreds of hours of footage Val had recorded over the years. The film became a festival hit and was beloved by critics.
Kilmer briefly returned to the screen in the 2022 film *Top Gun: Maverick*, although he could no longer speak due to the cancer. Until his death, Kilmer lived on a ranch in New Mexico. He also painted and helped lead high school theater programs, where students performed plays by Twain and Shakespeare.
