The late Val Kilmer’s family is breaking their silence following his death.
“Thank you for honoring our extraordinary father’s memory,” the Batman Forever star’s family said in a Thursday, April 3, statement to People.
“We are so proud of him and honored to see his legacy celebrated. At this time, we would like to grieve privately,” the statement continued.
Kilmer died of pneumonia on Tuesday, April 1, at the age of 65, his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, confirmed to The New York Times. She said he had previously been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.
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Kilmer is survived by Mercedes, 33, and a son, Jack, 29, whom he shared with ex-wife Joanne Whalley. (The couple were married from 1988 to 1996.)
Best known for his roles in Batman Forever and Top Gun, Kilmer is fondly remembered by Hollywood stars, including his longtime friend Tom Cruise.
Cruise, 62, paid tribute to his Top Gun costar during an appearance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday.
“I’d like to honor a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer, for a moment. I can’t tell you how much I admired his work,” he said.
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The actor asked the audience to join him in a moment of silence: “If we just all take a moment to remember the wonderful time we had with him — let’s just take a moment.” He concluded, “I wish you well on your next journey.”
Cruise and Kilmer famously portrayed rival fighter pilots Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in the 1986 blockbuster film Top Gun. Thirty-six years later, Kilmer made a cameo in the 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, reprising his role alongside Cruise in his final onscreen performance.
In February 2023, Cruise reflected on his meaningful reunion with Kilmer.
“I just want to say that was pretty emotional,” Cruise recalled during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live at the time. “I’ve known Val for decades, and for him to come back and play that character … he’s such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again.”
Kilmer, for his part, told People in 2022 that reprising the role of Iceman was “like being reunited with a long-lost friend.”
“The characters never really go away,” he added. “They live on in deep freeze. If you’ll pardon the pun.”
