Hollywood star Val Kilmer, who has died aged 65, had his devastating health issue written into his iconic character’s story when he returned in Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Val Kilmer battled a devastating health issue that impacted his acting career.
The Hollywood actor, famed for Top Gun and Batman Forever, has sadly passed at the age of 65. Mercedes Kilmer, his daughter, announced he died of pneumonia on Tuesday (April 1) in Los Angeles, California.
Kilmer delighted Top Gun fans in 2022 when he returned as fighter pilot Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick. In it, Iceman shares an emotional scene with Tom Cruise’s character Maverick, bidding him farewell and telling him: “It’s time to let go”.
Top Gun: Maverick would become Kilmer’s final film role and it now, in light of Kilmer’s passing, it takes on a whole new significance. Iceman had difficulty breathing and speaking and this is because Kilmer’s real-life health issues had been written into his iconic character.
Cancer battle
Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 after spotting a lump in his throat. He underwent chemotherapy, radiation and a tracheostomy – surgery on the throat that involves creating an opening in the neck to aid breathing.
The throat op severely affected Kilmer’s voice, which became permanently raspy. The Top Gun star survived the cancer but said the cancer treatment “zapped my whole throat, and it’s still dry as a bone.”
In order to speak, Kilmer had an electric voice box plugged into his trachea after his surgery – and also had a feeding tube fitted. As a Christian Scientist, Kilmer had mixed feelings about medical treatment and instead tended towards spiritual practices such as prayer.
However, his family were not keen on this and so the actor agreed to get medical help, which went against his religion. The Batman star also denied, on occasion having cancer altogether.
In 2015, the actor was hospitalised for what his representative claimed was tests for a possible tumour. However, he denied this on social media at the time, writing: “I have not had a tumor, or tumor operations, or any operation. I had a complication where the best way to receive care was to stay under the watchful eye of the UCLA ICU.”
In his 2020 memoir I’m Your Huckleberry, Kilmer said: “Speaking, once my joy and lifeblood, has become an hourly struggle,” describing his voice as “Marlon Brando after a couple of bottles of tequila. It isn’t a frog in my throat. More like a buffalo.”
The 2021 documentary Val offers an intimate look at the actor’s throat cancer battle and recovery. In it, he shared the everyday struggles he faces, including: “You have to make the choice to breathe or to eat.”
He added: “I obviously am sounding much worse than I feel. I can’t speak without plugging this hole [in his throat].”
But the power of artificial intelligence enabled the Iceman star express himself more easily. The British AI company Sonantic was able to create a computer-generated version of his voice in 2021, using hours of archive footage of Kilmer talking.
He said of the technology: “I was struck by throat cancer. After getting treated, my voice as I knew it was taken away from me. People around me struggle to understand me when I’m talking. But despite all that, I still feel I’m the exact same person, still the same creative soul.
“A soul that dreams ideas and stories constantly. But now I can express myself again, I can bring these dreams to you, and show you this part of myself once more. A part that was never truly gone, just hiding away.
Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski confirmed they didn’t use Sonantic’s technology and instead used Kilmer’s real voice in the movie. This, however, was digitally altered for clarity.
Brother’s death
Before finding fame as an actor, Val suffered a heartbreaking family loss that haunted him for years. In 1977, his younger brother Wesley, who suffered from epilepsy, tragically drowned in a hot tub at the age of fifteen.
“I didn’t really get back to earth until about two or three years after my brother died,” Kilmer admitted during an interview with The New York Times in 2002. He hailed Wesley, an aspiring filmmaker, as a “genius” and said he could have been the next Steven Spielberg.
Kilmer’s brother’s death inspired his 2002 performance in The Salton Sea, about a man racked with guilty after being unable to save his wife from being murdered. “There are several points in the movie where the guy just can’t go on,” he said of the character.
Despite this, Kilmer became the youngest person at the time to be accepted into the prestigious Juilliard School’s Drama Group. He was 17 when he got in and said the school’s high standards helped him develop as an individual.
“I had a unique experience because I just lost my little brother a week before I started school,” he said while giving a speech at the school in 2005. “So it was quite an emotional time for me, and in a way, the extremely high standards and the activity of the School I’m sure were good for me, because I was forced to really challenge myself about my very life, you know.
“What I believe about life and death. For me, it was a great way to progress out of that difficult time, to be thrown into such a great school.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
