Latest news with #AmericanBadass:AMichaelMadsenRetrospective
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Conflicting reports emerge on Val Kilmer's final days. Here's what we know — and what we don't.
In the wake of Val Kilmer's death on April 1 at age 65, there have been touching tributes from costars and career retrospectives sure to inspire new viewings of his most memorable roles, from Top Gun to Tombstone. There have also been conflicting reports about Kilmer's health in his final days. A report from TMZ claims the actor and artist was 'unable to get out of bed for years before his death.' Unidentified family sources told the outlet that Kilmer was 'cancer-free' — after being diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, undergoing chemo, radiation and two tracheotomies — but he had a 'lack of energy' due to the treatments and he was 'bed-bound for a long time.' Kilmer was 'frail near the end of his life' and his 'health seriously declined in the past week,' leading friends and family to hold vigil at his hospital bedside in the days before his death, according to TMZ. He had also been hospitalized earlier this year. Yet Kilmer was also reportedly scheduled to appear at the Beverly Hills Film Festival on the day he died, People reported. On April 2, festival founder Nino Simone told the outlet that 'we had just confirmed Val to attend the West Coast premiere of American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective.' Simone said Kilmer's appearance was confirmed 'this past weekend' — just two or three days before his death. There were arrangements for Kilmer to arrive on the red carpet at 7:30 p.m. on April 1, Simone said. The festival's PR team was trying to connect with Kilmer's driver to finalize plans. 'The story and news of his death were reported literally at the same, exact time,' Simone said. 'Unbelievable, and so heartbreaking. Our hearts go out to his family.' Those are two contrasting takes under the circumstances. What we do know is that Kilmer died from pneumonia on Tuesday, his daughter, Mercedes, announced. She said he was surrounded by family and friends. It was also noted that he had recovered from throat cancer. In the 2021 documentary about his life, Val, Kilmer talked about his health struggles after cancer, which affected his voice. He could speak only by pushing a button on an apparatus in his trachea. His son, Jack, narrated the film using his dad's words. 'Now that it's more difficult to speak, I want to tell my story more than ever,' Kilmer said in the documentary. Kilmer also released a 2020 autobiography, I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir, detailing his career and health struggles. While Kilmer may have planned to attend the Beverly Hills Film Festival on April 1, he hadn't made a red carpet appearance in years. The last photos of him at a Hollywood event — captured by Getty Images or the Associated Press — are from 2019. He attended several events that year. Kilmer did not attend the Val premieres in 2021, letting the two children he had with his by-then-ex-wife, Joanne Whalley, represent him. In August 2021, his daughter shared a health update with Extra, saying, Kilmer was 'doing well. Still recovering. The recovery process is just as grueling as the actual disease.' As for his absence at the L.A. premiere of his film, she told Entertainment Tonight that he had already seen the film 'probably a thousand times, so we can't control what he does' as far as him attending. Kilmer's son told the same outlet, 'We wish he could be here, but he's here in spirit, and he's just so proud of this and that people get to see a side of him that has never been seen before.' Kilmer famously made a cameo in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick — reuniting "Iceman" and Tom Cruise's "Maverick" after more than three decades — but he didn't attend any of those premieres around the globe either. His Instagram account remained active. His final post, on March 22, was of one of his paintings, which he also sold on his website. On Feb. 23, there was a video posted to his account in which he was playfully putting on a Batman mask with artist and musician David Choe. TMZ reported that the video was actually from 'years ago [and] his appearance in it isn't accurate to how he looked in the last months of his life.' Although Kilmer's romantic status at the end of his life is unclear, the actor — who was linked to Cher, Angelina Jolie, Cindy Crawford and others — wrote in his memoir, 'I haven't had a girlfriend in 20 years. The truth is I am lonely part of every day.' (Kilmer remained friends with Cher and stayed with her during his cancer battle.) Kilmer's health woes presented challenges in his everyday life. In his 2020 New York Times profile, it noted he used both a tracheostomy tube and a feeding tube. He said had been taken off his trach tube a couple of times, but each time he did, he had a health setback, including coughs, cold and fevers. A lifelong Christian Scientist, Kilmer talked in the same article how he underwent chemotherapy for his cancer despite its being against his religion. He said it was at the behest of his children, who are not Christian Scientists. Kilmer also said that because of his religion, he did not believe in death. He told Men's Health in 2020, 'You have to not see it as a loss.'
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Val Kilmer Died Hours Before Walking the Red Carpet at Beverly Hills Film Festival
Among the legendary actors slated to walk the red carpet on opening night of the Beverly Hills Film Festival Tuesday was Val Kilmer, who had planned to attend the West Coast Premiere of American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective, a biopic about his longtime friend. But before the limo could pick him up, the actor who played Batman, Jim Morrison, and a slew of other sexy bad boy characters on the big screen, was dead at age 65 from pneumonia. The iconic actor had been dealing with the lingering health issues that followed a throat cancer diagnosis over a decade ago, his daughter confirmed in a statement. 'It was a shock to find this out," said Nino Simone, Founder & President of the Beverly Hills Film Festival in a statement Wednesday. 'He was thrilled to come out in support of his friend [Madsen]. know PR was on the phone, trying to get a hold of the driver, bringing Val for his 7:30pm red carpet arrival. The story and news of his death were reported, literally at the same, exact time. Unbelievable, and so heart-breaking. Our hearts go out to his family.' Kilmer was born in Los Angeles, and died in the city he loved surrounded by loved ones, his daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press. Aside from Mercedes, 33, he is also survived by son Jack Kilmer, 29. Val was married to their mother, fellow actress Joanne Whalley, from 1988 until outpouring of grief was shared by the people who worked with and loved Kilmer, among them his one-time girlfriend Cher, who mused on social media about his brilliance and bravery. After his 2015 cancer diagnosis, Kilmer largely vanished from the Hollywood industry and leaned into painting. In the weeks before he died he posted a photo of his work depicting a peaceful campfire writing: "It's got that late-night glow. Cool tones with a low burn, like when the camp fire cools down but you're still wide awake."On his website, he talked about stepping back from acting because of the damage done to his voice by radiation and chemotherapy. "I've lived a magical life. For more than half a century, I have been honing my art, no matter the medium. Be it literature, movies, poetry, painting, music, or tracking exotic and beautiful wildlife in the most remote African bush, to capture ephemeral moments with a camera, I yearn to express my creative spirit," he wrote, adding: "It isn't easy to talk and be understood. I am improving all the time, but am not able to be out in the world the same way I had become accustomed. When one thing is taken, though, another is given."Right before the pandemic, Kilmer found HelMel, a community space in Hollywood, and rented what he called "a large studio. There, he wrote, "With little voice, my creative juices were boiling over and pouring out of me. I started creating again, painting, writing anything I could. I felt the art healing me."Kilmer was also a poet, and received a Grammy nomination in 2012 for Best Spoken Word, and wrote an autobiography about his prolific life in Hollywood called "I'm Your Huckleberry," which was a famous line he uttered in Tombstone.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Val Kilmer Died Before Planned Beverly Hills Film Fest Red Carpet Appearance
Val Kilmer died on Tuesday just before the Top Gun actor was set to walk the red carpet at the Beverly Hills Film Festival. 'It was a shock to find this out. We had just confirmed Val to attend the west coast premiere of American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective this past weekend,' Nino Simone, founder and president of the Beverly Hills Film Festival, said Wednesday in a statement. More from The Hollywood Reporter Val Kilmer Death: Michael Mann, Francis Ford Coppola, Josh Brolin Pay Tribute to Actor Val Kilmer, Actor Revered for Playing Batman and Jim Morrison, Dies at 65 Jim Abrahams, 'Airplane!,' 'Naked Gun' and 'Hot Shots!' Master of Mirth, Dies at 80 Kilmer died in Los Angeles on Tuesday at age 65 of pneumonia, his daughter, actress Mercedes Kilmer, told The New York Times. 'He [Kilmer] was thrilled to come out in support of his friend [Madsen]. I know PR was on the phone, trying to get a hold of the driver, bringing Val for his 7:30 p.m. red carpet arrival. The story and news of his death were reported, literally at the same, exact time. Unbelievable, and so heartbreaking. Our hearts go out to his family,' Simone added. The Beverly Hills fest opened with a world premiere for Hello Beautiful, which stars Tricia Helfer in a drama about a successful model who is diagnosed with breast cancer. Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015, and Val, a stirring documentary about his life that premiered at Cannes in July 2021, showed him needing a breathing tube. His illness followed a Hollywood career where Kilmer played Batman and Jim Morrison, and had memorable roles as Iceman in Top Gun and Doc Holliday in Tombstone. His other performances included as Robert De Niro's nasty henchman in Michael Mann's Heat (1995); as Marlon Brando's insane assistant in John Frankenheimer's The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) and as the suave crook Simon Templar in Phillip Noyce's The Saint (1997). Mann was among the tributes to Kilmer that poured in on Wednesday, saying in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, 'While working with Val on Heat I always marveled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val's possessing and expressing character. After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.' The 25th Beverly Hills Film Festival is set to run through April 6. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Harvey Weinstein's "Jane Doe 1" Victim Reveals Identity: "I'm Tired of Hiding" 'Awards Chatter' Podcast: 'Sopranos' Creator David Chase Finally Reveals What Happened to Tony (Exclusive)
