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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
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Val Kilmer's Dating History: Look Back at the 'Top Gun' Star's Relationships from Cher to Joanne Whalley
Val Kilmer, who died at 65 from pneumonia on April 1, was romantically involved with famous figures over the years. Throughout his prolific career in Hollywood, the actor dated fellow A-listers, including Cher, Cindy Crawford and Angelina Jolie. Most notably, he was married to actress Joanne Whalley for nearly a decade. The couple welcomed two children before they split in 1995. Years later, Kilmer told The Guardian in a May 2005 interview that he'd 'recommend marriage.' "It's a lot of security and comfort. It's naturally how we are; we pair up as a species. Would I get married again? Sure," he explained. Fast forward to 2020, Kilmer revealed in his memoir, I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir, that he had not had a girlfriend in 20 years. Still, he admired women for different reasons. 'I've always found women infinitely more interesting than men,' he wrote. 'Perhaps that's why we've always gotten along. We are big oafy elephants ... and they are butterflies.' Here's a look back at Val Kilmer's dating history. Legendary singer and actress Cher might be better known for her marriages to Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman, but she also dated Kilmer after they met at a birthday party in the early '80s. 'We became friends because we laughed at the same things constantly. He would sleep over and it was just a friendship [at first],' she told PEOPLE in August 2021. Eventually, Kilmer and Cher's connection turned romantic, which evolved into artistic admiration. "It went from madly in love and laughing hysterically to respecting each other's ability," she added. The couple dated for a few years before splitting. "We had unbelievable times and then put up with some times when they weren't [that way] because we were both Alpha males,' she continued, alluding to why they broke up. 'We were both individuals and neither of us was going to give up on that.' Afterward, Kilmer and Cher stayed friends. In his memoir, the actor wrote about his 2015 throat cancer diagnosis and the support she gave him through his illness. Kilmer stayed in Cher's guest home while his health was in decline. 'One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather. I prayed immediately, then called 911. Then alerted my hostess,' he said. 'Cher stepped in and stepped up." More recently, Cher reflected on their relationship during a November 2024 interview with The Howard Stern Show. "Sometimes, you're only meant to stay with someone so long and Val was ... really young," she said. In the 1980s, Kilmer dated fellow actress Ellen Barkin, who has starred in movies like Switch, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Ocean's Thirteen. In his memoir, Kilmer described Barkin, who was born in the Bronx, N.Y., as having 'the best smile in all five boroughs." The actors were together only briefly, but Kilmer recounted some of his favorite features of her decades later. 'I remember her wit, her sultry eyes, but mostly her laugh. And her hair," he wrote. Kilmer recalled 'window-shopping on Rodeo Drive by day and barbecuing at night' and revealed that Barkin was 'one of the enchantresses who got away, no doubt due to my unmanageable preoccupations, my neglect.' In a November 2006 interview with Elle, he shared that out of his previous partners, if he were arrested, he'd pick Cher as his character witness. Meanwhile, Kilmer quipped that he would 'most fear' Barkin to testify against him. Kilmer met English actress Joanne Whalley in 1987 while they were filming the movie Willow. They married in 1988 and had two kids: Mercedes was born in 1991 and Jack was born in 1995. Shortly after welcoming Jack, the couple separated, and Whalley filed for divorce from Kilmer, citing irreconcilable differences. In 2017, Whalley, Mercedes and Jack joined Kilmer for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in which he discussed his throat cancer. Mercedes followed her parents into acting, starring as Kilmer's on-screen daughter in the 2020 crime thriller film Paydirt. Similarly, Jack has landed roles in several movies, including Palo Alto, Lords of Chaos and The Pretenders. Supermodel Cindy Crawford first crossed paths with Kilmer at the premiere of Batman Forever in 1995. At the time, he had recently separated from Whalley, and she was divorced from Richard Gere. Kilmer and Crawford dated for two years, splitting in 1997. The actor mentioned Crawford in his memoir, expressing his "gratitude" for their relationship. 'Oh God, I loved Cindy and just kept loving her, I thought I could have died from her love because its delight was simply too much to bear. I would die of happiness,' he wrote. In a May 2005 interview with the Guardian, Kilmer described her as 'very nice' and 'a smart girl with a great sense of humor.' He added, 'She's a fantastic cook, too, always carried recipes around when she traveled.' Kilmer began dating producer Jaycee Gossett in about January 1998. At the time, New York Magazine reported that the actor had been spending time with Gossett, who had recently turned 20 and worked at a restaurant in New York's West Village. In 2018, he posted an Instagram photo in which Gossett was shaking hands with then-president Bill Clinton. '#TBT This was my girlfriend Jaycee Gossett and my best friend at the time, my favorite Republican #gordonmiller,' Kilmer wrote. 'For some reason I was often invited to the #Whitehouse back then. Not so much now. The White House is a very cool place.' Kilmer briefly dated actress Lesley Ann Warren, who starred in the CBS series Mission: Impossible and NBC's Harold Robbins' 79 Park Avenue. In an interview with Closer Weekly, Warren said that she had only gone on one date with Kilmer. The pair later starred in 10th & Wolf (2006) together. Kilmer began dating actress Daryl Hannah after they were costars in In God We Trust in 2001. They broke up the following year, and she later married Neil Young in 2018. In his memoir, Kilmer recalled the time they spent together in New Mexico and wrote that his breakup from Hannah was particularly painful. 'Lord knows I've suffered heartache. But Daryl was by far the most painful of all,' he wrote, jokingly adding, 'Neil Young, I always loved you, but I'm afraid I hate you now.' Actress Angelina Jolie worked with Kilmer on the 2004 film Alexander, in which they played the parents of Alexander the Great. "I couldn't wait to kiss Angie, buy her a Gulfstream jet and have a V+J painted in rainbow glory on the tail,' Kilmer wrote in his memoir. He also told director Oliver Stone that he'd only take the part if he and Jolie 'could have flashbacks to falling hard for each other and storming the castle with passion, before turning against each other.' Kilmer described Jolie as 'perhaps the most soulful and serious' of the women he'd dated. He continued, 'When people ask what she's like, I say she's like other women and other superstars, just MORE.' Read the original article on People
