On the death of Val Kilmer: he met his illness with faith

Val Kilmer died at the age of 65 from the consequences of pneumonia. His history of illness started almost exactly ten years ago – even if he would see it differently.

Since 2014 there have always been speculation about Kilmer’s health. His cancer was an issue that Kilmer denied as long as possible for religious reasons. In 2015, after a hospital stay on Facebook, he contradicted the rumors about an alleged tumor. “I have neither a tumor nor a tumor surgery or any operation.” A year later, his friend and colleague Michael Douglas (80) told the press that Kilmer would suffer from exactly the same illness that had also been diagnosed with him. Also the denied Kilmer. It was only two years after the first rumors Kilmer in one by saying that he was healed.

The public dealings with his illness had to do with his belief: Val Kilmer was a supporter of the religious community “Christian science”, in which healing through trust in God and not through conventional medicine should take place. In an interview with the “New York Times”, Kilmer explained that in his belief, a diagnosis was more of an assertion than a fact. Originally, the actor had also planned not to undergo traditional treatment and instead to counter cancer with the help of his faith. This plan only changed because of his children Jack (29), and Mercedes (33). “I just didn’t want to experience her fear, which was very great,” says Kilmer. “I should have left and I just didn’t want to be without her.”

This was followed by operations, chemotherapy and radiation, as a result of which he needed an air pipe cut and a nutritional probe. Although Kilmer’s doctors considered his treatments to be successful, the actor believed that his faith and prayer had healed him and the treatments had harmed him. “This comes from radiation and chemotherapy. That doesn’t come from cancer,” he said, for example, about his tracheal cannula. “This ‘treatment’ caused my suffering.” Kilmer wrote in his memoirs published in 2019 in “I’m Your Huckleberry” that he was free of cancer for over four years and described his recovery as “miracle healing”.

Thanks to his belief, Kilmer was not afraid of death. “Someone comes to you and says you only have to live four months and the concept of time is a human concept. If you describe the divine concept of time, there is no one,” said Kilmer.

Kilmer had one of his last appearances in 2022 in “Top Gun: Maverick”. The screenwriters deliberately braided Kilmer’s story about his cancer in the plot, in which Kilmer, as Iceman, communicated with Tom Cruise ‘figure by tapping his words into a computer. In real life, Kilmer spoke to the sonned esophagus voice, a newly learned replacement voice that often looks unapproachable. He tried to revive his real voice using AI. For this, the actor provided the company Sonantic hours of archive material, which created a model of his voice.

In a statement, Kilmer said about the new technology: “As a human being, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence, and the side effects of larynx cancer have made it difficult for others to understand me. The opportunity to tell my story with a voice that feels authentic and familiar is an incredibly special gift.”