Val Kilmer’s Lasting Legacy: How Family and Faith Carried Him Through His Health Struggles

Val Kilmer went to his grave April 1 believing the treatments that extended his life for nearly a decade following a devastating throat cancer diagnosis ultimately doomed him.

Top Gun’s Iceman died from pneumonia at age 65 — and one doctor consulted by The National ENQUIRER believes the-fighting efforts may have contributed to his ill health.

“The treatments for cancer often suppress your immune system and make a cancer survivor more susceptible to contracting pneumonia,” notes longevity expert Dr. Gabe Mirkin, who did not treat Kilmer.

“Your body just doesn’t have a great ability to fight back. It’s ironic that we can cure cancer — but we may also kill people by curing it.”

The ENQUIRER was the first to reveal the Batman Forever hero’s health woes in 2015. At the time, photos were published of the star shuffling through the streets of Los Angeles with a large scarf covering his neck and face.

Despite fans’ concerns, The Saint stud denied being ill and said he’d lost weight to play lanky humorist Mark Twain in a production he wrote and directed — but he later confessed to having had a “healing of cancer.”

The Citizen Twain creator initially shunned standard treatments because of his faith — which emphasizes spiritual healing rather than conventional medical methods — and hoped to be totally cured by prayer alone.

The very same year, Val’s mother, Gladys, confirmed he had a throat tumor, but insisted, “He was miraculously healed through Christian Science treatments.”

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But when the condition persisted, Kilmer relented under pressure from daughter Mercedes, 33, and son Jack, 29 — his children with ex-wife actress Joanne Whalley — and underwent a tracheal procedure that damaged his vocal cords and made speaking difficult.

“I just didn’t want to experience their fear, which was profound,” Kilmer said of agreeing to traditional medical care. “I would’ve had to go away, and I just didn’t want to be without them.”

The Doors star later underwent chemotherapy and two more tracheotomies to fight off the disease. But his weakened state — and inability to perform as he had in the past because of his raspy voice — led him to complain, “That treatment caused my suffering.”

An insider said, “Val never wanted to give in to the medical treatment that gave him nearly 10 years of life. But he relented to the pressure his friends and loved ones put on him because they believed the treatment would keep him with them.”

Sources say Kilmer was convinced the mainstream treatments did more harm to him.

“Val insisted until his last breath that he beat back cancer through prayer and positive thinking — and that the radiation and chemo he received was what ruined his health,” recalls a friend.

“He received the gift of years of life because of the work of doctors, but he was still convinced that those treatments would get him in the end — and he may well have been right.”

Fans were shocked when compromised Kilmer again appeared onscreen as Iceman in 2022’s blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, with a voice replicated by artificial intelligence.

During Kilmer’s final days, he also posted a video online in which he playfully donned a Batman mask next to a painting he had made of the superhero he portrayed in 1995, quipping, “It’s been a while.”