Val Kilmer’s path to becoming a Hollywood icon and the youngest person accepted to Juilliard School’s drama program, at the time, had a rocky beginning. 

Before landing roles in Top Gun and Batman Forever, the late star, who died at age 65, earlier this month, booked a commercial that he ‘never’ ended up appearing in.

While reflecting on his first professional acting job, at just 13, the Los Angeles native revealed he was unwilling to compromise his artistic integrity on set.

This included not acting overly impressed by the taste of a mediocre cheeseburger as the cameras rolled on him.  

‘The thing tasted like cardboard,’ he explained in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry. ‘The director kept telling me to put my heart into it. I couldn’t.’

Despite his best efforts, the father-of-two recalled, ultimately, walking ‘off the set and never appearing in the commercial.’

Val Kilmer’s path to becoming a Hollywood icon and the youngest person accepted to Juilliard School’s drama program, at the time, had a rocky beginning (seen in 1985)

Kilmer also noted he ‘never got paid’ for the gig. 

From the start of his career, the rebel had a reputation for being a difficult and intense in his pursuit of perfection. 

Read MoreBREAKING NEWS Heartbreaking new details emerge about Val Kilmer’s final days before shock death aged 65

Batman director Joel Schumacher previously described the star as ‘the most psychologically troubled human being’ he’s ever worked with during an interview with Premiere magazine. 

Kilmer even ʙuттed heads with his idol Marlon Brando while filming their 1996 horror film The Island of Dr. Moreau. 

Schumacher claimed that Brando got so fed up with Kilmer that he told him: ‘Young man, don’t confuse your ego with the size of your salary, ever.’ 

Director David Zucker explained that the actor was ‘always eccentric’ and doesn’t ‘see that he ever changed.’   

While looking back at his career, Kilmer told The Hollywood Reporter that he was ‘too serious’ about his work and would have appreciated more recognition. 

‘I would like to have more Oscars than anybody,’ he said. ‘Meryl Streep must feel pretty good, you know? . . . It’s about being loved.’ 

While reflecting on his first professional acting job, at just 13, the Los Angeles native revealed he was unwilling to compromise his artistic integrity on set (pictured in his 1975 high school year book)

Kilmer seen performing in his high school’s production of Twelfth Night

Kilmer pᴀssed away tragically of pneumonia following an 11-year battle with throat cancer on April 1, 2025. 

The screen icon was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and underwent surgery, including a tracheotomy which significantly impacted his ability to speak. He was later declared cancer free.

Kilmer was known for his role as Iceman in the 1986 hit movie Top Gun and as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the 1995 Batman Forever. Despite his permanently damaged voice, he made a brief return to the screen in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, reprising his role as Iceman opposite Tom Cruise. It was his final big screen appearance.

The Los Angeles native also famously played musician Jim Morrison in the 1991 film The Doors.

Kilmer underwent both radiotherapy and chemotherapy for his cancer as well as a tracheostomy a procedure to create an artificial hole in this neck to help him breathe.

The latter permanently damaged his vocal cords and consequentially forever altered his speaking voice.

Despite walking off set and refusing to eat a cheeseburger that ‘tasted like cardboard,’ Kilmer went on to have a very successful acting career

Kilmer reported in 2020 that he had been cancer-free for four years.

In the Amazon Prime documentary enтιтled Val, Kilmer spoke candidly about living with the consequences of throat cancer including having to use an electric device called a voice box on the artificial hole in his throat to talk.

‘I obviously am sounding much worse than I feel. I can’t speak without plugging this hole [in his throat],’ he said.

A voice box device is most commonly a battery-operated machine that produces sound to create a voice, and is used to help those suffering with throat cancer communicate.

The actor, who also had to have meals through a feeding tube, explained some of the other challenges.

Kilmer pᴀssed away tragically of pneumonia following an 11-year battle with throat cancer on April 1, 2025 (Val seen in 2019) 

‘You have to make the choice to breathe or to eat. It’s an obstacle that is very present with whoever sees me,’ he said.

Val’s son provided the voice-over narration of the documentary but his lines were written by Val himself.

Val was joined by his daughter, Mercedes, at his final public appearance at the annual Thespians Go Hollywood Gala at Avalon Hollywood in 2019.

Over the years, Val spoke about his close relationship with his two children and prioritize spending time with them amid his health struggles and demanding career. 

Previously, the versatile actor revealed to Vanity Fair that he turned down working with ’10 really great directors’ to put his family and marriage first. 

‘I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year,’ he explained.

Kilmer is survived by his two children, daughter Mercedes Kilmer and son Jack Kilmer, whom he shared with his ex-wife, actress Joanne Whalley (seen above in 2021) 

In 2020, he told People: ‘I am just madly, wildly entertained by them. My only gripe is that I never see them enough, so I never get enough of the wild entertainment that everyone else gets, but they’re really, really, entertaining.’

While speaking of her father’s health health struggles, ahead of his death from pneumonia on Tuesday night, Mercedes tried to remain optimistic.

‘We all spend so much time together,’ she told the outlet. ‘Even just getting to meet all my dad’s friends from before I was born — there are so many beautiful things that happen when you need help from people.’

Mercedes previously revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that she couldn’t ‘remember not being aware’ of her parents’ fame.

‘It was about navigating how other people perceived us rather than any kind of reckoning,’ she said during the 2017 interview.

Not long after her father was diagnosed with cancer, Mercedes recalled getting hit by a car.

‘We were in the same hospital at the same time,’ she told the outlet.

Kilmer was known for his role as Iceman in the 1986 hit movie Top Gun (seen in 1986)

In 2020, she described her dad as a ‘good friend’ of hers and ‘a smart and creative person that’ she would love to hang out with, even if he wasn’t her father, to People. 

That same year, she played his daughter on-screen in the film, Paydirt, after her dad suggested she would be a good fit for the role.

‘Mercedes and the producer met, and they all had a ball,’ he told People of how they ended up on the same film.

Mercedes explained that the experience helped her grow as an actress.

‘It’s obvious my dad’s speech is compromised and so this whole experience revealed the personal effort I had put into working with actors with a disability, which I hadn’t done before,’ she explained.

He also played Batman/Bruce Wayne in the 1995 Batman Forever (pictured in a still)

Mercedes continued: ‘It revealed how much I had to gain from working with people who have different abilities. My dad’s able to very artfully circumvent the limitations of his speech, so I learned so much watching him, how he communicated physically. It taught me so much about acting that expanded what I thought acting was, which was central to speech.’

Mercedes is also credited as an ᴀssociate producer on the Prime Video documentary Val, which was released in 2021.

During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Mercedes confessed that the ‘entire movie’ made her emotional.

Still, she said nothing ‘surprised’ her in the film as she said her dad is ‘an open person’ that she knew ‘very well.’