Val Kilmer visits the United Nations headquarters on July 20, 2019 in New York City. Photo:
EuropaNewswire/Gado/Getty
Val Kilmer, best known for movies such as 1986’s Top Gun and 1995’s Batman Forever, died of pneumonia at age 65 on Tuesday, April 1.
In 2015, the actor was diagnosed with throat cancer, and he later recovered. He shared in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry, that he actually ignored some of his symptoms before being hospitalized for the disease.
In the book, he recounts how, in 2014, he was scheduled to perform his one-man show, Citizen Twain, but was forced to cancel after losing his voice. He also noticed a lump in his throat and realized it had become hard to swallow — but he didn’t seek medical attention until a harrowing experience in 2015.
“One night I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather. I prayed immediately, then called 911,” he wrote in his book.
Kilmer was hospitalized and learned that the lump in his throat was cancer. He underwent a tracheotomy, chemotherapy and radiation and also turned to his Christian Science faith and prayed for healing. “I wasn’t ready to die,” he said. “Healing is not born of vanity, it is born of honesty.”
“I have been healed of cancer for over four years now, and there has never been any reoccurrence. I am so grateful,” he wrote at the time.
Val Kilmer. Rob Kim/Getty
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Kilmer admitted he had been battling throat cancer for two years in a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, in which he was joined by his kids Mercedes and Jack. The news came after confusion about his health had been sparked by Michael Douglas, to whom Kilmer responded in a November 2016 Facebook post, denying he had throat cancer.
“Reports emerged that I was in denial. Well, denial is a funny thing. I was not denying that I had had cancer but was simply saying I no longer did,” he wrote in his memoir. “And to be honest, it was very hard to embrace my original diagnosis. It was surreal. I didn’t believe I was decomposing, and I wasn’t ready to die.”
Throat cancer is a general term that applies to cancers that develop in the pharynx (throat) or larynx (voice box). Common symptoms include a lump on the neck, ear pain, sore throat, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, ongoing cough or coughing up blood.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, symptoms of throat cancer typically go unnoticed until the disease progresses, which is why it’s essential to seek medical care if symptoms don’t improve.
