Val Kilmer's Official Cause of Death Confirmed

When news broke that Val Kilmer died on April 1, 2025, his daughter shared that the cause of death was pneumonia. And now the Los Angeles County Department of Health has confirmed that statement.

On Thursday, TMZ posted a copy of the 65-year-old actor’s death certificate, which indicates pneumonia as Kilmer’s immediate cause of death. It also notes several underlying causes, including acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, chronic respiratory failure, and squamous cell carcinoma of the base of the tongue. Other conditions listed as contributing to his death, but not causing it, were malnutrition and a tracheocutaneous fistula.

Related: Val Kilmer's Family Breaks Silence After His Death

Kilmer began battling ongoing health problems more than a decade before his death. Most notably, he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. While he eventually recovered, he underwent a number of painful procedures, including a tracheostomy, that quite literally took away his voice and largely kept him out of the spotlight.

For his role in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, where he reprised his iconic role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, his voice was created by using AI-generated technology.

Two days after Kilmer’s passing, his Top Gun co-star Tom Cruise asked for a moment of silence to pay tribute to his friend during CinemaCon.

“I’d like to honor a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer,” Cruise said. “I can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how grateful and honored I was when he joined Top Gun and came back later for Top Gun: Maverick. I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.”