Wonderful person to work with.. a joy to know HIGH

VAL Kilmer, the brooding actor known for intense depictions of tormented men, has died aged 65 following a long battle with throat cancer.

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

The versatile star rose to global fame, and ignited countless teenage crushes, as swaggering naval aviator Tom Iceman' Kazansky, the preening rival to Tom Cruise's Maverick, in Tony Scott's 1986 blockbuster Top Gun.

During a screen career spanning four decades, Kilmer earned critical acclaim with standout roles as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's 1991 biopic The Doors, and as tubercular Doc Holliday in 1993 Western Tombstone.

A compelling leading man in Batman Forever, he also shone in ensemble pieces, excelling alongside AI Pacino and Robert De Niro in crime thriller Heat, both released in 1995.

On Tuesday, his daughter Mercedes confirmed the cause of death was complications from pneumonia.

He made a final social media post in February.

Actor Josh Brolin, 57, shared a throwback photo of them grinning, saying: "See ya, pal, I'm going to miss you."

BRAVE

He praised him as a "smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker... There's not a lot left of those." Actor James Woods said his Doc Holliday was "what every actor dreams of achieving", while Francis Ford Coppola, who directed him in the 2011 horror film Twixt, said: "He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know." Born in Los Angeles in 1959, Kilmer -part Cherokee, Irish, German and Swedish - was the middle of three sons.

His father, an aerospace engineer and real estate developer, and his housewife mother divorced when he was nine years old.