Maverick tragically lost his Iceman last week and we’re told Tom Cruise, 62, has been deeply affected by the passing of his Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer, who died of pneumonia at age 65 after a long battle with throat cancer.
Known for his starring roles in movies such as Batman Forever, Heat, True Romance and Willow, it was the 1986 film Top Gun that propelled his career into the stratosphere and sparked a decades-long friendship with Tom.
“Tom is not taking Val’s death well,” an insider tells us. “Their on-screen competitiveness was real in that first movie as Tom was worried Val would steal his heart-throb mantle. They might have puffed about on that set, but Tom makes it a rule to leave a movie set on a good note and Val was no exception on that front.
“He was always in awe of Val – his strength, his athleticism and that Nordic cool he could never have. It was hard for Tom to see how quickly he deteriorated. They first started filming Top Gun: Maverick in 2018, but COVID delayed things and it wasn’t wrapped until 2022, by which time Val was struggling.
“Tom did everything he could to help him, so it’s been difficult hearing this news. He and Val were bonded for life after Top Gun – and they both dated Cher!”
Of the moment he was reunited with Val on the set of Top Gun: Maverick, Tom said, “I was crying. I got emotional. He’s such a brilliant actor. I love his work.”
Our source adds, “Tom is just devastated. They talked about doing Top Gun movies in their seventies, so this has hit him very hard.”
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