Actor Val Kilmer, most notable for his roles as the Caped Crusader in “Batman Forever” and portrayal of rock legend Jim Morrison of The Doors, has passed away. He was 65.

The cause of death is being reported as pneumonia, according to his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer.

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Born in Los Angeles, California, Kilmer suffered notable hardships early on: The middle child of three, his parents divorced when he was just 8 years old. A decade later, his younger brother Wesley, who had epilepsy, drowned in a jacuzzi.

As a teen, Kilmer attended Chatsworth High School alongside Kevin Spacey, who would also go on to find success in film.

After turning down a role in The Outsiders, Kilmer scored his breakout film role in Top Secret!, a movie that spoofed practically every screen genre in the nature of other releases like Airplane and The Naked Gun. But it was his supporting role as “Iceman” in Top Gun, however, that finally linked the actor to a huge box office win. Top Gun would go on to become a landmark release of 80s cinema, grossing more than $344 million worldwide and made Kilmer a major Hollywood draw.

Kilmer continued to thrive through the 80s and at the start of the next decade, he starred in The Doors, an Oliver Stone-directed film chronicling the history of the American rock band and their impact on music and counterculture.

“Most actors recognize there’s something different in Val than meets the eye,” Mr. Stone once said of the actor.

Other notable early 90s films included Thunderheart, The Real McCoy, Tombstone and a role in True Romance, whose script was written by then newcomer Quentin Tarantino.

In 1995, Kilmer took the lead role in Batman Forever, after actor Michael Keaton turned down the chance to return for the third installment. The movie, which also starred Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones, got mixed reviews upon its release but still emerged a commercial success.

“Serious audiences will be less interested than ever in what’s under Batman’s cape or cowl,” Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times review of the film. “There’s not much to contemplate here beyond the spectacle of gimmicky props and the kitsch of good actors (all of whom have lately done better work elsewhere) dressed for a red-hot Halloween.”

That same year, Kilmer would star with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in the Los Angeles crime saga Heat, which remains one of the best regarded films of that decade.

In 2014, Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer and later recovered. Known as a charismatic but unpredictable star, his relationship with the film industry was complicated, so much so that he stepped away from roles onscreen for nearly a decade. Still, his impressive resume of leading and supporting roles garnered critical acclaim and commercial success.

Playwright and screenwriter David Mamet, who directed Kilmer in the 2004 thriller Spartan, had this to say about Kilmer’s approach to the craft: “What Val has as an actor is something that the really, really great actors have, which is they make everything sound like an improvisation.”