While Val Kilmer was supposedly expected to attend a local Beverly Hills film festival on Tuesday night, family sources said the actor had actually been in frail health for quite some time due to his treatment for throat cancer, to the extent that he hadn’t left his bed “in years.”

On Wednesday, the world learned that the iconic star of “Top Gun” and “The Doors” had died of pneumonia at age 65. TMZ subsequently reported, citing family sources, that Kilmer’s heath had deteriorated in recent years, especially in the last week, despite declaring himself in remission from cancer in 2021.

The family sources told TMZ that Kilmer’s lack of energy was related to his cancer treatment, which had included radiation, chemotherapy and a tracheostomy. TMZ noted that Kilmer was last seen out in public in 2019, when he attended a Hollywood gala with his daughter, Mercedes, 33.

Kilmer opened up in his 2021 documentary “Val” about how the surgery had left him using a feeding tube, according to the New York Post. He also revealed that he had worked with an AI company to revive his speaking voice, Variety also reported. But a May 2020 in-person interview that Kilmer gave to the New York Times also described how he was able to make almost discernible vocal sounds following “endless vocal exercises,” similar to exercises he had learned in his training as an actor.

It’s not known what accommodations may have been needed for Kilmer to travel to the set of the film, “Top Gun: Maverick,” to act in a brief but moving scene with his friend Tom Cruise. According to the New York Times interview, Kilmer had already filmed the scene with Cruise prior to May 2020. The movie was released in 2022.

To reprise the role of Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, whom he originated in 1986’s “Top Gun,” Kilmer played the character as a man dying from throat cancer. Like Kilmer in real life, Iceman, a former hot-shot naval pilot risen to the rank of admiral, struggled with the ability to speak. During the scene, Kilmer sat at a desk in his character’s home office and typed out most of his lines of dialogue on a computer screen, including the memorable words, “It’s time to let go.”

At the end of the scene, Kilmer’s Iceman stood and spoke, with Fortune reporting that the AI process was deployed in the movie to allow his voice to be heard, Variety said. 

On Wednesday, there were reports that Kilmer had recently posted a video of himself, donning a Batman mask from his role in the 1995 film “Batman Forever,” but TMZ said this video was recorded years ago and didn’t reflect how the actor appeared in the last months of his life.

Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, and rumors began to swirl about his health. In 2015, TMZ reported that he had been taken to the hospital, bleeding from the throat and had been diagnosed with a tumor.

Kilmer publicly denied the cancer reports until confirming his diagnosis in a 2017 Reddit AMA, the New York Post said. Later that year, Kilmer confirmed to the Hollywood Reporter that he had been battling throat cancer for two years, with the surgery on his trachea leaving him short of breath.

During his 2020 interview with the New York Times, Kilmer explained how he initially took in the news of his cancer diagnosis. As a life-long Christian Scientist, he initially thought he would work with a Christian Scientist practitioner — a spiritual adviser — to pray away his “fear” of disease. He believed that his cancer wasn’t really cancer, but his fear expressing itself.

But then, he thought about his grown daughter and son, Mercedes, 33, and Jack, 29, whom he had with Joanne Whalley, his ex-wife and “Willow” co-star. Mercedes and Jack were not Christian Scientists, and Kilmer knew his family couldn’t let him try to heal himself with prayer.

Kilmer said he relented and agree to have surgery and other treatment. “I just didn’t want to experience their fear, which was profound,” Kilmer said. “I would’ve had to go away, and I just didn’t want to be without them.”

Despite Kilmer’s frail health, he or someone on his behalf had told the organizers of the Beverly Hills Film Festival that he would be able to attend Tuesday night’s premiere of “American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective,” according to TMZ. 

Nino Simone, the founder and president of the festival, told TMZ that Kilmer was excited to come out and support his friend, Michael Madsen. But when Kilmer failed to show for the 7:30 p.m. red carpet, the organizers grew worried and tried to reach the actor’s driver.