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Inside Val Kilmer’s cancer journey and controversial spiritual healing beliefs | "As a life-long Christian Scientist, Kilmer sought to pray away the disease through the controversial practice of spiritual healing."

He was a life-long Christian Scientist.

The Hollywood actor was linked to celebrities including Cher over the years (Picture: Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty Images)Apart from his reprisal of his fighter pilot role of Iceman in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, Kilmer was absent from screens over the past decades due to his throat cancer. After his 2014 diagnosis and tracheostomy treatment, Kilmer struggled to speak, and only appeared in Top Gun: Maverick alongside Tom Cruise through the use of voice altering technology and the disease being incorporated into his character’s story. Kilmer was set to reprise his role of Madmartigan in the Willow TV series on Disney Plus in 2020, but was forced to pull out ‘pretty late in the process’ due to ill health.

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