Iconic actor and 80’s heartthrob made his mark on Hollywood by appearing in iconic films such as Top Gun and Batman Forever. Even though a battle with throat cancer forced him to put his career on hold, that hasn’t stopped him from pursuing other creative outlets. Now, Kilmer is telling fans he’s trying to find the “nexus” where his personal life and art meets.
Initially, Kilmer, 60, denied speculations that he was battling throat cancer, but now he is back in the spotlight and sharing his 2016 diagnosis with fans and others. He has spoken to People Magazine and “Good Morning America” in order to promote his tell-all memoir I’m Your Huckleberry, but now he is sharing insight into his past Hollywood roles with fans.
Read MoreWhile in treatment after tracheostomy, a surgery that connects the windpipe to a hole in the front of the neck when patients have obstructed breathing, throat cancer, or throat paralysis, Kilmer stepped away from the big screen and focused his passion into painting and artwork. He has presented pieces in galleries spanning from Los Angeles, California to New York City.
Cancer Patients And Survivors Turning To Art During Treatment
Embracing art during cancer treatment is a common theme among many patients. Three-time cancer survivor, Marianne Cuozzo, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1994 at age 28 and experienced a reoccurrence in 1997. In 2014, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy for treatment. While battling cancer for nearly a decade, Cuozzo told SurvivorNet that she was able to cope during treatment by embracing her creative side.
Related: Cancer Survivor Joel Naftelberg Learned to Dance on His Problems
"I'd go in the studio, and I had these huge pieces of charcoal," Cuozzo tells SurvivorNet. "And I would do these really angry charcoal drawings, and I'd roll them up and stuff them under the couch. No one was meant to see them because it was just for me and, my cathartic getting out my anger…My artwork is very reflective of my cancer journey."
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