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Val Kilmer spotted in rare public appearance for charity basketball game

WESTWOOD, CALIFORNIA - JULY 08: Val Kilmer (C) and guests attend the Monster Energy $50K Charity Challenge Celebrity Basketball Game at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion on July 08, 2019 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Idol Roc )
Val Kilmer (C) and guests attend the Monster Energy $50K Charity Challenge Celebrity Basketball Game at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion on July 08, 2019 in Westwood, California. (Credit: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Idol Roc )

Val Kilmer made a rare public appearance yesterday, turning out for charity basketball match in Los Angeles.

The Top Gun actor was wearing a white shirt, with the phrase 'Don't Hate, Debate' dorbed on it, as well as several of his now trademark scarves around his neck.

Kilmer has been wearing scarves for some time now, following trachea surgery.

Though he'd previously denied having been diagnosed with throat cancer, a 2017 profile on Kilmer in The Hollywood Reporter confirmed he'd been treated for cancer with a procedure on his trachea.

WESTWOOD, CALIFORNIA - JULY 08: Val Kilmer attends the Monster Energy $50K Charity Challenge Celebrity Basketball Game at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion on July 08, 2019 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)
(Credit: Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)

It said that the surgery 'reduced his voice to a rasp and rendered him short of breath'.

However, he appears to be in better health in recent months, having taken on a one-man show called Cinema Twain, in which he plays the storied American writer Mark Twain.

He also returned for the filming of Top Gun: Maverick with Tom Cruise earlier this year, the sequel to director Tony Scott's 1986 action classic.

Kilmer will reprise his role of Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky, Maverick's nemesis (and then latterly 'wing man') from the first movie.

SANTA MONICA, CA - SEPTEMBER 25:  Actor Val Kilmer attends the 23rd annual Simply Shakespeare benefit reading of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" at The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage on September 25, 2013 in Santa Monica, California.  (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
Val Kilmer attends the 23rd annual Simply Shakespeare benefit reading of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" on September 25, 2013. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

He will appear alongside Miles Teller as trainee pilot Bradley Bradshaw, son of Maverick's co-pilot and best friend Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, who perishes part way through the first film.

Read more: Actress claims Kilmer ‘punched her in the face’

Also starring are Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm and Ed Harris, with a release date plotted for June 26, 2020.

American actor Val Kilmer on the set of Batman Forever, directed by Joel Schumacher. (Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
American actor Val Kilmer on the set of Batman Forever, directed by Joel Schumacher. (Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

Kilmer is also reportedly planning to take his on-stage portrayal of Mark Twain to the big screen, in a biopic movie about the writer and Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science movement.