Val Kilmer Died Just Before His Planned Appearance at a Film Festival, Says Founder: 'It Was a Shock'

Val Kilmer who died at 65 on Tuesday, April 1, of pneumonia, was set to make an appearance at a film festival on the same day he died.

Hours after news of Kilmer's death broke, the Beverly Hills Film Festival announced that Kilmer was confirmed to attend its April 1 screening of the documentary American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective, which opened the festival's 25th year.

“It was a shock to find this out. We had just confirmed Val to attend the West Coast Premiere of American Badass: A Michael Madsen Retrospective this past weekend,” Nino Simone, Beverly Hills Film Festival president and founder, said in a statement regarding the news of Kilmer's death on Wednesday, April 2.

"[Kilmer] was thrilled to come out in support of his friend [Madsen]," Simone added. "I know PR was on the phone, trying to get a hold of the driver, bringing Val for his 7:30pm red carpet arrival. The story and news of his death were reported literally at the same, exact time. Unbelievable, and so heart-breaking. Our hearts go out to his family.”

A representative for Kilmer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Kilmer's daughter Mercedes Kilmer confirmed his death with The New York Times on April 1. The actor's death comes over a decade after his daughter said he was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. The Top Gun star himself publicly confirmed his diagnosis during a December 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, after years of rumors regarding his health.

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Kilmer and Madsen, 67, worked together on two movies in the late 1980s and early 1990s as their Hollywood careers were both taking off. The pair first costarred in 1989's Kill Me Again as a criminal (Madsen) and private investigator (Kilmer) who fall for the same woman, portrayed by Kilmer's then-wife Joanne Whalley.

In 1991, they reunited onscreen again for the biopic The Doors, in which Kilmer portrayed the title band's late frontman Jim Morrison. In that movie, Madsen portrayed Tom Baker, an actor who was a friend of Morrison's.

Kilmer is survived by his children Mercedes, born in 1991, and Jack, 1995, whom he shared with ex-wife Whalley, 63.

The Beverly Hills Film Festival runs through April 6.