Val Kilmer’s proudest role was as a loving father of two.
Born in Los Angeles in 1959, the actor welcomed his eldest child, daughter Mercedes, in 1991 with his then-wife, Joanne Whalley. The couple split shortly after they welcomed their son, Jack, in 1995. Their divorce was finalized the following year.
Kilmer’s role as a parent influenced his career decisions. “I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year,” he told Vanity Fair about balancing his work and family life in March 2012.
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He gushed about his children in an August 2020 interview with People, stating, “I am just madly, wildly entertained by them. My only gripe is that I never see them enough, so I never get enough of the wild entertainment that everyone else gets, but they’re really, really entertaining.”
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At the time, Mercedes told the outlet that her father’s health struggles — including a throat cancer battle — helped bring them closer. “So many good things have come out of it,” she explained. “We all spend so much time together. Even just getting to meet all my dad’s friends from before I was born — there are so many beautiful things that happen when you need help from people.”
In April 2025, Mercedes confirmed to The New York Times that Kilmer had died at age 65 from pneumonia.
Scroll down to get to know Kilmer’s family.
Eugene Kilmer
Val’s father was born in Caddo, Texas, and attended schools such as the University of Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, Berkeley, per the Los Angeles Times. Eugene was the founder of the company Liberty Engineering, which created parts for aircrafts, and reportedly split from Val’s mother in 1968 when the actor was around 9 years old.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Eugene remarried a woman named Senga before he died of cancer at age 71 in April 1993.
Gladys Kilmer
Following her split from Val’s father, Gladys “married the love of her life, William Bernard Leach, in 1970 and remained happily wedded until he passed away in 1995,” per her online obituary.
Gladys worked in advertising and operated the Kay L Bar Ranch in Wickenburg, Arizona, for several years. She died at age 91 in her Arizona home in June 2019.
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Mark Kilmer
Not much is known about Val’s older brother, though Gladys’ 2019 obituary states that Mark was the father of two kids — Thomas and Lisa.
Val shared a throwback photo of himself and his two brothers via Instagram in January 2019, writing, “Me and my perfect brothers Mark and Wesley.”
Wesley Kilmer
Val’s younger brother died at age 15, just one day before the actor was set to travel to NYC to attend The Juilliard School. Wesley, who was epileptic, tragically drowned in a pool after suffering a seizure.
“My little brother was, um … just an amazing artist. A genius,” Val told The Telegraph in March 2004. “When he died, the people at his funeral, the adults and children, it was amazing. They were all friends of his. I was sort of in awe of him.”
Joanne Whalley
Val met his ex-wife on the set of the 1988 film Willow, and the pair tied the knot that same year. Whalley filed for divorce from Val not long after the birth of their son, Jack, in 1995. Val told the Tampa Bay Times in January 1999 that he learned of their divorce while watching CNN in a hotel room.
“It was no fun,” he told the outlet, claiming that their divorce was the second-most expensive in New Mexico. According to the Tampa Bay Times, rumors about Val’s alleged on-set romances was the major reason behind the pair’s split.
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Whalley reportedly scored custody of their children and their divorce was finalized in 1996. “I miss my children every single way that’s possible, and ways I didn’t know were possible,” Val told the Tampa Bay Times.
Mercedes Kilmer
Val’s daughter has followed in his Hollywood footsteps, starring in a series of short films throughout the 2010s. She joined her father on the big screen in the 2020 film Paydirt, in which Val plays a retired police officer looking to take down a drug gang.
“The producer called me up and asked me if I would play this role and I said, ‘I don’t know if you’ve found anybody yet to play my daughter, but I might have someone for you. Her name is Mercedes Kilmer and perhaps you’d be interested in meeting with her,’” Val recalled of helping his daughter book her Paydirt role in an August 2020 interview with People. “Mercedes and the producer met and they all had a ball.”
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In May 2022, Mercedes told Page Six it was “extraordinary” to see her dad reprise his Top Gun role in the film Top Gun: Maverick. “It means a lot to my dad as he’s very proud of that film. This is what he loves to do,” she told the outlet. “It was trippy, and very special for my dad to be on set with all of his friends who made this movie when they were my age.”
Mercedes is also a musician and frequently posts pics from her gigs via Instagram.
Jack Kilmer
Val’s son also inherited his dad’s acting chops and has gone on to appear in projects such as Palo Alto, The Nice Guys, Summer ’03, The Man in the Woods and Body Brokers. He also took over Val’s Willow character, Madmartigan, via voiceover in the 2022 Disney+ TV revival. And, Jack served as the narrator of the 2021 documentary Val, which documented his dad’s life, career and health struggles.
“It was shocking to hear how much he sounded like the young version of me,” Val told the Los Angeles Times of hearing his son’s narration in July 2017. “There were several times when I couldn’t tell who was talking.”
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