What happened to Val Kilmer’s brother Wesley Kilmer? Actor tragically lost his younger sibling at 16 years old

The late Batman Forever star grew up in Los Angeles alongside his brothers Mark and Wesley Kilmer. Val was the middle child of Gladys Swanette and real estate developer Eugene Kilmer.

While the actor’s relationship with his father, Eugene, and older brother, Mark, reportedly turned sour, he shared a great bond with his younger sibling. Wesley Kilmer was around 16 when he tragically died in 1977 at his dad’s home in Chatsworth, LA.

The youngest Kilmer brother, who was diagnosed with epilepsy, drowned in a pool after suffering a seizure. According to Looper, a housekeeper watching Wesley Kilmer had reportedly gone to a store at the time of his death.

Val Kilmer mentioned Wesley in a 2004 interview with The Telegraph,

“Well… My little brother was, um... just an amazing artist. A genius. 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.”

Val and Wesley Kilmer had a common interest in films, and the latter’s untimely death left a lasting impact on the former. The Doors star talked about his younger brother on separate occasions while praising his filmmaking skills.

---

Wesley Kilmer’s unfortunate death had a lasting impact on The Top Gun star, Val

The Heat actor was the youngest person to get accepted into the drama division of Juilliard School. A week before he joined, Wesley Kilmer died. Val shared about this in a chat with The Juilliard Journal,

“I had a … unique experience, I hope… because I just lost my little brother a week before I started school. So it was quite an emotional time for me…”

Speaking about the challenging time, he also added,

“For me, it was a great way to progress out of that difficult time, to be thrown into such a great school.”

In a 2002 interview with The New York Times, Val Kilmer talked about his movie The Salton Sea and compared his character’s grief with his tragedy,

''There are several points in the movie where the guy just can't go on… I didn't really get back to earth until about two or three years after my brother died. It's like that Nickelback song, 'I'm sick of sight without the sense of feeling.'”

During the interview, he again described Wesley Kilmer as a genius and proclaimed how he could have been a great filmmaker, like Steven Spielberg or George Lucas. Years later, when Val Kilmer was battling cancer, he again recounted his late brother’s talents in another NYT interview, revealing that Wesley used to make “stop-motion animation ahead of his time.”

During the chat in 2020, Val also said he “still talks to Wesley.” He added that his little brother often “shows up in his office, and they hash things out or trade ideas.” Kilmer talked about seeing his mother as well,

“She’s at a party, saying how happy she is to be with her husband again and Wesley, my little brother, so happy.”

Val Kilmer had a strained relationship with his father, something he mentioned in his 2004 interview with The Telegraph. The actor’s bond with his elder brother, Mark, also strained following their father’s death in the ‘90s. They eventually mended their relationship after Val was diagnosed with cancer.

Radar cited a family in 2017 to report,

“Mark is a well-regarded psychologist, so he doesn't see eye-to-eye with Val's Christian Science beliefs. It has caused a rift between them in the past, but now they're finally getting closer again.”

Mark and Wesley Kilmer were also briefly featured in Val (2021), a documentary based on the actor’s life and battle with cancer. The docufilm used archival footage and revealed that the Top Gun: Maverick star shot homemade films with his brothers, especially Wesley.