Who are Val Kilmer’s children? All about Jack and Mercedes Kilmer

Val Kilmer, who passed away on Tuesday, 1 April, has two children, Mercedes Kilmer and Jack Kilmer. In a statement released to The New York Times, his daughter confirmed that the legendary actor died from complications of pneumonia.

The actor, whose career spanned decades, was known for his iconic performances in Heat, Tombstone, Batman Forever, The Doors, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Top Gun, among many others.

Kilmer's two children, who have always shared a close relationship with their father, co-produced the documentary "Val," which chronicles his life and legacy.

More about Mercedes Kilmer and Jack Kilmer, as the legendary actor passes away

Mercedes Kilmer was born on 29 October 1991 to Val Kilmer and English actress Joanne Whalley. The couple married in 1988 and later welcomed their second child, a son, Jack Kilmer, born on 6 June 1995. The couple divorced in 1996, when Mercedes was just five years old and Jack was just one year old.

When the "Ghost and the Darkness" actor was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, his two children stood by him during the difficult period. In 2017, he publicly revealed his diagnosis, which required him to undergo a tracheotomy, a procedure that led to the loss of his original voice.

In an interview with People Magazine, Kilmer talked about how his condition deepened his bond with his children. He said:

"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.They really have done everything to make my health as usual."

Mercedes, on the other hand, said:

"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 2020, Val Kilmer returned to star in the movie Playdirt. His daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, was also cast in the film, marking it as her acting debut. In the movie, Mercedes plays the role of a young District Attorney who finds herself at odds with the former sheriff, played by her father.

In an interview with People Magazine, the debutant actress said:

"It’s pretty historic to have a lead with a speech disability. I hope that it heralds more doors opening like that in the future."

Mercedes further shared how her father's speech impairment taught her a new side of working with actors with different disabilities.

It’s obvious my dad’s speech is compromised and so this whole experience revealed the personal effort I had put into working with actors with a disability, which I hadn’t done before,"

She further added:

"It revealed how much I had to gain from working with people who have different abilities. My dad’s able to very artfully circumvent the limitations of his speech, so I learned so much watching him, how he communicated physically. It taught me so much about acting that expanded what I thought acting was, which was central to speech."

Later, in a 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Mercedes, a musician, talked about how emotional it was to watch the documentary Val, based on her father's life, in a room of people.

"I wouldn't say things surprised me about my dad. He's such an open person that I know very well. But it did really surprise me to see it with an audience. I'm so used to people not understanding my dad. I'm so used to his public image being different than the playful, funny person that we know."

In a 2017 interview, Val Kilmer's son, Jack, reminisced about what it felt like growing up with parents who worked in the entertainment industry. He said:

"It's a blessing and a curse. We got to have nice tables at restaurants and occasionally fly on private jets, but we were tormented by paparazzi and sycophants for years. We had a sense of humor about it and protected each other."

In a 2014 interview with Huffpost, Jack, who has acted in movies like Palo Alto, Lords of Chaos, Summer '03, and The Nice Guys among others, highlighted that a career in entertainment was not his first calling.

"I actually didn't always want to be an actor. It's funny, people asked me as a kid all the time, 'Do you want to do what your parents do?' And I always said no because it's different, I don't know, to be stubborn or something."

Mercedes Kilmer and Jack Kilmer spent much of their lives growing up on a ranch, which their father purchased near Santa Fe, New Mexico.