Val Kilmer had a true romance with his ex-wife Joanne Whalley.
The couple met on the set of the 1988 adventure/fantasy movie “Willow.”
Kilmer, who died from pneumonia on April 1 at 65, and Whalley, 63, tied the knot that year and shortly after welcomed daughter Mercedes, now 33, in 1991. Then, in June 1995, Whalley gave birth to the pair’s second child, a son Jack, 29.
Kilmer and Whalley separated one month after Jack was born, with the actress filing for divorce in July, citing irreconcilable differences.
Through it all, his kids remained a top priority.
“I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year,” the actor explained to Vanity Fair in 2012.
Kilmer, who went through a two-year throat cancer battle after being diagnosed in 2015, gushed over Mercedes and Jack while talking to People in 2020.
The “Top Gun” star called his two kids “really brilliant.”
“I am just madly, wildly entertained by them,” continued Kilmer. “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.”
Mercedes also noted that when it came to her father’s health challenges, “so many good things have come out of it.”
“We all spend so much time together,” she told the outlet. “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.”
Keep reading for everything you need to know about Mercedes and Jack.
Mercedes Kilmer, 33
Mercedes was born on October 29, 1991, in Sante Fe, New Mexico, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In 2017, Kilmer’s eldest child told The Hollywood Reporter that she couldn’t “remember not being aware” of her parents being in the spotlight.
“It was about navigating how other people perceived us rather than any kind of reckoning,” she explained.
Shortly after Kilmer was diagnosed with cancer, Mercedes was hit by a car, and as she told the outlet: “We were in the same hospital at the same time.”
Mercedes made her film debut in the 2020 crime/thriller “Paydirt” alongside her dad. The pair played a father-daughter duo on the screen.
“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,’ ” Kilmer told People in 2020. “Mercedes and the producer met, and they all had a ball.”
“My dad is such a smart and creative person that I love hanging out with, even if he wasn’t my dad, too,” she gushed to the outlet.
“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 reflected on doing the thriller. “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.”
Mercedes added, “It taught me so much about acting that expanded what I thought acting was, which was central to speech.”
Kilmer echoed his daughter’s sentiments, stating that he was “learning from my daughter about everything — life itself.”
The young star also worked as an associate producer on the Prime Video documentary “Val” in 2021, which followed the life and career of Kilmer.
“I wouldn’t say things surprised me about my dad. He’s such an open person that I know very well,” Mercedes told Entertainment Tonight at the time. “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.”
Jack Kilmer, 29
Jack was born to Kilmer and Whalley on June 6, 1995.
Their youngest has stayed largely out of the spotlight. Kilmer did, however, celebrate his son’s graduation in 2013 with a sweet shot of the pair.
“My son’s graduation today!” he captioned the snap.
Jack is also an actor, having starred in Gia Coppola’s “Palo Alto” in 2013 alongside James Franco.
Interview Magazine reported that Jack “had done virtually no acting before walking onto set.”
The 29-year-old told the outlet that he and his dad could “relate on a whole other level.”
“It was exciting to read a script with him,” Jack shared.
Jack also acted in the 2018 Franco-directed drama “Pretenders” and 2018’s “Summer 03.”
Jack did the narration for Kilmer in the 2021 Prime documentary “Val” due to his father’s voice being “impaired” as a result of “extensive radiation and chemotherapy treatment” for throat cancer.
“It was interesting doing the narration because our goal was to get me to sound as natural as possible,” Jack told the Los Angeles Times at the time.
Kilmer noted it was “shocking to hear how much” his son sounded like “the young version” of him.
Jack opened up about his dad’s health battle in 2021, telling People, “It’s hard, but that’s life. We appreciate every day we get to see him and be around him.”
