Val Kilmer’s daughter shares heartbreaking tribute on his birthday…
Val Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes is honoring her late father.
On what would have been the “Top Gun” star’s 66th birthday, his daughter, 34, took to Instagram to pen a touching tribute.
“My dad would have been 66 today,” Mercedes wrote alongside a carousel of 20 photos, “born on the last day of the fifties ❤️ so grateful to all my friends for getting me through 2025.”
Val Kilmer and Mercedes Kilmer attends the 2019 annual Thespians Go Hollywood Gala at Avalon Hollywood on November 18, 2019. Getty Images
The photographs included photographs of Kilmer, who died of pneumonia in April 2025, as a baby, in varied films throughout his profession, on his marriage ceremony day with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, 64, and with Mercedes and son Jack, 30.
Kilmer was married to Whalley, whom he shared Mercedes and Jack with, from 1988 to 1996.
Despite the short-lived marriage, the “Batman” actor remained a continuing in his youngsters’ lives.
Val Kilmer as a baby. Instagram/@mercedeskilmer
A black and white shot of Val Kilmer filming a film. Instagram/@mercedeskilmer
“I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year,” Kilmer told Vanity Fair in 2012.
In 2020, Mercedes starred in the movie “Paydirt” alongside her dad.
“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 at the time. “Mercedes and the producer met and they all had a ball.”
In the movie, the actor performed a sheriff who had a speech incapacity that mirrored his real life.
Kilmer went by way of a two-year throat cancer battle after being recognized in 2015. He underwent two tracheotomies, which completely altered the sound of his voice, however he later recovered.
“It’s pretty historic to have a lead with a speech disability,” Mercedes acknowledged to People. “I hope that it heralds more doors opening like that in the future.”
Val Kilmer with his daughter Mercedes and son Jack. Instagram/@mercedeskilmer
The actress also opened up about her dad’s health battle.
“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,” Mercedes mirrored. “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.”
Kilmer, meanwhile, felt he discovered “everything — life itself” from Mercedes.
A behind the scenes shot of Val Kilmer on set. Instagram/@mercedeskilmer
And the bumps in the street introduced the pair nearer together.
“The health challenges have been just that, challenging, but so many good things have come out of it,” Mercedes detailed. “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.”
“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.
Val Kilmer in an on set selfie. Instagram/@mercedeskilmer
A shot from Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley’s marriage ceremony day. Instagram/@mercedeskilmer
Val Kilmer and his canine. Instagram/@mercedeskilmer
Kilmer himself went on to reward each his youngsters as “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.”
Kilmer and his son Jack, who narrated his dad’s 2021 documentary “Val,” also shared a detailed bond.
Val Kilmer and his son Jack Kilmer attend a basketball game between the Cleveland Cavaliers the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on January 16, 2015. GC Images
“I wouldn’t say things surprised me about my dad. He’s such an open person that I know very well,” Mercedes, who served as an affiliate producer on the Prime Video doc, 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.”
Kilmer was last photographed 5 years before his dying while with Mercedes.
The two have been pictured attending the annual Thespians Go Hollywood Gala at Avalon Hollywood on Nov. 18, 2019.
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