American actor Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, and is now retired. He rose to prominence in the comedy-drama Moonlighting (1985–1989), and he has since starred in more than a hundred movies. He became known as an action hero for his part as John McClane in the Die Hard series (1988–2013).
Among Willis’s other noteworthy roles are those in The Last Boy Scout, 12 Monkeys (1995), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Tears of the Sun (2003), Sin City (2005), Unbreakable, The Whole Nine Yards (both 2000), Red (both 2010), Looper (2012), and Glass (2019). He starred in a number of low-budget direct-to-video movies in the last years of his career, most of which got bad reviews. Because of his aphasia, Willis resigned from acting in 2022.
Bruce Willis: Quick Facts
- Birth Name: Walter Bruce Willis
- Birth Date: March 19, 1955
- Birth Place: Idar-Oberstein, West Germany
- Gender: Male
- Career: Actor, Singer
- Most Known For: Actor Bruce Willis, now retired, rose to fame on television with Moonlighting and then in films with Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, and The Sixth Sense.
Early Life
On March 19, 1955, Walter Bruce Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. His father, David Willis, was an American soldier, and his mother, Marlene, worked in a bank. He has two younger brothers, David and Robert (dead), and a younger sister, Florence. In 1957, upon his military discharge, his father moved the family to Carneys Point, New Jersey, his birthplace.
Willis often stammered when he talked. He was known by his classmates as “Buck-Buck” at Penns Grove High School in Carneys Point Township. After joining the theatre club, Willis discovered that performing on stage helped him with his stutter. In the end, he won the student council president title. In 1973, he received his diploma from Penns Grove High School.
Willis began his career as an actor after working as a private investigator and security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant after graduating from high school. He would go on to perform roles in the action-comedy film The Last Boy Scout and the comedy-drama series Moonlighting.
Willis joined Montclair State University’s theatrical department and was chosen for a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof play. After quitting the school in 1977, he relocated to New York City and worked as a bartender at Manhattan’s Kamikaze art bar in the early 1980s to support himself.
Early Career
Work wasn’t easy for Willis, whose acting idols include John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Gary Cooper, and Robert De Niro. He worked as a bartender, a waiter, and an actor when he had the chance. In 1977, he made his stage debut in the off-Broadway production of Heaven and Earth, which was his first major break of any sort.
After doing more theatre work, Willis made the switch to cinema in 1980 when he was cast in a small part in Frank Sinatra’s The First Deadly Sin. Two years later, he was cast in another small role in Paul Newman’s film The Verdict. Additionally, there was some exposure on television, with sporadic cameos on Miami Vice and Hart to Hart episodes.
Following his role as Ed Harris’ replacement in the off-Broadway musical Fool for Love in 1984, Willis travelled to Hollywood’s west to try out for the Madonna film Desperately Seeking Susan. Though Willis didn’t end up landing the role, he made the tremendously wise choice to stay another day and try out for a new romantic comedy on television called Moonlighting, which was slated to premiere in March of the following year.
Moonlighting, which costarred Cybill Shepherd, followed Maddie Hayes (Shepherd) and Addison of the Blue Moon Detective Agency as they investigated crimes. The program, which ran until May 1989, was a great hit for ABC and even more of a career booster for Willis.
Willis made a comeback to the big screen in 1987 when he costarred with Kim Basinger in the romantic comedy Blind Date. As a passionate blues listener and harmonica player, Willis also entered the Motown Records recording studio to create Return to Bruno, an album of bluesy soul tunes that yielded a meagre commercial return.
Die Hard, an action-packed movie starring Bruce Willis as the muscular hero John McClane, debuted in theatres nationwide in the summer of 1988 and was an enormous smash. The fact that Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger declined the part of John McClane helped the film garner considerable attention even before it was officially released.
Die Hard, which starred Bruce Willis in all of the stunts and iconic one-liners, made an astounding $81 million at the American box office and subsequently inspired four sequels.
1990’s and 2000’s
One year after starring in Die Hard, Willis was back in a highly successful film, this time as the voice of the perceptive infant Mikey in Look Who’s Talking. In 1990, Willis played an English tabloid writer in Bonfire of the Vanities, which received negative reviews. In 1991, he created and acted in the action film Hudson Hawk, a type of vanity project, but it was a box office bomb. Soon after, there were other, less noteworthy efforts.
When Willis played grizzled boxer Butch Coolidge in Quentin Tarantino’s blockbuster film Pulp Fiction in 1994, it was a sort of return for the actor. Presumably sensing a successful film, Willis consented to accept a meagre weekly pay of $1,685 in exchange for a portion of the earnings. Over $100 million was eventually made by Pulp Fiction.
After that, a string of successful films ensued, starting with the sci-fi action thriller Armageddon in 1998 and continuing with Die Hard: With a Vengeance, the third entry in the Die Hard series, in 1995. In 1999, Willis played a noteworthy part as Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, in the M. Night Shyamalan thriller The Sixth Sense.
The following year, he collaborated with Shyamalan again on the superhero movie Unbreakable. Along with humour, he continued to stay active, making several television appearances (including Mad About You, Friends, and Ally McBeal) and The Whole Nine Yards in 2000.
Over the course of his career, Willis made many appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman. Willis and Samuel L. Jackson starred together in five movies: National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Unbreakable, and Glass. However, the two stars decided not to continue their collaboration on Black Water Transit.
Rumer, Willis’s oldest daughter, costarred alongside him in the 2005 movie Hostage. He starred with Halle Berry in the thriller Perfect Stranger, with Sharon Stone in the crime/drama Alpha Dog, and returned to the part of John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard.
2010 – Recent Years
With a range that few performers can match, Willis displayed a combination of muscle-bound menace (Sin City and Red), razor-sharp comic timing (The Whole Ten Yards), and a gentler touch (Moonrise Kingdom). He showed no signs of slowing down.
In the 2010 action film The Expendables, Willis featured with Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and other action icons. He returned to the film’s cast in 2012 to play the lead role in the follow-up. After earning around $28.6 million in its first week at the box office, the film shot to the top of the list. He made an appearance as an elder version of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in the science fiction film Looper later that year.
In Red 2 (2013), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), Willis subsequently played a few of his previous roles again. The seasoned actor continued to have a full schedule of film roles in addition to making his Broadway debut in a stage version of Stephen King’s Misery in 2015.
Willis returned to his tough-guy persona in a number of films, including Acts of Violence (2018), Once Upon a Time in Venice (2017), a Death Wish (2018) remake, and Reprisal (2018). In addition, he was the target of a Comedy Central roast that year, in which comedians, including Moore’s ex-wife, made jokes about him.
With over 30 film and television credits to his name, including voice work in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) and the action-thriller trilogy Detective Knight, in which he appeared, the seasoned actor kept busy throughout the next years. Assassin, his last film, was released in March 2023.
Personal Life
Following an aphasia diagnosis, Willis announced his acting retirement in a family statement posted on Instagram in March 2022. Speech and understanding are two areas of communication that are impacted by the neurological disease.
Willis and his family declared in February 2023 that Willis’s illness had worsened to frontotemporal dementia. His family claims that the sickness has affected his mental capacity. Severe personality shifts, emotionally aloof conduct, and a lack of linguistic proficiency are also possible symptoms.
Willis wed the actress Demi Moore in 1987. Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah are the couple’s three children together; they were divorced in 2000. The ex-couples continued to be close and shared custody of their three kids. Willis even showed up for Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s 2005 wedding.
Willis broke his promise to never get married again on March 21, 2009, when he wed model-actor Emma Heming in the Turks & Caicos Islands. A few days later, in a civil ceremony held at Willis’ California house, they were married once more. Evelyn and Mabel are the two daughters of Willis and Heming.
Conclusion
Bruce Willis’s career is an interesting journey through the world of entertainment, marked by his versatility and enduring appeal. From his early days overcoming a stutter through acting to his rise as a television star in Moonlighting, and his iconic role as John McClane in the Die Hard series, Willis has captivated audiences with his everyman charisma and action-hero prowess. His performances in films like The Sixth Sense and 12 Monkeys showcased his range, while his later work, despite mixed reviews, demonstrated a willingness to take risks. His retirement due to aphasia marks the end of an era, but his legacy as a beloved figure in American cinema is secure. Willis’s story is one of resilience, transformation, and the power of performance to connect with people across generations.
