Bruce Willis
Willis's other credits include The Last Boy Scout (1991), Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable, The Whole Nine Yards (both 2000), Tears of the Sun (2003), Sin City (2005), The Expendables, Red (both 2010), Looper (2012) and Glass (2019).
In the last years of his career, he starred in many low-budget direct-to-video films, which were poorly received. Willis retired in 2022 due to aphasia and was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023.
Willis has received various accolades throughout his career, including a Golden Globe Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and two People's Choice Awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006. Films featuring Willis have grossed between US$2.64 billion and US$3.05 billion at North American box offices, and he was the eighth-highest-grossing leading actor in 2010s.
Early life and education
Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany; his mother, Marlene, was from Kassel, Germany, and his father, David Willis (1929–2009), was an American soldier. He has a younger sister, Florence, and two younger brothers, Robert (1959–2001) and David. After being discharged from the military in 1957, his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey.
Willis has described his background as a "long line of blue-collar people". His mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic and factory worker.
Willis spoke with a stutter. He attended Penns Grove High School in Carneys Point Township, where his schoolmates nicknamed him "Buck-Buck". Willis joined the drama club, and found that acting on stage reduced his stutter. He was eventually elected student council president. He graduated from Penns Grove in 1973.
After graduating from high school, Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater. He turned to acting after working as a private investigator, a role he would later play in the comedy-drama series Moonlighting and the action-comedy film The Last Boy Scout.
Willis enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He left the school in 1977, and moved to New York City where he was part of the NBC's page program and worked for Saturday Night Live. In the early 1980s he supported himself as a bartender at various nightspots in Manhattan including Kamikaze, Cafe Central & Chelsea Central, while living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.
Career
1980s: Moonlighting, Die Hard and rise to fame
Willis was cast as David Addison Jr. in the television series Moonlighting (1985–1989), competing against 3,000 other actors for the position. His starring role in Moonlighting, opposite Cybill Shepherd, helped to establish him as a comedic actor. During the show's five seasons, he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy.
During the height of the show's success, beverage maker Seagram hired Willis as the pitchman for their Golden Wine Cooler products. The advertising campaign paid Willis US$5–7 million over two years. Willis chose not to renew his contract when he decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1988.
In 1987, Willis obtained his first lead role in the Blake Edwards film Blind Date, co-starring with Kim Basinger and John Larroquette. Edwards cast him again to play the real-life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset (1988). The same year, he starred in an action role in Die Hard (1988) as John McClane.
He performed most of his own stunts in the film, and the film grossed $138,708,852 worldwide. Following his success with Die Hard, Willis had a leading role in the drama In Country as Vietnam veteran Emmett Smith and also provided the voice for a talking baby in Look Who's Talking (1989) and the sequel Look Who's Talking Too (1990).
In the late 1980s, Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist, recording an album of pop-blues, The Return of Bruno, credited to Willis's fictional alter ego, Bruno Radolini, supposedly an influential blues musician. The album included the hit single "Respect Yourself" using the Pointer Sisters as guest vocalists.
The LP was promoted by a mockumentary featuring scenes of "Bruno" performing at famous events including Woodstock. Willis released a version of the Drifters song "Under the Boardwalk" as a second single; it reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, but was less successful in the US. Willis returned to the recording studio several times.
1990s: Die Hard sequels, Pulp Fiction and dramatic roles
Having acquired major personal success and pop culture influence playing John McClane in Die Hard, Willis reprised his role in the sequels Die Hard 2 (1990) and Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995). These first three installments in the Die Hard series grossed over US$700 million internationally and propelled Willis to the first rank of Hollywood action stars.[citation needed] At one point, Die Hard 2 and Ghost, starring Willis's then wife Demi Moore, would occupy the number one and number two spots at the box office, a feat that would not be accomplished again for a married Hollywood couple until 2024.
In the early 1990s, Willis's career suffered a moderate slump, as he starred in flops such as The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Hudson Hawk (1991), although he did find box office success with The Last Boy Scout (1991). He gained more success with Striking Distance (1993) but flopped again with Color of Night (1994): it was savaged by critics but did well in the home video market and became one of the Top 20 most-rented films in the United States in 1995. Maxim also ranked his sex scene in the film as the best in film history.
In 1994, Willis also had a leading role in one part of Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed Pulp Fiction; the film's success gave a boost to his career, and he starred alongside his Look Who's Talking co-star John Travolta. In 1996, he was the executive producer and star of the cartoon Bruno the Kid, which featured a CGI representation of himself.
That same year, he starred in Mike Judge's animated film Beavis and Butt-head Do America with his then-wife Demi Moore. In the movie, he plays a drunken criminal named "Muddy Grimes", who mistakenly sends Judge's titular characters to kill his wife, Dallas (voiced by Moore). He then played the lead roles in 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997) and The Jackal (1997), the latter of which was a box-office success despite negative reviews.
These were followed by Mercury Rising (1998) and Breakfast of Champions (1999), which were also poorly reviewed. In 1998, his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse.
Willis was involved in Broadway Brawler as both producer and lead actor. That production failed, and as compensation he was contracted for three films: Armageddon, The Sixth Sense and Disney's The Kid. Both Armageddon and The Sixth Sense were critical and commercial successes, with the former being the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide.
2000s
In 2000, Willis won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Friends (in which he played the father of Ross Geller's much-younger girlfriend). He was also nominated for a 2001 American Comedy Award (in the Funniest Male Guest Appearance in a TV Series category) for his work on Friends.
Also in 2000, Willis played Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski in The Whole Nine Yards alongside Friends star Matthew Perry, and Russ Duritz in Disney's The Kid opposite Emily Mortimer. Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean's Eleven (2001) but dropped out to work on recording an album.
In the sequel, Ocean's Twelve (2004), he makes a cameo appearance as himself. In 2005, he appeared in the film adaptation of Sin City. In 2006, he lent his voice as RJ the Raccoon in Over the Hedge. In 2007, he appeared in the Planet Terror half of the double feature Grindhouse as the villain, a mutant soldier. This marked Willis's second collaboration with the director Robert Rodriguez, following Sin City.
Willis appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman several times throughout his career. He filled in for an ill David Letterman on his show on February 26, 2003, when he was supposed to be a guest. On many of his appearances on the show, Willis staged elaborate jokes, such as wearing a day-glo orange suit in honor of the Central Park gates, having one side of his face made up with simulated birdshot wounds after the Harry Whittington shooting, or trying to break a record (a parody of David Blaine) of staying underwater for only twenty seconds.
On April 12, 2007, he appeared again, this time wearing a Sanjaya Malakar wig. On his June 25, 2007 appearance, he wore a mini-wind turbine on his head to accompany a joke about his own fictional documentary titled An Unappealing Hunch (a wordplay on An Inconvenient Truth). Willis also appeared in Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials.
Tying in with this, Subaru did a limited run of Legacys, badged "Subaru Legacy Touring Bruce", in honor of Willis.
Willis has appeared in five films with Samuel L. Jackson (1993's National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, 1994's Pulp Fiction, 1995's Die Hard with a Vengeance, 2000's Unbreakable, and 2019's Glass) and both actors were slated to work together in Black Water Transit, before dropping out.
Willis also worked with his eldest daughter, Rumer, in the 2005 film Hostage. In 2006, he appeared in the crime/drama film Alpha Dog, opposite Sharon Stone. In 2007, he appeared in the thriller Perfect Stranger, opposite Halle Berry, and reprised his role as John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard.
Subsequently, he appeared in the films What Just Happened (2008) and Surrogates (2009), based on the comic book of the same name.
Willis was slated to play U.S. Army general William R. Peers in director Oliver Stone's Pinkville, a drama about the investigation of the 1968 My Lai massacre. However, due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, the film was canceled. Willis appeared on the 2008 Blues Traveler album North Hollywood Shootout, giving a spoken word performance over an instrumental blues rock jam on the track "Free Willis (Ruminations from Behind Uncle Bob's Machine Shop)".
In early 2009, he appeared in an advertising campaign to publicize the insurance company Norwich Union's change of name to Aviva.
2010s
As of 2010, Willis was the eighth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and 12th-highest including supporting roles. Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the 2010 comedy Cop Out, directed by Kevin Smith, about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card. Willis appeared in the music video for the song "Stylo" by Gorillaz.
Also in 2010, he appeared in a cameo with the former Planet Hollywood co-owners and 80s action stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables. Willis played the role of CIA agent "Mr. Church". It was the first time the three action stars had appeared on screen together. Although the scene featuring the three was short, it was one of the most highly anticipated scenes in the film.
The trio filmed their scene in an empty church on October 24, 2009. Willis next starred in Red, an adaptation of the comic book mini-series of the same name, in which he portrayed Frank Moses. The film was released on October 15, 2010.
Willis starred alongside Bill Murray, Edward Norton, and Frances McDormand in Moonrise Kingdom (2012). Filming took place in Rhode Island under the direction of Wes Anderson, in 2011. Willis returned, in an expanded role, in The Expendables 2 (2012). He appeared alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the sci-fi action film Looper (2012), as the older version of Gordon-Levitt's character, Joe.
Willis teamed up with 50 Cent in a film directed by David Barrett called Fire with Fire, starring opposite Josh Duhamel and Rosario Dawson, about a fireman who must save the love of his life. Willis also joined Vince Vaughn and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Lay the Favorite, directed by Stephen Frears, about a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who becomes an elite professional gambler. The two films were distributed by Lionsgate Entertainment.
Willis reprised his most famous role, John McClane, for a fifth time, starring in A Good Day to Die Hard, which was released on February 14, 2013. In an interview, Willis said: "I have a warm spot in my heart for Die Hard..... it's just the sheer novelty of being able to play the same character over 25 years and still be asked back is fun.
It's much more challenging to have to do a film again and try to compete with myself, which is what I do in Die Hard. I try to improve my work every time." That same year, Willis reprised his role as Frank Moses in Red 2.
On October 12, 2013, Willis hosted Saturday Night Live with Katy Perry as a musical guest. In 2015, Willis made his Broadway debut in William Goldman's adaptation of Stephen King's novel Misery opposite Laurie Metcalf at the Broadhurst Theatre. His performance was generally panned by critics, who called it "vacant" and "inert".
Willis was the subject of a roast by Comedy Central in a program broadcast on July 29, 2018. Willis played himself in a cameo in the 2019 film The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.
2020s: Critical decline, health problems and retirement
In the final years of his career, Willis starred in many low-budget independent thrillers and science fiction films. He worked primarily with the production companies Emmett/Furla Oasis (which produced 20 films starring Willis) and 308 Entertainment. Most of the films were released direct-to-video and were widely panned.
Chris Nashawaty of Esquire described the direct-to-video films as "a profitable safe harbor" for older actors, similar to The Expendables. Willis would often earn US$2 million for two days' work, with an average of 15 minutes' screentime per film. He nonetheless featured heavily in the films' promotional materials, earning them the derogatory nickname "geezer teasers".
The Golden Raspberry Awards, an annual award for the year's worst films and performances, created a dedicated category, the Worst Bruce Willis Performance in a 2021 Movie, for Willis's roles in eight films released that year.
Those working on the films later said Willis appeared confused, did not understand why he was there and had to be fed lines through an earpiece. Days before Willis was scheduled to arrive on set for Out of Death (2021), the screenwriter, Bill Lawrence, was instructed to reduce his role and abbreviate his dialogue. The director, Mike Burns, was told to complete all of Willis's scenes in a single day of filming.
On March 30, 2022, Willis's family announced that he was retiring because he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder typically caused by damage to the area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension. The Golden Raspberry Awards retracted its Willis category, deeming it inappropriate to give a Razzie to someone whose performance was affected by a medical condition. At the time of his retirement, Willis had completed eleven films awaiting release.
Business activities
Willis owns houses in Los Angeles and Penns Grove, New Jersey. He also rents apartments at Trump Tower and in Riverside South, Manhattan. In 2000, Willis and his business partner Arnold Rifkin started a motion picture production company called Cheyenne Enterprises. He left the company to be run solely by Rifkin in 2007 after Live Free or Die Hard.
He also owns several small businesses in Hailey, Idaho, including The Mint Bar and The Liberty Theater and was one of the first promoters of Planet Hollywood, with actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Willis and the other actors were paid for their appearances and endorsements through an employee stock ownership plan.
In 2009, Willis signed a contract to become the international face of Belvedere SA's Sobieski Vodka in exchange for 3.3% ownership in the company. In 2018, Willis became the brand ambassador of the Hungarian brand Hell Energy Drink.
Personal life
Willis's acting role models are Gary Cooper, Robert De Niro, Steve McQueen and John Wayne. He is left handed. He resides in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles with his family.
📚 Source: Wikipedia
