Bruce Willis is not known for giving up. The shock is all the deeper that he has to end his career because of an illness.
He has already saved the world from an asteroid, traveled through time in search of twelve monkeys, knocked down John Travolta (68) on the locus and slowly died five times: Bruce Willis (67) has been a veteran for decades the canvas. But since March 30, 2022, which can be understood as a day of mourning for action cinema, it has to say “was a veteran of the screen”. The actor’s family announced in a joint statementthat Willis can no longer pursue his beloved job due to illness and is ending his career with immediate effect.
Willis therefore suffers from aphasia, i.e. damage to the language center in the brain. Those affected may have problems speaking and understanding language, including reading and writing. It’s a particularly cynical twist of fate that the star has slipped out of the limelight like this. After all, many decades ago nobody gave him a realistic chance of breaking into Hollywood because of his stutter. Willis took advantage of it nonetheless, making a virtue of his greatest weakness.
A tough start
Bruce Willis’ impressive career began in a backwater town in Germany. It was 1955 in the tranquil town of Idar-Oberstein in Rhineland-Palatinate. When US soldier David Willis and his wife Marlene became parents on March 19, nobody could have guessed what an extraordinary career their son Bruce would have. But Willis cannot remember his time in Germany, at the age of eight months the USA, New Jersey to be precise, became his home.
The fact that the world was gifted with one of the greatest action actors is thanks to fans of rabid films, of all things, to one of Willis’s great weaknesses: As a child and adolescent between the ages of 9 and 17, he struggled with a severe stutter. That was to change only when he discovered acting for himself – on the theater stage, his stuttering was gone. In a touching speech for the American Institute for Stuttering in 2016, he recalled this “miracle” – but also the many years of bullying he had to live through as a child.
When it came to acting, it was immediately clear to him as a teenager: “That’s it, I’m at home. That’s what I want to do.” The talent was discovered, but promoting it cost money. Because his parents weren’t exactly financially blessed, Willis had to work hard to achieve his dream. He worked as a security guard for a chemical plant until he could afford acting classes at Montclair State College.
From romantic to one man army
When the name Bruce Willis is heard, the inclined cineast first thinks of hard-hitting testosterone cinema, preferably in a blood-soaked fine-rib undershirt. At the beginning of his career he was a real softie and heartthrob. When fame was not yet achieved and the hair was still full, he played mainly in romantic comedies, such as “Blind Date – Appointment with an Unknown Woman” (1987), in which he was wildly flirting with Kim Basinger (68).
The breakthrough came in 1988: Barefoot, Willis shot his way through Nakatomi Plaza in “Die Hard” and faced countless hordes of opponents. The action franchise was so successful that a total of four sequels followed – most recently in 2013, with a significantly aged but no less trigger-happy John McClane. Unforgotten is his famous sentence “Yippie-Ya-Yeah, Schweinebacke” (originally: “Yippie-Ya-Yeah, Motherfucker”), albeit quite creatively translated into German.
The rest is history. From that iconic performance onwards, Willis has starred in at least one blockbuster every year, whether it’s “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “12 Monkeys” (1995), “The Fifth Element” (1997) or “Sin City” (2005). He set the record in 2012: He was represented in an unbelievable six films that year, from the comedy “Moonrise Kingdom”, the science fiction flick “Looper” to his prime discipline, the action firework “The Expandables 2 “.
Goldthroat and Ladys-Man
What if he’s not in front of the camera? Then Willis was passionate about singing. He released two albums, and the LP “The Return of Bruno” even went platinum. Until recently, he performed sporadically with his band – when the packed schedule allowed, of course.
So far he has found his personal happiness alongside two women. From 1987 to 2000 he was married to actress Demi Moore (59). The couple have three daughters, Rumer (*1988), Scout LaRue (*1991) and Tallulah Belle (*1994). The screen macho was given even more woman power in his second marriage to the 24-year-old photo model Emma Heming (41). The two became parents to another daughter in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
Raspberry vs Oscar
Although Willis has appeared in well over 100 productions in his long career, he has never been nominated for an Oscar. On the contrary, Willis has already received the Golden Raspberry Award for worst leading actor four times. He received the anti-award, which is traditionally given shortly before the Oscars, for his roles in “Armageddon” (1998), “The Mercury Puzzle” (1998) and “State of Emergency” (1998) – and only a few days ago in a specially created category for “Cosmic Sin” (2021).
Yes, his activity has not only brought forth canvas pearls in recent years, that may be. But she could at least give the sworn Willis fans a little comfort. Because even if the star can no longer make new films, we will probably still see him often in the coming years.
According to the industry website “IMDB” Willis recently had nine films in the pipeline. Two of them, “Vendetta” and “Fortress: Sniper’s Eye” are already finished. Six more strips, the potential quality of which remains to be seen, are therefore in post-production.
Either way, all that remains is to wish: please get back on your feet, pig cheek!