EARLY LIFE
He was born Walter Bruce Willis on March 19, 1955, in the town of Idar-Oberstein, West Germany.
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| Willis at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival |
Bruce's father, David Willis, was an American soldier. His mother, Marlene, was German.
After being discharged from the military in 1957, Bruce's father took his family back to Carneys Point Township, New Jersey. His mom worked in a bank and his dad was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.
He had severe stuttering problems as a child. Bruce discovered the stutter disappeared while performing in a school play through the memorization of lines. While studying acting in college it was the combination of acting and speech therapy which helped him overcome his condition.
CAREER
After graduating from high school in 1973, Willis was briefly employed as a security guard and a private investigator.
He studied drama for a couple of years at Montclair State University before dropping out and moving to New York City, where he worked as a bartender at the art bar Kamikaze on West 19th Street.
His first movie role was an extra in 1980's The First Deadly Sin. In the scene below, Willis is the second person to enter the diner. The tall one with the hat.
Willis' breakthrough came in 1985 when he auditioned for the role of David Addison Jr. the co-lead in the television comedy drama series Moonlighting. Competing against 3,000 other actors, he won the part.
Willis is also a musician; he released his debut album, The Return of Bruno on Motown, in 1987.
The record included a cover version of The Staples Singers' "Respect Yourself", which was a #5 hit in the US. Willis was the first white male solo act to hit the Top 5 with a record on the Motown label, and only the second white male solo act - after R. Dean Taylor's "Indiana Wants Me" - to be so successful for the Motown Corporation.
Willis became one of Hollywood's biggest stars as a result of his role as Lt. John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013). When Die Hard was first made, Willis was mostly known for TV. and his $5 million fee for the first film was seen as a huge risk. The movie ended up taking at least $140 million.
He was offered the role as Sam Wheat for Ghost (1990) but turned it down because he didn't think the film would work with the main character being dead most of the movie.
The Honda Civic that Butch (Bruce Willis) drove in Pulp Fiction was the same Honda Civic that Pam Grier later drove in Jackie Brown.
He was forced to sign a three picture deal with Disney after pulling out of The Broadway Brawler, a romantic comedy about a hockey player. The three movies Willis made were Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, and The Kid. The movies combined to gross an estimated $1.3 billion worldwide.
Bruce Willis was the first actor to ever "act" in a video game, when in 1998, he participated in the PlayStation game Apocalypse, No one before had ever done voice work along with having their movements digitally added to the game.
He only agreed to guest star on Friends after losing a bet with his The Whole Nine Yards co-star Mathew Perry. Willis played the father of Ross Geller's much-younger girlfriend on a three episode arc and won an Emmy in 2000 for his performance. He donated his acting fee to five charities.
Willis' daughter Rumer announced on March 30, 2022 that he was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.
He proposed to actress Demi Moore at Pink's Hot Dog Stand in Hollywood. They married on November 21, 1987.
Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998 and they filed for divorce 28 months later.
Willis married model Emma Heming in Turks and Caicos on March 21, 2009. The ceremony was not legally binding, so the couple wed again in a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills, six days later.
He has five daughters, three by his first marriage - Rumer, Tallulah and Scout, plus two by his second marriage - Mabel and Evelyn.
He is a co-founder of the theme restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, along with fellow actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
While filming Die Hard, Willis got too close to a firing gun, which caused two-thirds partial hearing loss in his left ear.
Bruce Willis once bought 12,000 girl-scout cookies for military service members in the Middle East.
In 2003, Willis visited Iraq as part of the USO tour, singing to the troops with his group, The Accelerators.
He personally offered $1 million to any civilian who captured Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
PERSONAL LIFE
He proposed to actress Demi Moore at Pink's Hot Dog Stand in Hollywood. They married on November 21, 1987.
Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998 and they filed for divorce 28 months later.
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| Demi Moore in 2010. By David Shankbone |
Willis married model Emma Heming in Turks and Caicos on March 21, 2009. The ceremony was not legally binding, so the couple wed again in a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills, six days later.
He has five daughters, three by his first marriage - Rumer, Tallulah and Scout, plus two by his second marriage - Mabel and Evelyn.
He is a co-founder of the theme restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, along with fellow actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.
While filming Die Hard, Willis got too close to a firing gun, which caused two-thirds partial hearing loss in his left ear.
Bruce Willis once bought 12,000 girl-scout cookies for military service members in the Middle East.
In 2003, Willis visited Iraq as part of the USO tour, singing to the troops with his group, The Accelerators.
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| Willis in Tikrit, Iraq, during his 2003 USO tour |
He personally offered $1 million to any civilian who captured Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
In 2022 Bruce Willis’ family announced that he would step away from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia. Just under a year later, his family said his “condition has progressed” to frontotemporal dementia.
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