Willis told Tarantino that he’d “be happy to do anything” in his upcoming film, and Tarantino took his words to heart. Originally, the part of Butch had been offered to actor Matt Dillon, but it seemed that Dillon was not quite sold on the idea. While Willis was hoping to be cast as Vincent Vega, Tarantino offered him Butch’s role instead, which he gladly accepted.
With the news of Little Richard’s death in 2020, Moore posted a wedding photograph of herself and Willis with Little Richard on Instagram, saying, “Bruce and I were so lucky and honored to have him officiate our wedding back in 1987 — thankful for the memories.” Bruce Willis’s dilaudid hydromorphone injection side effects former marriage to Demi Moore may be old news in 2022, but for 13 years the power couple was the talk of the town and the subject of plenty of tabloid drama. Moore and Willis met at the premiere of “Stakeout” in 1987 when she was engaged to actor Emilio Estevez.
“You’re more likely to experience chills sitting in a tepid bath at home,” wrote the Times’ Ben Brantley. One of the movie’s most memorable one-liners comes from a scene when McClane dives under a set of tables to dodge the oncoming bullets of a Gruber henchman. The bad guy taunts McClane for failing to shoot him when he had the chance, telling him, “Next time you have the chance to kill someone, don’t hesitate.” McClane then shoots upward through the table, and the baddie drops dead. His breakout performance in the 1980s TV dramedy “Moonlighting” put him on the map, but it was his portrayal of John McClane in the “Die Hard” film franchise that launched him into superstardom. As prominent, versatile roles in everything from “Pulp Fiction” to “The Sixth Sense” to “Death Becomes Her,” “The Fifth Element” and “Friends” followed, Willis became an icon of the big screen, as well as the source of tabloid fodder.
This came shortly after he was reportedly fired from Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” because he couldn’t memorize his lines, according to Cinemablend. Bruce Willis first came on the scene when he played David Addison in the popular 1980s TV series “Moonlighting.” Opposite him was Cybill Shepherd, who played his love interest Maddie Hayes. Their on-screen sexual tension had fans rooting for them to get together, making them an early purveyor of the popular “will-they-won’t-they” romance trope, according to Nine Network. But their offscreen chemistry was a different story, and according to co-star Curtis Armstrong, the two actors couldn’t stand each other. Body doubles were used so they wouldn’t have to be near each other, and they couldn’t bear to make eye contact.
After high school, Willis found work at a chemical factory, and later as a security guard at a nuclear power plant. He then dropped out of Montclair State College during his sophomore year and moved to New York City, where he worked for years as a bartender (via Washington Post). Though his speaking issues were a source of insecurity for Willis, he managed to make it work. “So I was popular in that sense, but inside I was really shook up by the fact that I couldn’t get rid of this stutter.”
Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense.” Hitting theaters in 1999, the hauntingly suspenseful film about a boy who can see ghosts gave Willis the chance to broaden his acting chops and venture outside of the shoot-em-up action genre. But he might not have ever played the part of psychologist Malcolm Crowe if he hadn’t owed the Disney studio, like, big time. Willis might play a lot of tough guys on screen, but in real life, he’s just as human as anyone else. Following his rise to fame in the late 1980s, Willis was hired by Seagrams to endorse its wine coolers, appearing in commercials for the company. However, Willis later pulled out of his deal with Seagrams when he realized that he had a problem.
“I had been sober for a while,” he said in his 2013 interview with GQ Magazine, “But once I realized that I wasn’t gonna run myself off the pier of life with alcohol, drinking vodka out of the bottle every day,” he quit. Though he has appeared in more than 70 films since he began acting in the 1970s, Willis is still best recognized for playing detective John McClane in the “Die Hard” franchise. According to The Los Angeles Times, nearly 20 people bath salts abuse and addiction on set with Willis suspected his mental decline. He allegedly misfired a gun loaded with blanks on the set of “Hard Kill.” His agents at the Creative Artists Agency made sure his shooting times on films were restricted to two days, and the actor often limited his time to four hours. On one occasion, Willis questioned crew members why he was on set, visibly confused. In an interview with GQ in 2013, Willis spoke candidly about his drinking habit.
Transcend’s Los Angeles sober living homes are located in some of the most iconic areas of the city, filled with luxurious and upscale amenities, providing plenty to do for those in our transitional housing community. Bruce Willis’ daughter has had her own issues with alcohol, which is difficult for any parent to witness. In a 2021 Instagram live interview with American Addiction Centers, actress Rumer Willis said she used alcohol “as a tool” to become what she thought was the best version of herself (via Yahoo! News).
According to an interview with the Washington Post in 2005, Willis and Keitel were neighbors while Willis was living in Los Angeles. The two struck up a conversation in which Willis mentioned that he was a big fan of “Reservoir Dogs.” Keitel revealed to Willis that he was about to do another picture with Tarantino and a day later, Keitel invited Willis to a barbecue at his home. A far cry from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles, Hailey’s population consisted of just 3,700 in the year 1990. The rural community has grown steadily since, with a current population of more than 9,000. With snow-capped mountains and frigid temperatures, Hailey was a drastic shift from the warm climate and palm tree-lined streets of L.A.
About a year after the public disclosure of these medical issues, the actor’s family shared an update via a statement issued by the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration. Willis had been further diagnosed with frontotemporal degeneration, a difficult-to-pinpoint, art and creativity in addiction recovery often overlooked form of early-onset dementia that progressively worsens. “With Bruce Willis, there’s almost a model for how he features in these movies,” Daro Film Distribution executive Adam Champ told Vulture in 2021, less than a year before the aphasia revelation.
Willis only has seven minutes of screen time in “Hard Kill” (2020), nine minutes in “Extraction” (2015), and 10 minutes in “Survive the Night” (2020). Following a trend Steven Seagal once trailblazed, Willis’ last several movies have been deliberately awful, but they’ve earned him a huge payday, since producers use his name and image to make a buck in international markets, according to Vanity Fair. Willis was usually paid $2 million for two days of work, according to The LA Times. It’s widely considered that “Hudson Hawk” was the start of Bruce Willis’ career nosedive. Most of his latest films have been direct-to-video productions in which Willis appears in — what are essentially — glorified cameos so that his name can be used in press releases and on the film poster, according to Yahoo News. It’s called the “geezer teaser” genre — a marketing ploy by obscure movie productions that hire film stars past their prime but whose names still hold lucrative weight, and Willis has been the frontman during the 2010s.
On top of being a computer genius, Bruno spends his time taking down the world’s biggest villains in between 6th grade classes and trips to the arcade. The series also featured many well-known voice actors of the day, including Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, Jennifer Hale, and Frank Welker. These days, the idea of A-list actors starring in video games isn’t all that uncommon. As a singer, Willis released his debut album, The Return of Bruno, in 1987, followed by two more albums in 1989 and 2001. Willis has received various accolades throughout his career, including a Golden Globe Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two People’s Choice Awards.
They met at a movie premiere in 1987, and Moore’s date for the event, Emilio Estevez, grew jealous at the way Willis looked at her, according to Showbiz Cheatsheet. They tied the knot that same year in a wedding that was officiated by singer Little Richard, per People. It was the start of a romance that carried them for 20 years together and yielded three children, but it all ended in 2000, according to US Magazine. But Willis would experience worse on-set conditions while filming 2003’s “Tears of the Sun.” Willis was struck on the head during a pyrotechnics explosion, which led him to sue the production studio and a special effects worker a year later, according to The Guardian. The lawsuit claimed that he suffered “extreme mental, physical, and emotional pain,” required medical attention on set, and would require further treatment in the future. According to the Irish Examiner, Willis used a medium a year later to contact his brother in the afterlife.
