Брюс уиллис на английском как пишется

Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero after his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013) and other roles.^[1][2]

Bruce Willis
Willis at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Walter Bruce Willis March 19, 1955 (age 67) Idar-Oberstein, West Germany (now Germany)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Montclair State University
Occupations	Actor film producer singer
Years active	1978–2022
Works	Full list
Spouses	Demi Moore ​ ​ (m. 1987; div. 2000)​ Emma Heming ​ ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	5, including Rumer
Awards	Full list

Willis’s other credits include The Last Boy Scout (1991), Death Becomes Her (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Sin City (2005), Red (2010), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Looper (2012) and Red 2 (2013). In the later years of his career, Willis starred in many low-budget direct-to-video films, which were poorly received. In March 2022, Willis’s family announced that he was retiring after being diagnosed with aphasia, which affects language cognition.

As a singer, Willis released his debut album, The Return of Bruno, in 1987, followed by two more albums in 1989 and 2001. He made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Misery in 2015. 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, making him in 2010 the eighth-highest-grossing leading actor.

Early life

Walter Bruce Willis^[3] was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, on March 19, 1955.^[4][5] His mother, Marlene,^[6] was German, from Kassel.^[4] His father, David Willis, was an American soldier. Willis has a younger sister, Florence, and two younger brothers, Robert (deceased) and David.^[7] After being discharged from the military in 1957, his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey.^[8] Willis has described his background as a «long line of blue-collar people».^[8] His mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.^[3]

Willis, who spoke with a stutter,^[8] attended Penns Grove High School, where his schoolmates nicknamed him «Buck-Buck».^[3][9][10] He joined the drama club, found that acting on stage reduced his stutter, and was eventually elected student council president.^[3]

After graduating from high school in 1973, Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant^[11][12] and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey.^[12] 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), he turned to acting. He enrolled in the Drama Program at Montclair State University,^[13] where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He left school in 1977 and moved to New York City, where he supported himself in the early 1980s as a bartender at the Manhattan art bar Kamikaze^[14][15] while living in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.^[16]

Career

1980s: 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.^[17] 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.^[8] During the height of the show’s success, beverage maker Seagram hired Willis as the pitchman for their Golden Wine Cooler products.^[18] 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.^[19]

Willis had his first lead role in a feature film in the 1987 Blake Edwards film Blind Date, with Kim Basinger and John Larroquette.^[8] Edwards cast him again to play the real-life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset (1988). However, it was his unexpected turn in the film Die Hard (1988) as John McClane that catapulted him to movie star and action hero status.^[8] He performed most of his own stunts in the film,^[20] and the film grossed $138,708,852 worldwide.^[21] 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).^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1980s, Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist, recording an album of pop-blues, The Return of Bruno, which included the hit single «Respect Yourself» featuring the Pointer Sisters.^[22] The LP was promoted by a Spinal Tap–like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of Willis performing at famous events including Woodstock. He 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.^[23]

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).^[8] 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]}

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. 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.^[24] Maxim also ranked his sex scene in the film as the best in film history.^[25]

In 1994, Willis also had a leading role in one part of Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed Pulp Fiction;^[8] the film’s success gave a boost to his career, and he starred alongside his Look Who’s Talking co-star John Travolta.^[26] In 1996, he was the executive producer and star of the cartoon Bruno the Kid which featured a CGI representation of himself.^[27] 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) and The Fifth Element (1997). However, by the end of the 1990s his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like The Jackal (which despite negative reviews was a box office hit), Mercury Rising, and Breakfast of Champions, as well as the implosion of the production of Broadway Brawler, a debacle salvaged only by the success of the Michael Bay-directed Armageddon, which Willis had agreed to star in as compensation for the failed production, and which turned out to be the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide.^[28][29] The same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse.^[30] In 1999, Willis played the starring role in M. Night Shyamalan’s film The Sixth Sense, which was both a commercial and critical success.^[8]

2000s

Willis after a ceremony where he was named Hasty Pudding Theatrical’s Man of the Year in 2002

In 2000, Willis won an Emmy^[31] 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).^[32] 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 Matthew Perry. Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean’s Eleven (2001) but dropped out to work on recording an album.^[33] 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.^[34] 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.^[35] 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).^[36] Willis also appeared in Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials.^[37] 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 (National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Unbreakable, and 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 2007, he appeared in the thriller Perfect Stranger, opposite Halle Berry, the crime/drama film Alpha Dog, opposite Sharon Stone, and reprised his role as John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard. Subsequently, he appeared in the films What Just Happened and Surrogates, based on the comic book of the same name.^[38]

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.^[39] 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.^[40]

2010s

Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the comedy Cop Out, directed by Kevin Smith, about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card.^[41] The film was released in February 2010. Willis appeared in the music video for the song «Stylo» by Gorillaz.^[42] Also in 2010, he appeared in a cameo with former Planet Hollywood co-owners and ’80s action stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables. Willis played the role of generic bald man «Mr. Church». This was the first time these three notable action movie actors 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.^[43] 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.^[44]

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.^[45] Willis returned, in an expanded role, in The Expendables 2 (2012).^[46] 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.^[47] 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.^[48] 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.^[49] 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.»^[50]

On October 12, 2013, Willis hosted Saturday Night Live with Katy Perry as a musical guest.^[51]

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».^[52] Willis was the subject of a roast by Comedy Central in a program broadcast on July 29, 2018.^[53]

Films featuring Willis have grossed between US$2.64 billion and US$3.05 billion at the North American box offices, making him in 2010 the eighth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and 12th-highest including supporting roles.^[54][55] He is a two-time Emmy Award winner, a Golden Globe Award winner, and has been nominated for a Saturn Award four times.

2020s: Critical decline, health problems and retirement

In the later years of his career, Willis starred in many low-budget independent action-thriller and science-fiction films. Described by Chris Nashawaty of Esquire as «a profitable safe harbor for actors of a certain age» similar to The Expendables, most of these films were released direct-to-video and were widely panned by critics.^[56] For these projects, Willis would often earn US$2 million for two days’ work at an average of 15 minutes screentime per film.^[57] Twenty of these pictures were produced by Randall Emmett.^[58] The films earned a «toxic» reputation for using Willis heavily in promotional materials but including him for minimal screen time (resulting in such films being referred to as «geezer teasers»),^[59][60] so much that Cosmic Sin (2021) stood out for including Willis in «roughly half» of the action.^[61]

Those working with Willis on the films later said he appeared confused, did not understand why he was there and had to be fed lines through an earpiece.^[58] Days before Willis was scheduled to arrive on set for Out of Death (2021), the screenwriter was instructed to reduce his role and abbreviate his dialogue; at the same time, the director was told that he would have to complete all of Willis’ scenes over one day of filming.^[58] 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 his roles in eight films released that year.^[62]

On March 30, 2022, Willis’s family announced that he was retiring as he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder typically caused by damage to the area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension.^[63] The Golden Raspberry Awards retracted its Willis category, saying it was inappropriate to award a Golden Raspberry to someone whose performance was affected by a medical condition.^[64] At the time of his retirement, Willis had completed eleven films awaiting release in 2022 and 2023.^[63][65][66]

Business activities

Willis owns houses in Los Angeles and Penns Grove, New Jersey. He also rents apartments at Trump Tower^[67] and in Riverside South, Manhattan.^[68]

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.^[69] 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.^[70] Willis and the other actors were paid for their appearances and endorsements through an employee stock ownership plan.^[71]

In 2009, Willis signed a contract to become the international face of Belvedere SA’s Sobieski Vodka in exchange for 3.3 percent ownership in the company.^[72]

Personal life

Willis’s acting role models are Gary Cooper, Robert De Niro, Steve McQueen, and John Wayne.^[73] He is left-handed.^[74] He resides in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles with his family.^[75]

Relationships and children

At the premiere for the film Stakeout, Willis met actress Demi Moore. They married on November 21, 1987, and had three daughters, including Rumer, who was born in August 1988.^{[76][77][78][79]} Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998.^[80] They filed for divorce on October 18, 2000,^[81] and the divorce was finalized later that day.^[82][83] Regarding the divorce, Willis stated, «I felt I had failed as a father and a husband by not being able to make it work.» He credited actor Will Smith for helping him cope with the situation.^[18] He has maintained a close friendship with both Moore and her subsequent husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and attended their wedding.^[84]

Willis was engaged to actress Brooke Burns until they broke up in 2004 after ten months together.^[17] He married model Emma Heming in Turks and Caicos on March 21, 2009;^[85] guests included his three daughters, as well as Moore and Kutcher. The ceremony was not legally binding, so the couple wed again in a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills six days later. The couple has two daughters, one born in 2012^[86] and another born in 2014.^[87]

Religious views

Willis was a Lutheran,^[88] but no longer practices. In a July 1998 interview with George magazine, he stated: «Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn’t know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred, or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally! I choose not to believe that’s the way. And that’s what makes America cool, you know?»^[89]

Political views

In 1988, Willis and then-wife Demi Moore campaigned for Democratic Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’ Presidential bid. Four years later, he supported President George H. W. Bush for reelection and was an outspoken critic of Bill Clinton. However, in 1996, he declined to endorse Clinton’s Republican opponent Bob Dole, because Dole had criticized Demi Moore for her role in the film Striptease.^[90] Willis was an invited speaker at the 2000 Republican National Convention,^[91] and supported George W. Bush that year. He did not make any contributions or public endorsements in the 2008 presidential campaign. In several June 2007 interviews, he declared that he maintains some Republican ideologies.^[18]

In 2006, he said that the United States should intervene more in Colombia in order to end drug trafficking.^[92] In several interviews Willis has said that he supports large salaries for teachers and police officers, and said he is disappointed in the United States foster care system as well as treatment of Native Americans.^[90][93] Willis also stated that he is a supporter of gun rights, stating, «Everyone has a right to bear arms. If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys.»^[94]

In February 2006, Willis was in Manhattan to promote his film 16 Blocks with reporters. One reporter attempted to ask Willis about his opinion on the Bush administration, but was interrupted by Willis in mid-sentence when he said: «I’m sick of answering this fucking question. I’m a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop shitting on my money and your money and tax dollars that we give 50 percent of every year. I want them to be fiscally responsible and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I’ll say I’m a Republican. I hate the government, OK? I’m apolitical. Write that down. I’m not a Republican.»^[95]

Willis’s name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times on August 17, 2006, that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.^[96]

In 2012, Willis stated that he had a negative opinion of Mitt Romney.^[97]

Military interests

Throughout his film career, Willis has depicted several military characters in films such as In Country, The Siege, Hart’s War, Tears of the Sun, Grindhouse, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Growing up in a military family, Willis has publicly sold Girl Scout cookies for the United States armed forces. In 2002, Willis’s then 8-year-old daughter, Tallulah, suggested that he purchase Girl Scout cookies to send to troops. Willis purchased 12,000 boxes of cookies, and they were distributed to sailors aboard USS John F. Kennedy and other troops stationed throughout the Middle East at the time.^[98]

In 2003, Willis visited Iraq as part of the USO tour, singing to the troops with his band, The Accelerators.^[99] Willis considered joining the military to help fight the second Iraq War, but was deterred by his age.^[100] It was believed he offered US$1 million to any noncombatant who turned in terrorist leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; in the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, however, he clarified that the statement was made hypothetically and not meant to be taken literally. Willis has also criticized the media for its coverage of the war, complaining that the press was more likely to focus on the negative aspects of the war:

I went to Iraq because what I saw when I was over there was soldiers—young kids for the most part—helping people in Iraq; helping getting the power turned back on, helping get hospitals open, helping get the water turned back on and you don’t hear any of that on the news. You hear, «X number of people were killed today,» which I think does a huge disservice. It’s like spitting on these young men and women who are over there fighting to help this country.^[101]

In popular culture

In 1996, Roger Director, a writer and producer from Moonlighting, wrote a roman à clef on Willis titled A Place to Fall.^[102] Cybill Shepherd wrote in her 2000 autobiography, Cybill Disobedience, that Willis became angry at Director when he read the book and discovered the character had been written as a «neurotic, petulant actor».

A Lego version of himself appeared in the 2019 film The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, with Willis providing the voice.^[103]

Filmography

Discography

Solo albums

• 1987: The Return of Bruno (Motown, OCLC 15508727)
• 1989: If It Don’t Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger (Motown/Pgd, OCLC 21322754)
• 2001: Classic Bruce Willis: The Universal Masters Collection (Polygram Int’l, OCLC 71124889)

Compilations/guest appearances

• 1986: Moonlighting soundtrack; track «Good Lovin’ »
• 1991: Hudson Hawk soundtrack; tracks «Swinging on a Star» and «Side by Side», both duets with Danny Aiello
• 2000: The Whole Nine Yards soundtrack; tracks «Tenth Avenue Tango»
• 2003: Rugrats Go Wild soundtrack; «Big Bad Cat» with Chrissie Hynde and «Lust for Life»
• 2008: North Hollywood Shootout, Blues Traveler; track «Free Willis (Ruminations from Behind Uncle Bob’s Machine Shop)»

Awards and honors

Willis’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Willis has won a variety of awards and has received various honors throughout his career in television and film.

• 1987: Golden Apple Awards honored with the Sour Apple.^[104]
• 1994: Maxim magazine ranked his sex scene in Color of Night the No. 1 sex scene in film history^[25]
• 2000: American Cinematheque Gala Tribute honored Willis with the American Cinematheque Award for an extraordinary artist in the entertainment industry who is fully engaged in his or her work and is committed to making a significant contribution to the art of the motion pictures.
• 2002: The Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals – given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment^[105]
• 2002: Appointed as national spokesman for Children in Foster Care by President George W. Bush;^[106] Willis wrote online: «I saw Foster Care as a way for me to serve my country in a system by which shining a little bit of light could benefit a great deal by helping kids who were literally wards of the government.»^[107]
• 2005: Golden Camera Award for Best International Actor by the Manaki Brothers Film Festival.^[108]
• 2006: Honored by French government for his contributions to the film industry; appointed an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters in a ceremony in Paris; the French Prime Minister stated, «This is France’s way of paying tribute to an actor who epitomizes the strength of American cinema, the power of the emotions that he invites us to share on the world’s screens and the sturdy personalities of his legendary characters.»^[109]
• 2006: Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 16; located at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard and it was the 2,321st star awarded in its history; at the reception, he stated, «I used to come down here and look at these stars and I could never quite figure out what you were supposed to do to get one…time has passed and now here I am doing this, and I’m still excited. I’m still excited to be an actor.»^[110]
• 2011: Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame^[111]
• 2013: Promoted to the dignity of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters on February 11 by French Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti^[112]

References

External links

• Bruce Willis at IMDb  
• Bruce Willis at the Internet Broadway Database  
• Bruce Willis at the Internet Off-Broadway Database  
• Bruce Willis at Rotten Tomatoes  
• Bruce Willis at the TCM Movie Database  
• Bruce Willis interview with KVUE in 1988 about Die Hard from Texas Archive of the Moving Image

Bruce Willis
Willis at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Walter Bruce Willis March 19, 1955 (age 67) Idar-Oberstein, West Germany (now Germany)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Montclair State University
Occupations	Actor film producer singer
Years active	1978–2022
Works	Full list
Spouses	Demi Moore ​ ​ (m. 1987; div. 2000)​ Emma Heming ​ ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	5, including Rumer
Awards	Full list

Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero after his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013) and other roles.^[1][2]

Willis’s other credits include The Last Boy Scout (1991), Death Becomes Her (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Sin City (2005), Red (2010), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Looper (2012) and Red 2 (2013). In the later years of his career, Willis starred in many low-budget direct-to-video films, which were poorly received. In March 2022, Willis’s family announced that he was retiring after being diagnosed with aphasia, which affects language cognition.

As a singer, Willis released his debut album, The Return of Bruno, in 1987, followed by two more albums in 1989 and 2001. He made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Misery in 2015. 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, making him in 2010 the eighth-highest-grossing leading actor.

Early life

Walter Bruce Willis^[3] was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, on March 19, 1955.^[4][5] His mother, Marlene,^[6] was German, from Kassel.^[4] His father, David Willis, was an American soldier. Willis has a younger sister, Florence, and two younger brothers, Robert (deceased) and David.^[7] After being discharged from the military in 1957, his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey.^[8] Willis has described his background as a «long line of blue-collar people».^[8] His mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.^[3]

Willis, who spoke with a stutter,^[8] attended Penns Grove High School, where his schoolmates nicknamed him «Buck-Buck».^[3][9][10] He joined the drama club, found that acting on stage reduced his stutter, and was eventually elected student council president.^[3]

After graduating from high school in 1973, Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant^[11][12] and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey.^[12] 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), he turned to acting. He enrolled in the Drama Program at Montclair State University,^[13] where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He left school in 1977 and moved to New York City, where he supported himself in the early 1980s as a bartender at the Manhattan art bar Kamikaze^[14][15] while living in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.^[16]

Career

1980s: 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.^[17] 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.^[8] During the height of the show’s success, beverage maker Seagram hired Willis as the pitchman for their Golden Wine Cooler products.^[18] 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.^[19]

Willis had his first lead role in a feature film in the 1987 Blake Edwards film Blind Date, with Kim Basinger and John Larroquette.^[8] Edwards cast him again to play the real-life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset (1988). However, it was his unexpected turn in the film Die Hard (1988) as John McClane that catapulted him to movie star and action hero status.^[8] He performed most of his own stunts in the film,^[20] and the film grossed $138,708,852 worldwide.^[21] 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).^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1980s, Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist, recording an album of pop-blues, The Return of Bruno, which included the hit single «Respect Yourself» featuring the Pointer Sisters.^[22] The LP was promoted by a Spinal Tap–like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of Willis performing at famous events including Woodstock. He 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.^[23]

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).^[8] 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]}

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. 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.^[24] Maxim also ranked his sex scene in the film as the best in film history.^[25]

In 1994, Willis also had a leading role in one part of Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed Pulp Fiction;^[8] the film’s success gave a boost to his career, and he starred alongside his Look Who’s Talking co-star John Travolta.^[26] In 1996, he was the executive producer and star of the cartoon Bruno the Kid which featured a CGI representation of himself.^[27] 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) and The Fifth Element (1997). However, by the end of the 1990s his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like The Jackal (which despite negative reviews was a box office hit), Mercury Rising, and Breakfast of Champions, as well as the implosion of the production of Broadway Brawler, a debacle salvaged only by the success of the Michael Bay-directed Armageddon, which Willis had agreed to star in as compensation for the failed production, and which turned out to be the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide.^[28][29] The same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse.^[30] In 1999, Willis played the starring role in M. Night Shyamalan’s film The Sixth Sense, which was both a commercial and critical success.^[8]

2000s

In 2000, Willis won an Emmy^[31] 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).^[32] 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 Matthew Perry. Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean’s Eleven (2001) but dropped out to work on recording an album.^[33] 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.^[34] 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.^[35] 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).^[36] Willis also appeared in Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials.^[37] 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 (National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Unbreakable, and 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 2007, he appeared in the thriller Perfect Stranger, opposite Halle Berry, the crime/drama film Alpha Dog, opposite Sharon Stone, and reprised his role as John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard. Subsequently, he appeared in the films What Just Happened and Surrogates, based on the comic book of the same name.^[38]

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.^[39] 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.^[40]

2010s

Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the comedy Cop Out, directed by Kevin Smith, about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card.^[41] The film was released in February 2010. Willis appeared in the music video for the song «Stylo» by Gorillaz.^[42] Also in 2010, he appeared in a cameo with former Planet Hollywood co-owners and ’80s action stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables. Willis played the role of generic bald man «Mr. Church». This was the first time these three notable action movie actors 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.^[43] 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.^[44]

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.^[45] Willis returned, in an expanded role, in The Expendables 2 (2012).^[46] 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.^[47] 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.^[48] 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.^[49] 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.»^[50]

On October 12, 2013, Willis hosted Saturday Night Live with Katy Perry as a musical guest.^[51]

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».^[52] Willis was the subject of a roast by Comedy Central in a program broadcast on July 29, 2018.^[53]

Films featuring Willis have grossed between US$2.64 billion and US$3.05 billion at the North American box offices, making him in 2010 the eighth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and 12th-highest including supporting roles.^[54][55] He is a two-time Emmy Award winner, a Golden Globe Award winner, and has been nominated for a Saturn Award four times.

2020s: Critical decline, health problems and retirement

In the later years of his career, Willis starred in many low-budget independent action-thriller and science-fiction films. Described by Chris Nashawaty of Esquire as «a profitable safe harbor for actors of a certain age» similar to The Expendables, most of these films were released direct-to-video and were widely panned by critics.^[56] For these projects, Willis would often earn US$2 million for two days’ work at an average of 15 minutes screentime per film.^[57] Twenty of these pictures were produced by Randall Emmett.^[58] The films earned a «toxic» reputation for using Willis heavily in promotional materials but including him for minimal screen time (resulting in such films being referred to as «geezer teasers»),^[59][60] so much that Cosmic Sin (2021) stood out for including Willis in «roughly half» of the action.^[61]

Those working with Willis on the films later said he appeared confused, did not understand why he was there and had to be fed lines through an earpiece.^[58] Days before Willis was scheduled to arrive on set for Out of Death (2021), the screenwriter was instructed to reduce his role and abbreviate his dialogue; at the same time, the director was told that he would have to complete all of Willis’ scenes over one day of filming.^[58] 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 his roles in eight films released that year.^[62]

On March 30, 2022, Willis’s family announced that he was retiring as he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder typically caused by damage to the area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension.^[63] The Golden Raspberry Awards retracted its Willis category, saying it was inappropriate to award a Golden Raspberry to someone whose performance was affected by a medical condition.^[64] At the time of his retirement, Willis had completed eleven films awaiting release in 2022 and 2023.^[63][65][66]

Business activities

Willis owns houses in Los Angeles and Penns Grove, New Jersey. He also rents apartments at Trump Tower^[67] and in Riverside South, Manhattan.^[68]

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.^[69] 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.^[70] Willis and the other actors were paid for their appearances and endorsements through an employee stock ownership plan.^[71]

In 2009, Willis signed a contract to become the international face of Belvedere SA’s Sobieski Vodka in exchange for 3.3 percent ownership in the company.^[72]

Personal life

Willis’s acting role models are Gary Cooper, Robert De Niro, Steve McQueen, and John Wayne.^[73] He is left-handed.^[74] He resides in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles with his family.^[75]

Relationships and children

At the premiere for the film Stakeout, Willis met actress Demi Moore. They married on November 21, 1987, and had three daughters, including Rumer, who was born in August 1988.^{[76][77][78][79]} Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998.^[80] They filed for divorce on October 18, 2000,^[81] and the divorce was finalized later that day.^[82][83] Regarding the divorce, Willis stated, «I felt I had failed as a father and a husband by not being able to make it work.» He credited actor Will Smith for helping him cope with the situation.^[18] He has maintained a close friendship with both Moore and her subsequent husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and attended their wedding.^[84]

Willis was engaged to actress Brooke Burns until they broke up in 2004 after ten months together.^[17] He married model Emma Heming in Turks and Caicos on March 21, 2009;^[85] guests included his three daughters, as well as Moore and Kutcher. The ceremony was not legally binding, so the couple wed again in a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills six days later. The couple has two daughters, one born in 2012^[86] and another born in 2014.^[87]

Religious views

Willis was a Lutheran,^[88] but no longer practices. In a July 1998 interview with George magazine, he stated: «Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn’t know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred, or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally! I choose not to believe that’s the way. And that’s what makes America cool, you know?»^[89]

Political views

In 1988, Willis and then-wife Demi Moore campaigned for Democratic Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’ Presidential bid. Four years later, he supported President George H. W. Bush for reelection and was an outspoken critic of Bill Clinton. However, in 1996, he declined to endorse Clinton’s Republican opponent Bob Dole, because Dole had criticized Demi Moore for her role in the film Striptease.^[90] Willis was an invited speaker at the 2000 Republican National Convention,^[91] and supported George W. Bush that year. He did not make any contributions or public endorsements in the 2008 presidential campaign. In several June 2007 interviews, he declared that he maintains some Republican ideologies.^[18]

In 2006, he said that the United States should intervene more in Colombia in order to end drug trafficking.^[92] In several interviews Willis has said that he supports large salaries for teachers and police officers, and said he is disappointed in the United States foster care system as well as treatment of Native Americans.^[90][93] Willis also stated that he is a supporter of gun rights, stating, «Everyone has a right to bear arms. If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys.»^[94]

In February 2006, Willis was in Manhattan to promote his film 16 Blocks with reporters. One reporter attempted to ask Willis about his opinion on the Bush administration, but was interrupted by Willis in mid-sentence when he said: «I’m sick of answering this fucking question. I’m a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop shitting on my money and your money and tax dollars that we give 50 percent of every year. I want them to be fiscally responsible and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I’ll say I’m a Republican. I hate the government, OK? I’m apolitical. Write that down. I’m not a Republican.»^[95]

Willis’s name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times on August 17, 2006, that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.^[96]

In 2012, Willis stated that he had a negative opinion of Mitt Romney.^[97]

Military interests

Throughout his film career, Willis has depicted several military characters in films such as In Country, The Siege, Hart’s War, Tears of the Sun, Grindhouse, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Growing up in a military family, Willis has publicly sold Girl Scout cookies for the United States armed forces. In 2002, Willis’s then 8-year-old daughter, Tallulah, suggested that he purchase Girl Scout cookies to send to troops. Willis purchased 12,000 boxes of cookies, and they were distributed to sailors aboard USS John F. Kennedy and other troops stationed throughout the Middle East at the time.^[98]

In 2003, Willis visited Iraq as part of the USO tour, singing to the troops with his band, The Accelerators.^[99] Willis considered joining the military to help fight the second Iraq War, but was deterred by his age.^[100] It was believed he offered US$1 million to any noncombatant who turned in terrorist leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; in the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, however, he clarified that the statement was made hypothetically and not meant to be taken literally. Willis has also criticized the media for its coverage of the war, complaining that the press was more likely to focus on the negative aspects of the war:

I went to Iraq because what I saw when I was over there was soldiers—young kids for the most part—helping people in Iraq; helping getting the power turned back on, helping get hospitals open, helping get the water turned back on and you don’t hear any of that on the news. You hear, «X number of people were killed today,» which I think does a huge disservice. It’s like spitting on these young men and women who are over there fighting to help this country.^[101]

In popular culture

In 1996, Roger Director, a writer and producer from Moonlighting, wrote a roman à clef on Willis titled A Place to Fall.^[102] Cybill Shepherd wrote in her 2000 autobiography, Cybill Disobedience, that Willis became angry at Director when he read the book and discovered the character had been written as a «neurotic, petulant actor».

A Lego version of himself appeared in the 2019 film The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, with Willis providing the voice.^[103]

Filmography

Discography

Solo albums

• 1987: The Return of Bruno (Motown, OCLC 15508727)
• 1989: If It Don’t Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger (Motown/Pgd, OCLC 21322754)
• 2001: Classic Bruce Willis: The Universal Masters Collection (Polygram Int’l, OCLC 71124889)

Compilations/guest appearances

• 1986: Moonlighting soundtrack; track «Good Lovin’ »
• 1991: Hudson Hawk soundtrack; tracks «Swinging on a Star» and «Side by Side», both duets with Danny Aiello
• 2000: The Whole Nine Yards soundtrack; tracks «Tenth Avenue Tango»
• 2003: Rugrats Go Wild soundtrack; «Big Bad Cat» with Chrissie Hynde and «Lust for Life»
• 2008: North Hollywood Shootout, Blues Traveler; track «Free Willis (Ruminations from Behind Uncle Bob’s Machine Shop)»

Awards and honors

Willis has won a variety of awards and has received various honors throughout his career in television and film.

• 1987: Golden Apple Awards honored with the Sour Apple.^[104]
• 1994: Maxim magazine ranked his sex scene in Color of Night the No. 1 sex scene in film history^[25]
• 2000: American Cinematheque Gala Tribute honored Willis with the American Cinematheque Award for an extraordinary artist in the entertainment industry who is fully engaged in his or her work and is committed to making a significant contribution to the art of the motion pictures.
• 2002: The Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals – given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment^[105]
• 2002: Appointed as national spokesman for Children in Foster Care by President George W. Bush;^[106] Willis wrote online: «I saw Foster Care as a way for me to serve my country in a system by which shining a little bit of light could benefit a great deal by helping kids who were literally wards of the government.»^[107]
• 2005: Golden Camera Award for Best International Actor by the Manaki Brothers Film Festival.^[108]
• 2006: Honored by French government for his contributions to the film industry; appointed an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters in a ceremony in Paris; the French Prime Minister stated, «This is France’s way of paying tribute to an actor who epitomizes the strength of American cinema, the power of the emotions that he invites us to share on the world’s screens and the sturdy personalities of his legendary characters.»^[109]
• 2006: Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 16; located at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard and it was the 2,321st star awarded in its history; at the reception, he stated, «I used to come down here and look at these stars and I could never quite figure out what you were supposed to do to get one…time has passed and now here I am doing this, and I’m still excited. I’m still excited to be an actor.»^[110]
• 2011: Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame^[111]
• 2013: Promoted to the dignity of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters on February 11 by French Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti^[112]

References

External links

Bruce Willis
Willis at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Walter Bruce Willis March 19, 1955 (age 67) Idar-Oberstein, West Germany (now Germany)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Montclair State University
Occupations	Actor film producer singer
Years active	1978–2022
Works	Full list
Spouses	Demi Moore ​ ​ (m. 1987; div. 2000)​ Emma Heming ​ ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	5, including Rumer
Awards	Full list

Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining recognition as an action hero after his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013) and other roles.^[1][2]

Willis’s other credits include The Last Boy Scout (1991), Death Becomes Her (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Sin City (2005), Red (2010), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Looper (2012) and Red 2 (2013). In the later years of his career, Willis starred in many low-budget direct-to-video films, which were poorly received. In March 2022, Willis’s family announced that he was retiring after being diagnosed with aphasia, which affects language cognition.

As a singer, Willis released his debut album, The Return of Bruno, in 1987, followed by two more albums in 1989 and 2001. He made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Misery in 2015. 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, making him in 2010 the eighth-highest-grossing leading actor.

Early life

Walter Bruce Willis^[3] was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, on March 19, 1955.^[4][5] His mother, Marlene,^[6] was German, from Kassel.^[4] His father, David Willis, was an American soldier. Willis has a younger sister, Florence, and two younger brothers, Robert (deceased) and David.^[7] After being discharged from the military in 1957, his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey.^[8] Willis has described his background as a «long line of blue-collar people».^[8] His mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.^[3]

Willis, who spoke with a stutter,^[8] attended Penns Grove High School, where his schoolmates nicknamed him «Buck-Buck».^[3][9][10] He joined the drama club, found that acting on stage reduced his stutter, and was eventually elected student council president.^[3]

After graduating from high school in 1973, Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant^[11][12] and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey.^[12] 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), he turned to acting. He enrolled in the Drama Program at Montclair State University,^[13] where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He left school in 1977 and moved to New York City, where he supported himself in the early 1980s as a bartender at the Manhattan art bar Kamikaze^[14][15] while living in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.^[16]

Career

1980s: 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.^[17] 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.^[8] During the height of the show’s success, beverage maker Seagram hired Willis as the pitchman for their Golden Wine Cooler products.^[18] 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.^[19]

Willis had his first lead role in a feature film in the 1987 Blake Edwards film Blind Date, with Kim Basinger and John Larroquette.^[8] Edwards cast him again to play the real-life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset (1988). However, it was his unexpected turn in the film Die Hard (1988) as John McClane that catapulted him to movie star and action hero status.^[8] He performed most of his own stunts in the film,^[20] and the film grossed $138,708,852 worldwide.^[21] 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).^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1980s, Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist, recording an album of pop-blues, The Return of Bruno, which included the hit single «Respect Yourself» featuring the Pointer Sisters.^[22] The LP was promoted by a Spinal Tap–like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of Willis performing at famous events including Woodstock. He 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.^[23]

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).^[8] 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]}

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. 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.^[24] Maxim also ranked his sex scene in the film as the best in film history.^[25]

In 1994, Willis also had a leading role in one part of Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed Pulp Fiction;^[8] the film’s success gave a boost to his career, and he starred alongside his Look Who’s Talking co-star John Travolta.^[26] In 1996, he was the executive producer and star of the cartoon Bruno the Kid which featured a CGI representation of himself.^[27] 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) and The Fifth Element (1997). However, by the end of the 1990s his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like The Jackal (which despite negative reviews was a box office hit), Mercury Rising, and Breakfast of Champions, as well as the implosion of the production of Broadway Brawler, a debacle salvaged only by the success of the Michael Bay-directed Armageddon, which Willis had agreed to star in as compensation for the failed production, and which turned out to be the highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide.^[28][29] The same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse.^[30] In 1999, Willis played the starring role in M. Night Shyamalan’s film The Sixth Sense, which was both a commercial and critical success.^[8]

2000s

In 2000, Willis won an Emmy^[31] 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).^[32] 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 Matthew Perry. Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean’s Eleven (2001) but dropped out to work on recording an album.^[33] 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.^[34] 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.^[35] 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).^[36] Willis also appeared in Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials.^[37] 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 (National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Unbreakable, and 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 2007, he appeared in the thriller Perfect Stranger, opposite Halle Berry, the crime/drama film Alpha Dog, opposite Sharon Stone, and reprised his role as John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard. Subsequently, he appeared in the films What Just Happened and Surrogates, based on the comic book of the same name.^[38]

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.^[39] 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.^[40]

2010s

Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the comedy Cop Out, directed by Kevin Smith, about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card.^[41] The film was released in February 2010. Willis appeared in the music video for the song «Stylo» by Gorillaz.^[42] Also in 2010, he appeared in a cameo with former Planet Hollywood co-owners and ’80s action stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables. Willis played the role of generic bald man «Mr. Church». This was the first time these three notable action movie actors 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.^[43] 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.^[44]

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.^[45] Willis returned, in an expanded role, in The Expendables 2 (2012).^[46] 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.^[47] 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.^[48] 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.^[49] 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.»^[50]

On October 12, 2013, Willis hosted Saturday Night Live with Katy Perry as a musical guest.^[51]

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».^[52] Willis was the subject of a roast by Comedy Central in a program broadcast on July 29, 2018.^[53]

Films featuring Willis have grossed between US$2.64 billion and US$3.05 billion at the North American box offices, making him in 2010 the eighth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and 12th-highest including supporting roles.^[54][55] He is a two-time Emmy Award winner, a Golden Globe Award winner, and has been nominated for a Saturn Award four times.

2020s: Critical decline, health problems and retirement

In the later years of his career, Willis starred in many low-budget independent action-thriller and science-fiction films. Described by Chris Nashawaty of Esquire as «a profitable safe harbor for actors of a certain age» similar to The Expendables, most of these films were released direct-to-video and were widely panned by critics.^[56] For these projects, Willis would often earn US$2 million for two days’ work at an average of 15 minutes screentime per film.^[57] Twenty of these pictures were produced by Randall Emmett.^[58] The films earned a «toxic» reputation for using Willis heavily in promotional materials but including him for minimal screen time (resulting in such films being referred to as «geezer teasers»),^[59][60] so much that Cosmic Sin (2021) stood out for including Willis in «roughly half» of the action.^[61]

Those working with Willis on the films later said he appeared confused, did not understand why he was there and had to be fed lines through an earpiece.^[58] Days before Willis was scheduled to arrive on set for Out of Death (2021), the screenwriter was instructed to reduce his role and abbreviate his dialogue; at the same time, the director was told that he would have to complete all of Willis’ scenes over one day of filming.^[58] 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 his roles in eight films released that year.^[62]

On March 30, 2022, Willis’s family announced that he was retiring as he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder typically caused by damage to the area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension.^[63] The Golden Raspberry Awards retracted its Willis category, saying it was inappropriate to award a Golden Raspberry to someone whose performance was affected by a medical condition.^[64] At the time of his retirement, Willis had completed eleven films awaiting release in 2022 and 2023.^[63][65][66]

Business activities

Willis owns houses in Los Angeles and Penns Grove, New Jersey. He also rents apartments at Trump Tower^[67] and in Riverside South, Manhattan.^[68]

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.^[69] 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.^[70] Willis and the other actors were paid for their appearances and endorsements through an employee stock ownership plan.^[71]

In 2009, Willis signed a contract to become the international face of Belvedere SA’s Sobieski Vodka in exchange for 3.3 percent ownership in the company.^[72]

Personal life

Willis’s acting role models are Gary Cooper, Robert De Niro, Steve McQueen, and John Wayne.^[73] He is left-handed.^[74] He resides in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles with his family.^[75]

Relationships and children

At the premiere for the film Stakeout, Willis met actress Demi Moore. They married on November 21, 1987, and had three daughters, including Rumer, who was born in August 1988.^{[76][77][78][79]} Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998.^[80] They filed for divorce on October 18, 2000,^[81] and the divorce was finalized later that day.^[82][83] Regarding the divorce, Willis stated, «I felt I had failed as a father and a husband by not being able to make it work.» He credited actor Will Smith for helping him cope with the situation.^[18] He has maintained a close friendship with both Moore and her subsequent husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and attended their wedding.^[84]

Willis was engaged to actress Brooke Burns until they broke up in 2004 after ten months together.^[17] He married model Emma Heming in Turks and Caicos on March 21, 2009;^[85] guests included his three daughters, as well as Moore and Kutcher. The ceremony was not legally binding, so the couple wed again in a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills six days later. The couple has two daughters, one born in 2012^[86] and another born in 2014.^[87]

Religious views

Willis was a Lutheran,^[88] but no longer practices. In a July 1998 interview with George magazine, he stated: «Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn’t know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred, or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally! I choose not to believe that’s the way. And that’s what makes America cool, you know?»^[89]

Political views

In 1988, Willis and then-wife Demi Moore campaigned for Democratic Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’ Presidential bid. Four years later, he supported President George H. W. Bush for reelection and was an outspoken critic of Bill Clinton. However, in 1996, he declined to endorse Clinton’s Republican opponent Bob Dole, because Dole had criticized Demi Moore for her role in the film Striptease.^[90] Willis was an invited speaker at the 2000 Republican National Convention,^[91] and supported George W. Bush that year. He did not make any contributions or public endorsements in the 2008 presidential campaign. In several June 2007 interviews, he declared that he maintains some Republican ideologies.^[18]

In 2006, he said that the United States should intervene more in Colombia in order to end drug trafficking.^[92] In several interviews Willis has said that he supports large salaries for teachers and police officers, and said he is disappointed in the United States foster care system as well as treatment of Native Americans.^[90][93] Willis also stated that he is a supporter of gun rights, stating, «Everyone has a right to bear arms. If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys.»^[94]

In February 2006, Willis was in Manhattan to promote his film 16 Blocks with reporters. One reporter attempted to ask Willis about his opinion on the Bush administration, but was interrupted by Willis in mid-sentence when he said: «I’m sick of answering this fucking question. I’m a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop shitting on my money and your money and tax dollars that we give 50 percent of every year. I want them to be fiscally responsible and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I’ll say I’m a Republican. I hate the government, OK? I’m apolitical. Write that down. I’m not a Republican.»^[95]

Willis’s name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times on August 17, 2006, that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.^[96]

In 2012, Willis stated that he had a negative opinion of Mitt Romney.^[97]

Military interests

Throughout his film career, Willis has depicted several military characters in films such as In Country, The Siege, Hart’s War, Tears of the Sun, Grindhouse, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Growing up in a military family, Willis has publicly sold Girl Scout cookies for the United States armed forces. In 2002, Willis’s then 8-year-old daughter, Tallulah, suggested that he purchase Girl Scout cookies to send to troops. Willis purchased 12,000 boxes of cookies, and they were distributed to sailors aboard USS John F. Kennedy and other troops stationed throughout the Middle East at the time.^[98]

In 2003, Willis visited Iraq as part of the USO tour, singing to the troops with his band, The Accelerators.^[99] Willis considered joining the military to help fight the second Iraq War, but was deterred by his age.^[100] It was believed he offered US$1 million to any noncombatant who turned in terrorist leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; in the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, however, he clarified that the statement was made hypothetically and not meant to be taken literally. Willis has also criticized the media for its coverage of the war, complaining that the press was more likely to focus on the negative aspects of the war:

I went to Iraq because what I saw when I was over there was soldiers—young kids for the most part—helping people in Iraq; helping getting the power turned back on, helping get hospitals open, helping get the water turned back on and you don’t hear any of that on the news. You hear, «X number of people were killed today,» which I think does a huge disservice. It’s like spitting on these young men and women who are over there fighting to help this country.^[101]

In popular culture

In 1996, Roger Director, a writer and producer from Moonlighting, wrote a roman à clef on Willis titled A Place to Fall.^[102] Cybill Shepherd wrote in her 2000 autobiography, Cybill Disobedience, that Willis became angry at Director when he read the book and discovered the character had been written as a «neurotic, petulant actor».

A Lego version of himself appeared in the 2019 film The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, with Willis providing the voice.^[103]

Filmography

Discography

Solo albums

• 1987: The Return of Bruno (Motown, OCLC 15508727)
• 1989: If It Don’t Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger (Motown/Pgd, OCLC 21322754)
• 2001: Classic Bruce Willis: The Universal Masters Collection (Polygram Int’l, OCLC 71124889)

Compilations/guest appearances

• 1986: Moonlighting soundtrack; track «Good Lovin’ »
• 1991: Hudson Hawk soundtrack; tracks «Swinging on a Star» and «Side by Side», both duets with Danny Aiello
• 2000: The Whole Nine Yards soundtrack; tracks «Tenth Avenue Tango»
• 2003: Rugrats Go Wild soundtrack; «Big Bad Cat» with Chrissie Hynde and «Lust for Life»
• 2008: North Hollywood Shootout, Blues Traveler; track «Free Willis (Ruminations from Behind Uncle Bob’s Machine Shop)»

Awards and honors

Willis has won a variety of awards and has received various honors throughout his career in television and film.

• 1987: Golden Apple Awards honored with the Sour Apple.^[104]
• 1994: Maxim magazine ranked his sex scene in Color of Night the No. 1 sex scene in film history^[25]
• 2000: American Cinematheque Gala Tribute honored Willis with the American Cinematheque Award for an extraordinary artist in the entertainment industry who is fully engaged in his or her work and is committed to making a significant contribution to the art of the motion pictures.
• 2002: The Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals – given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment^[105]
• 2002: Appointed as national spokesman for Children in Foster Care by President George W. Bush;^[106] Willis wrote online: «I saw Foster Care as a way for me to serve my country in a system by which shining a little bit of light could benefit a great deal by helping kids who were literally wards of the government.»^[107]
• 2005: Golden Camera Award for Best International Actor by the Manaki Brothers Film Festival.^[108]
• 2006: Honored by French government for his contributions to the film industry; appointed an Officer of the French Order of Arts and Letters in a ceremony in Paris; the French Prime Minister stated, «This is France’s way of paying tribute to an actor who epitomizes the strength of American cinema, the power of the emotions that he invites us to share on the world’s screens and the sturdy personalities of his legendary characters.»^[109]
• 2006: Honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 16; located at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard and it was the 2,321st star awarded in its history; at the reception, he stated, «I used to come down here and look at these stars and I could never quite figure out what you were supposed to do to get one…time has passed and now here I am doing this, and I’m still excited. I’m still excited to be an actor.»^[110]
• 2011: Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame^[111]
• 2013: Promoted to the dignity of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters on February 11 by French Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti^[112]

References

External links

Overview (4)

Mini Bio (1)

Family (4)

Trade Mark (9)

Frequently plays a man who suffered a tragedy, had lost something or had a crisis of confidence or conscience.

Frequently plays likeable wisecracking heroes with a moral centre

Headlines action-adventures, often playing a policeman, hitman or someone in the military

Often plays men who get caught up in situations far beyond their control

Sardonic one-liners

Shaven head

Distinctive, gravelly voice

Smirky grin.

Known for playing cynical anti-heroes with unhappy personal lives

Trivia (92)

His recording of «Respect Yourself» reached #5 in January 1987.

On 6/24/98 he and Demi Moore announced they were ending their marriage of 11 years. No reasons given.

In 10/97 he was ranked #22 in «Empire» (UK) magazine’s «The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time» list.

Born on a US military base in Germany. His mother, Marlene, was German, and was born in Kassel. His father, David Willis, was American-born, and had English and smaller amounts of Dutch, French, Irish and Welsh ancestry.

As a young man his personality was very much like that of the character he played on Moonlighting (1985). He was always getting into trouble because of this and was bodily ejected from parties by the hosts for being obnoxious.

Has been very vocal in his support of almost every major Republican candidate in recent history except Bob Dole. He felt that presidential candidate Dole was out of line in his attacks on Demi Moore and her role in the movie Стриптиз (1996).

Was the first actor to ever «act» in a video game (Апокалипсис (1998)). No one before had ever done voice-work along with having their likeness and movements digitally added to the game, as well as receiving prominent billing on the game’s cover.

Has stated, in 1997, 2001 and 2013, that he will no longer be doing violent action or «save-the-world» movies.

Wears his watch upside down with the face on the inside of his wrist. This is also visible in many movies he has done (Крепкий орешек 3 (1995), Меркурий в опасности (1998), etc.) where they have not requested him to flip this over.

In May 1987 he was arrested after reportedly disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer who was called to quiet a raucous party at his home. The charges were dropped after Willis agreed to apologize to his neighbors.

Acting helped him to overcome a debilitating childhood stutter. In an interview with «GQ» magazine in March 2013, he said, «I had a terrible stutter. But then I did some theater in high school and when I memorized words, I didn’t stutter, which was just miraculous. That was the beginning of the gradual dispelling of my stutter. I thought I was handicapped. I couldn’t talk at all. I still stutter around some people now».

In 2001, his younger brother, Robert Willis, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 42.

Attended Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ.

Set a new benchmark for actors’ salaries when he was paid $5 million for Крепкий орешек (1988) in 1988. Eight years later, his wife, Demi Moore, set a benchmark of $12 million with Стриптиз (1996).

(2/02) Named Man of the Year by Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals.

Worked in a chemical factory before going to college.

Filled in as a last-minute host for David Letterman on February 26, 2003, a show he was supposed to be the guest for. This was Letterman’s first «sick day» in 20 years (other than his time off for heart surgery).

Ranked #3 in Star TV’s Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s. [2003]

Divides his time between Malibu, California and Hailey, Idaho. In the latter, he and now ex-wife Demi Moore were criticized by locals for buying businesses in the town and not running them properly. He owns (after buying out Moore) the Mint Bar and the Liberty Theater. He also owns the old Hailey Drug Store, but the building has been vacant and unused since the early 1990s.

The scar on his right shoulder is from surgery due to complications from a broken arm when he was age 17.

Is or was reportedly a role model of singer Nick Lachey. Lachey’s ex-wife, Jessica Simpson, unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Kate McClane, John McClane’s daughter, in Крепкий орешек 4.0 (2007).

Graduated from Penns Grove High School in Penns Grove, New Jersey (near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), where he was raised. (Actor John Forsythe was born in Penns Grove.) Willis’s class voted him «Most School Spirit». [1973]

(10/20/04) Sued Revolution Studios for unspecified damages related to a blow to his forehead that he received during «ultrahazardous activity» involved in the filming of Слёзы солнца (2003). He claims that it has caused him extreme mental, physical and emotional pain and suffering.

France awarded him Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in April 2005. «France pays homage to an actor who represents the force of American cinema and the power of emotions that he invites us to share on screens throughout the world», Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said. «I’m nervous. Bonjour Paris», he replied.

Was chosen to play John McClane in Крепкий орешек (1988) because the producers felt he brought warmth and humor to an otherwise cold and humorless character. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone had turned down the role.

Has been special ambassador of his birth town, Idar-Oberstein, Germany, since his 50th birthday.

Along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charlton Heston, he was one of very few Hollywood celebrities to publicly support the Iraq war. While visiting the troops in 2003, he offered $1 million of his own money for the man who would capture Saddam Hussein. When Hussein was captured, it turned out that military rules prevent troops from collecting such a reward.

Served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1992. In 2000 he was unable to narrate a biographical film of previous presidents to be shown at the RNC due to scheduling conflicts.

In November 2005 he announced his intention to make a film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy. This was to be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of «Deuce Four», the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent a year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul. Willis attended Deuce Four’s homecoming ball in Seattle, WA, where the soldiers are on leave, along with Stephen J. Eads, the producer of Армагеддон (1998) and Шестое чувство (1999). The actor said that he was in talks about a film of «these guys who do what they are asked to for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom». Willis is likely to take on the role of the unit’s commander, Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla.

On 4/13/05 was honored in Paris for his contribution to the film industry by the French government. He was awarded Officer of the On Order of Arts and Letters at a ceremony in the capital, where he was presented with his honor by French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. de Vabres said, «This is France’s way of paying tribute to an actor who epitomizes the strength of American cinema, the power of the emotions that he invites us to share on the world’s screens and the sturdy personalities of his legendary characters.» Willis replied in French that he was «very touched» to receive his medal, adding, «Thank you France and Culture Minister for this great, great honor.».

In November 2005 he offered $1 million of his own money to anyone who turned in al-Qaeda terror leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri or Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the alleged brains behind the 9/11 attacks. Willis announced his reward on the American television show Rita Cosby Live & Direct (2005), where he also criticized what he claimed to be «biased» media coverage of the Iraq war.

(7/23/02) Appointed by President George W. Bush as national spokesman for Children in Foster Care.

His performance as John McClane in the «Die Hard» trilogy is ranked #46 on «Premiere: magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

He and Linda Fiorentino were employed as bartenders in the early 1980s at the Kamikaze Club in New York City.

Little Richard presided over his wedding to Demi Moore. Ally Sheedy was one of the bridesmaids. The ceremony and reception was arranged by Tri-Star Pictures.

Married Demi Moore at the Golden Nugget Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

Turned down the role of Sam Wheat in Привидение (1990) because he did not think the plot would work and that playing a ghost would be detrimental to his career. Ironically, he played a ghost in Шестое чувство (1999), which was a critical success and is widely regarded as one of his best performances.

He apologized to Colombia after blaming the nation for America’s drug problems. He insisted the US is as much to blame for the prolific trade and confessed he didn’t mean to single out any one country as the supplier. He told the «New York Daily News», «I said Colombia because it was the first country to come to mind.» He was dubbed «ignorant» and «ungrateful» by the Colombian president for his comments in March 2006, and advised not to base his arguments on «Hollywood clichés».

In November 2000 he urged his fans to vote for Republican candidate George W. Bush in the presidential election. He told an interviewer, «If you guys vote for Al Gore, you’re out of your minds . . . Gore’s a knucklehead . . . just the lying and mendacity of the last eight years of the regime that Al Gore was a part and parcel of . . . I mean, there is only so much lying the American people will take before they go, ‘Uh, this doesn’t seem like a good idea.’ You have to look at what he does and what he stands for».

Awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6915 Hollywood Blvd. on October 16, 2006.

Played two psychologists who suffered serious work-related emotional trauma: Dr. Bill Capa in Цвет ночи (1994) and Dr. Malcolm Crowe in Шестое чувство (1999). Ironically, Цвет ночи (1994) was a box-office bomb and was widely ridiculed by critics (this movie did much better business in home video market, though), while Шестое чувство (1999) became a box-office smash and received several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

During the Lebanon crisis, he signed his name on an ad in the «Los Angeles Times» in support of Israel, along with Nicole Kidman and numerous other Hollywood celebrities.

Is a huge supporter of NFL team New York Jets.

Endorsed his friend and former co-star Fred Thompson in his failed bid to win the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential election.

«Maxim» magazine had named his sex scenes in Цвет ночи (1994) as the best sex scenes ever in film history.

Became the first actor to guest-star on Друзья (1994) and win an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Guest Actor category for their performance.

Thanked by the rock band Blink-182 in the liner notes of their album «Enema of the State» (1999).

On 3/21/09 he married his girlfriend of a year, Emma Heming Willis, at his home in Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos.

Was in consideration for the role of Lester Burnham in Красота по-американски (1999) but Kevin Spacey, who went on to win a Best Actor Oscar for his performance, was cast instead.

Admitted to «Playboy» magazine in 1996 that he was once arrested at age 19 for possessing two joints.

Filmed his role in the mystery thriller Mortal Thoughts (1991) in ten days.

Met Demi Moore at a screening of Emilio Estevez’s film, Stakeout (1987). Moore had broken off her engagement to Estevez the previous December after it was revealed publicly that he’d fathered another woman’s two children while in a relationship with Moore; so it was a little odd for her to be there in the first place. She and Willis were married four months later.

Inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011 for his contributions to Arts and Entertainment.

Is left-handed and is displayed in most of his films. In Шестое чувство (1999), he learned to write with his right hand so this would not be so easily noticeable that his character was not wearing his wedding ring.

Is mentioned in Nicki Minaj’s song «Your Love».

Has regularly been named on «Best Celebrity Tippers» lists over the years. This is largely due to his early «struggling» waiter/bartender days.

On 2/12/13 he was awarded Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, the highest French culture award, in Paris, France.

As of 2014, has appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Вердикт (1982) [where he was an extra], Криминальное чтиво (1994) and Шестое чувство (1999).

Mentioned in the song «Jizz in My Pants» by The Lonely Island. One of the song’s composers, Jorma Taccone, shares his birthday with Willis.

Has played many roles whose character names have the letter «J» in the beginning. Examples include Крепкий орешек (1988) (John McClane), Меркурий в опасности (1998) (Art Jeffries), Заложник (2005) (Jeff Talley), Mortal Thoughts (1991) (James Urbanski), 12 обезьян (1995) (James Cole), Девять ярдов (2000) (Jimmy «The Tulip» Tudeski), Город грехов (2005) (John Hartigan) and the title role in Шакал (1997).

Has played five characters more than once in the movies: Hartigan from the «Sin City» films, John McClane from the «Die Hard» films, Frank from the «Red» films, Church from the «Expendables» films, and Jimmy «The Tulip» Tudeski from the «Whole Nine Yards» films. With his cameo as David Dunn in Сплит (2016) and his appearance as Dunn in Стекло (2019), this counts to six characters he played more than once. If one would count his voice acting as Mikey in Look Who’s Talking (1989) and R.J. in Лесная братва (2006), this adds up to eight characters he played more than once. He also appeared twice as Lt. Muldoon in a «Grindhouse» segment and in Планета страха (2007). So he comes to a total of nine characters, he played more than once.

His B cтудии актерского мастерства (1994) interview was taped on September 10, 2001. The episode was respectfully dedicated by Willis and the Actors Studio Drama School «to the heroes who fell September 11th — and to the heroes who fight on.».

Has been in three movies where he meets a younger version of himself: 12 обезьян (1995), Малыш (2000) and Петля времени (2012).

Has twice played a hit man: Шакал (1997) and Девять ярдов (2000). Девять ярдов 2 (2004) really can not be counted because his character, Jimmy Tudeski was retired.

Was considered for the role of Henry Miller in Henry & June (1990), which later went to Fred Ward, who shaved his head for it. Willis and Ward both appeared in Игрок (1992), but did not share any scenes together.

The name of his band is Bruce Willis and the Accelerators. In 2002, the band had its largest tour to date, going to 15 cities.

Both Willis and ex-wife Demi Moore were born of rather young mothers. Demi’s mom had her at 18 and Bruce’s mom had him at 19.

He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being «culturally, historically or aesthetically» significant: Крепкий орешек (1988) and Криминальное чтиво (1994).

Born at 6:32 PM (MET).

He worked with Melanie Griffith twice, and in both movies The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Дураков нет (1994), they share just one scene. Melanie said that she wished they had shared more screen time together, since they knew each other for many years. She also attended Hollywood Salutes Bruce Willis: An American Cinematheque Tribute (2000) where she talked about the two films she did with him, along with the one film that both auditioned for but didn’t get Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Bruce jokingly apologized to Melanie for the failure of «Bonfire of the Vanities».

Diagnosed with aphasia in 2022.

Turned his back on $20 million by dropping out of Ace in the Hole in 1999.

Personal Quotes (42)

I’m much more proud of being a father than being an actor.

You can’t undo the past . . . but you can certainly not repeat it.

I’m staggered by the question of what it’s like to be a multimillionaire. I always have to remind myself that I am.

[3/10/05 interview in «People» magazine, on how he stays in shape] Mostly weight resistance training, almost an hour of cardio at least three times a week. I have a gym in my house in Los Angeles and a gym trailer that I can take on the road with me when I’m on location. At my house there’s a very long steep driveway. I do wind sprints that kick my 50-year-old ass. It’s part of my job. I have come to associate working out as work. Whenever I don’t have to do it for films, I kind of slack off.

I am a sensitive guy. People think they know the real me, but they don’t. And then they write things that make me sound like such a jerk.

I hate working out. I work out for films solely. I associate working out with films. As soon as they stop, I stop working out.

Fifty is the new 40. I always thought my best work would come in the years 40 to 60, if I was fortunate enough to hang around—and it is hard to stick around.

Who I am as a father is far more important to me than the public perception.

I am baffled to understand why the things that I saw happening in Iraq, really good things happening in Iraq, are not being reported on.

[on Hudson Hawk (1991)] I always thought it was a little ahead of its time, a little too hip for the room.

I think the rules are going to have to change for me to ever run for public office. My checkered past will always keep me out of politics. If I ever did run I would run on the platform that I did all these bad things, but I no longer do them, and during the four years of being president or whatever office it might be, I would be good and serve my country. I want to serve my country.

I’m a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion, I want them to stop pissing on my money and your money, the tax dollars that we give 50% of, or 40% of, every year, and I want them to be fiscally responsible, and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I’ll say I’m a Republican. But other than that, I want the government to take care of people who need help, like the kids in foster care, the half-million kids who are in orphanages right now—they call them foster homes, but they’re orphanages. I want them to take care of the elderly and give them free medicine, give them whatever they need. There’s tons, billions and billions of dollars that are just being wasted. Okay? I hate government. I’m apolitical. Write that down: I’m not a Republican.

[February 2006] Look at what happened to James Frey in the last two weeks. That’s a great book and so is the follow-up book. And just because his publisher chose to say that these were memoirs, it took it out of being a work of fiction, a great work of fiction and very well-written to this guy having to go be sucker-punched on The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986) by one of the most powerful women in television just to grind her own ax about it. Hey Oprah, you had President [Bill Clinton] on your show and if this prick didn’t lie about a couple of things I’m going to set myself on fire right now. James Frey is a writer, okay? He can write whatever he wants. It’s fiction, and it’s just hard, it’s just shameful how he was treated in some of these things. It’s just shameful and it’s just not fair and not right . . .

I’m not an action hero anymore, and I think it would be inappropriate for me to compare anything that happens in Hollywood and the entertainment industry to the tragic loss of life on September 11th.

I spoke to the Colombians. It’s fine. I get passionate sometimes. I said Colombia because it was the first country to come to mind. The drug problem has as much to do with what’s going on in this country. If there wasn’t a demand, there wouldn’t be a supply.

I think what the United States, and everyone who cares about protecting the freedoms that the largest part of the free world now has, should do whatever it takes to end terrorism in the world and not just in the Middle East. I’m talking also about going to Colombia and doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade. It’s killing this country. It’s killing all the countries that coke goes into. I believe that somebody’s making money on it in the United States. If they weren’t making money on it, they would have stopped it. They could stop it in one day. It’s just a plant that they grow, and these guys are growing it like it’s corn or tobacco or any other thing. By the time it gets here, it becomes a billion-dollar industry. And I think that’s a form of terrorism as well.

The Iraqi people want to live in a world where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed. I mean, doesn’t everybody want that?

I have zero interest in performing in films to try to convey any kind of message. My job is to be entertaining. There’s a very different point of view about messages in films in Europe than there is in the States. Audiences rebel because they feel that they are being preached to.

[on his planned film about the Iraq war] The movie is about these guys who do what they are asked for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom.

I thought about signing up but my friends told me I was too old. I called the White House, called President [George Bush] and asked what I could do. So I got involved with the national foster care program.

If you take guns away from legal gun owners then the only people who would have guns would be the bad guys. Even a pacifist would get violent if someone were trying to kill him or her. You would fight for your life, whatever your beliefs. You’d use a rock or tear one of these chairs out of the floor . . . Hey, maybe I’ve been watching too many Bruce Willis movies!

I’m always being accused of being a Hollywood Republican, but I’m not! I have just as many Democratic ideas as Republican ones. If they could build three fewer bombs every month and give the money to foster care, that would be great.

The idea of serving my country remained in my mind. Over the past few years from varying sources—«Time» magazine, books and television— information began coming to my attention on foster care; its history and the current crisis of an antiquated system overburdened with 580,000 children who have no voice. Children need to be protected by interstate technology systems that can track placements, education, medical records and protect these children from predators traveling from state to state. I saw foster care as a way for me to serve my country in a system by which shining a little bit of light could benefit a great deal by helping kids who were literally wards of the government.

Hair loss is God’s way of telling me I’m human.

[1998] Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn’t know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally! I choose not to believe that’s the way. And that’s what makes America cool, you know?

I don’t think my opinion means jack shit, because I’m an actor. Why do actors think their opinions mean more because you act? You just caught a break as an actor. There are hundreds—thousands—of actors who are just as good as I am, and probably better. Have you heard anything useful come out of an actor’s mouth lately? Although I liked George Clooney’s documentary on Darfur.

They still haven’t caught the guy that killed [John F. Kennedy]. I’ll get killed for saying this, but I’m pretty sure those guys are still in power, in some form. The entire government of the United States was co-opted.

I happen to live in Los Angeles and it is probably one of the most toxic environments on earth. People live here and they know that the air is poisonous. They know that children are affected by the air in Los Angeles. They say that growing up in Los Angeles is the equivalent of smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes throughout your entire childhood. It’s horrific when you can actually look at the air and see it.

No, I am not in favor of the war in Iraq, so let me stop you right there. I am not pro-war but what I am is that, I like to support the young men and women who are over there participating in the war.

[on Twitter] I just can’t live with myself if I started twittering. I just think: «That way lies madness».

[on Неудержимые (2010) sequel] I talked to Sly [Sylvester Stallone] and he’s going for all the marbles this time, and he’s going to get everybody in this time. Even Stone Cold Steve Austin, who took two bullets in the last film, is coming back. Hopefully, they’ll start shooting it while we’re young enough to survive!

[on the possibility of Michael Bay directing a a Die Hard film, specifically Крепкий орешек 4.0 (2007)] Would have ruined DH4. Few people will work with him now, and I know I will never work with him again.

[on whether an R-rated «Die Hard» could be done without producer Joel Silver] Fuck Joel Silver. That is because you do not understand my relationship with Joel S. We are cordial now when we bump into each other, but we have not worked together since Последний бойскаут (1991).

I’m really pleased to continue to be asked back to do other versions and other incarnations of Крепкий орешек (1988). The first one really is . . . that’s all there is. Everything else is just trying to be as good as that film.

I want to do Крепкий орешек: Хороший день, чтобы умереть (2013), then one final «Die Hard» movie—«Die Hard 6»—before finally hanging that white vest up for good. At the moment, I can run and I can fight on screen. But there will come a time when I no longer want to do that. That’s when I’ll step away from the «Die Hard» films.

[on missing a role in Цельнометаллическая оболочка (1987)] I got the call two days before we were to start the first Moonlighting (1985). I was crushed! I’d always been a student of the Vietnam war. As it turned out, it took them two years to complete the film and get it out. So, everything happens for a reason.

I don’t cheat, lie or go out of my way to mess people over, but I’m still amazed at the venal garbage that goes on in this town. People lie about you. People want to see you fail. It’s so competitive here, you can see how much people want you to fail.

[on Kim Basinger] What sets her apart from other actresses is that she does a lot of things well. Kim is a throwback to ’40s actresses. She’s not afraid to act like a geek.

[on his NYC bartending days at Cafe Central, during which time he acquired the nickname «Bruno»] The bar was always six-deep. It was where a lot of celebs and movie-star types and wannabes hung out. If you’re serving them drinks and you’re drinking with them, it’s a very fraternal feeling. They’re not way up on a pedestal. It’s four in the morning and they’re probably half in the bag. So I didn’t have to deal with that mystique.

For a long time, I don’t know if there was a lot of controversy surrounding me, but it was certainly more interesting to throw rocks and dump trash on me than it was to say nice things about me. That kind of controversy sells more. And has since become, in the last ten years since they started writing about me, the norm.

Look, this is my face. If it’s a curse, it’s a curse. And I never said, «Hey, I’m smirking, America! Look at me! Love me!» It’s a little hook that they caught on and they’ve found a way to turn it against me and make it some negative thing, but that’s how I smile. Nothin’ I can do about it.

Salary (17)

Die Hard (1988)	$5,000,000
Look Who’s Talking (1989)	$10,000,000
Die Hard 2 (1990)	$7,500,000
Look Who’s Talking Too (1990)	$10,000,000
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)	$5,000,000
The Last Boy Scout (1991)	$14,000,000
Pulp Fiction (1994)	$800,000
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)	$15,000,000
Four Rooms (1995)	$0
Last Man Standing (1996)	$16,500,000
Armageddon (1998)	$14,800,000
The Siege (1998)	$5,000,000
The Sixth Sense (1999)	$20,000,000 +17% (salary, gross and video participations)
The Kid (2000)	$20,000,000
Unbreakable (2000)	$20,000,000
Hart’s War (2002)	$22,500,000
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)	$25,000,000

Translation of «Брюс Уиллис» into English

Bruce Willis is the translation of «Брюс Уиллис» into English.
Sample translated sentence: Может, Брюс Уиллис все еще там, на комете. ↔ Maybe Bruce Willis is still on the comet.

• Bruce Willis

  Может, Брюс Уиллис все еще там, на комете.

  Maybe Bruce Willis is still on the comet.

• 

• 

Declension

Stem

Match words

Брюс Уиллис, босой и окровавленный, ворвался в комнату.

Bruce Willis, barefoot and bloody, stormed into a room.

Это Брюс Уиллис и его новая молодая жена?

Whoa, is that Bruce Willis and his new hot young wife?

Он просто заявился ко мне и сообщил, что узнал, где я живу, у моего соседа Брюса Уиллиса.

He just turned up, said he’d found out where I lived from my neighbor Bruce Willis.

Брюс Уиллис, Киану Ривз, Анджелина Джоли.

Задолго до того, как лысина вошла в моду, еще до Брюса Уиллиса, у дяди Чарли был гладкий череп.

Long before bald became fashionable, long before Bruce Willis, Uncle Charlie was sleek—cool.

Да, у Брюса Уиллиса тогда было гораздо больше волос.

As you can see, Bruce Willis had a lot more hair back then.

«Даже в сумерках, Эмма видела большую петлю буквы «»Б»», предположительно от Брюса Уиллиса»

Even in the fading light, Emma could see a big looped B, presumably for Bruce Willis.

Если она и в самом деле обитала тут, а не, скажем, в Голливуде, с Брюсом Уиллисом.

If she lived here at all, and not, say, with Bruce Willis in Hollywood.

Нет, не как Брюс Уиллис… как Арнольд Шварценеггер.

No, not like Bruce Willis…like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Кукурузная палочка в форме Брюса Уиллиса.

A Cheeto shaped like Bruce Willis.

— Я подумываю о Брюсе Уиллисе.

“I was thinking Bruce Willis.”

В 2000 году Брюс Уиллис был назван надеждой на трилогию «Неуязвимого».

In 2000, Bruce Willis was quoted as hoping for an Unbreakable trilogy.

Как тот мальчик из фильма с Брюсом Уиллисом?

Like that boy in the Bruce Willis film?

Некоторое время назад он начал именовать себя Бучем, полагая, что похож на Брюса Уиллиса в «Криминальном чтиве».

He started referring to himself as Butch a while ago, because he reckons he looks like Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction.

Ему, разумеется, вынесли выговор — так уж полагалось — за авантюру в духе героев Брюса Уиллиса или Клинта Иствуда.

He was reprimanded—it had to be done—for the Bruce Willis/Clint Eastwood procedure.

Однажды заплакал, когда Брюсу Уиллису неожиданно прострелили руку.

He once even wept when Bruce Willis was unexpectedly shot in the arm.

Ты как Брюс Уиллис в » Свидании вслепую »

You look like Bruce Willis in Blind Date.

Все любят Брюса Уиллиса, но он просто следует сценарию.

Everybody loves Bruce Willis, but he’s got a script.

Брюс Уиллис ходил босиком по битому стеклу.

Bruce Willis walked barefoot through broken glass.

Возможно, Армагеддон нечто большее, чем название фильма с Брюсом Уиллисом.

Maybe Armageddon is more than the name of an old Bruce Willis movie.

Ага, и знаете, как бы его звали, если бы его отцом был Брюс Уиллис?

Yeah, and, uh, you know what his name would be if Bruce Willis was his dad?

Может, Брюс Уиллис все еще там, на комете

Maybe Bruce Willis is still on the comet

— Ты напоминаешь мне Брюса Уиллиса.

“You remind me of Bruce Willis.”

Как Брюс Уиллис в «Шестом чувстве»…

I mean, Bruce Willis in «The Sixth Sense,» right?

Считай это благодарностью за то, что показал вчера своего внутреннего Брюса Уиллиса

Just think of it as a thank- you for channeling… your inner Bruce Willis yesterday

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.

Перевод «Брюс Уиллис» на английский

Брюс Уиллис — один из самых успешных и популярных актеров в мире.

Bruce Willis is one of the most successful and popular actors in the world.

Брюс Уиллис работал над фильмом всего 18 дней.

Bruce Willis worked on the film for only eighteen days.

Брюс Уиллис обзавелся четвертым ребенком в 57 лет.

Bruce Willis welcomed a third daughter at the age of 57.

Брюс Уиллис станет отцом в четвертый раз.

Единственный мужчина киногерой без мышечной массы, Брюс Уиллис.

The only male action hero in the movies without a muscular body is Bruce Willis.

Брюс Уиллис уже подтвердил свое участие в проекте.

Bruce Willis has already signed on to act in the project.

Главную роль, естественно, исполнит неизменный Брюс Уиллис.

The main role, of course, will be played by the unchanging Bruce Willis.

Тогда нам не поможет даже Брюс Уиллис.

Брюс Уиллис покинул роль в начале съемок.

Только никакой Брюс Уиллис не поможет.

Исполнителем главной роли по-прежнему остается бессменный Брюс Уиллис.

The main role, of course, will be played by the unchanging Bruce Willis.

Правильный ответ на вопрос — Брюс Уиллис.

Том Харди — это Брюс Уиллис нашего времени.

Ведь кто бы мог предположить, что Брюс Уиллис…

Нам не известно когда родился Брюс Уиллис.

О продолжении я уже задумываюсь», — уверяет Брюс Уиллис.

«I try to live in the moment,» says Bruce Willis.

кто сильнее: Брюс Уиллис или квантовый компьютер

who is stronger: Bruce Willis or the quantum computer

В этом фильме Брюс Уиллис обнаруживает, что он является современным героем дня, сверхчеловек, если хотите.

In this movie, Bruce Willis discovers that he is a modern day hero, a superman if you will.

Быстрее, Брюс Уиллис скоро будет здесь.- Я слышу шум вертолетов.

Quickly, Bruce Willis will be here.- I can hear helicopters.

Брюс Уиллис ходил босиком по битому стеклу.

Bruce Willis walked barefoot through broken glass.

Ничего не найдено для этого значения.

Результатов: 551. Точных совпадений: 551. Затраченное время: 112 мс

Documents

Корпоративные решения

Спряжение

Синонимы

Корректор

Справка и о нас

Индекс слова: 1-300, 301-600, 601-900

Индекс выражения: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

Индекс фразы: 1-400, 401-800, 801-1200

Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s, most notably as David Addison in Moonlighting (1985–1989) and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles. He is well known for the role of John McClane in the Die Hard series, which were mostly critical and uniformly financial successes. He has also appeared in over sixty films, including box office successes like Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Sin City (2005), Looper (2012) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012).

Motion pictures featuring Willis have grossed US$2.64 billion to 3.05 billion at North American box offices, making him the ninth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and twelfth highest including supporting roles. He is a two-time Emmy Award–winning, Golden Globe Award–winning and four-time Saturn Award–nominated actor. Willis was married to actress Demi Moore and they had three daughters before their divorce in 2000, following thirteen years of marriage. He is currently married to model Emma Heming, with whom he has one daughter Early life An army brat, Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. His father, David Willis, was an American soldier. His mother, Marlene K., was German, and had been born in Kaufungen, near Kassel.

Willis is the oldest of four children: he has a sister, Florence, and a brother, David. His brother Robert died of pancreatic cancer in 2001, aged 42. After being discharged from the military in 1957, Willis’s father took his family back to Carneys Point, New Jersey. Willis has described himself as having come from 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 attended Penns Grove High School in his hometown, where he encountered issues with a stutter. He was nicknamed Buck-Buck by his schoolmates.

Finding it easy to express himself on stage and losing his stutter in the process, Willis began performing on stage and his high school activities were marked by such things as the drama club and student council president. After high school, Willis took a job as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant and also transported work crews at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. After working as a private investigator (a role he would play in the television series Moonlighting as well as in the 1991 film, The Last Boy Scout), Willis returned to acting. He enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in the class production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Willis left school in his junior year and moved to New York City, where in the early 1980s he supported himself as a bartender at the West 19th Street art bar Kamikaze. After multiple auditions, Willis made his theater debut in the off-Broadway production of Heaven and Earth. He gained more experience and exposure in Fool for Love, and in a Levi’s commercial. Willis also played a lead role in the off-Broadway production Bullpen for four years which was written and directed by Dennis Watlington that was also presented at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater.

Career

Early career

Willis left New York City and headed to California to audition for several television shows. In 1984, he appeared in an episode of the TV series Miami Vice, titled «No Exit». In 1985 he was the guest actor in the first episode of The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series), «Shatterday». He auditioned for the role of David Addison Jr. of the television series Moonlighting (1985–89), competing against 3,000 other actors for the position.The starring role, opposite Cybill Shepherd, helped to establish him as a comedic actor, with the show lasting five seasons. 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 the rising star between $5–7 million over two years. In spite of that, Willis chose not to renew his contract with the company when he decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1988. Willis made his film debut in the 1987 Blake Edwards film Blind Date, with Kim Basinger and John Larroquette. Edwards cast him again to play the real-life cowboy actor Tom Mix in Sunset (1988). However, it was his then-unexpected turn in the film Die Hard (1988) as John McClane that catapulted him to movie star status. He performed most of his own stunts in the film, and the film grossed $138,708,852 worldwide. Following his success with Die Hard, he had a supporting 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, as well as its sequel Look Who’s Talking Too.

In the late 1980s, Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist, recording an album of pop-blues titled The Return of Bruno, which included the hit single «Respect Yourself», promoted by a Spinal Tap–like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of him performing at famous events including Woodstock. He released a version of the Drifters song «Under The Boardwalk» as a follow-up, which got to number 2 in the UK Top 40, though was less successful in the USA. Willis returned to the recording studio several times afterwards. (See Discography below.)

1990s

Willis acquired major personal success and pop culture influence playing John McClane in Die Hard. This film was followed up by Die Hard 2: Die Harder in 1990 and Die Hard with a Vengeance in 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. In the early 1990s, Willis’s career suffered a moderate slump starring in flops such as The Bonfire of the Vanities, Striking Distance, and a film he co-wrote titled Hudson Hawk, among others.

He starred in a leading role in the highly sexualized erotic thriller Color of Night (1994): another box office failure, 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. In 1994, he had a supporting role in Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed Pulp Fiction, which gave a new boost to his career. In 1996, he was the executive producer of the cartoon Bruno the Kid which featured a CGI representation of himself. He went on to play the lead roles in Twelve Monkeys (1995) and The Fifth Element (1997). However, by the end of the 1990s, his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like The Jackal, Mercury Rising, and Breakfast of Champions, saved only by the success of the Michael Bay-directed Armageddon which was the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide. The same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse. In 1999, Willis then went on to the starring role in M. Night Shyamalan’s film, The Sixth Sense. The film was both a commercial and critical success and helped to increase interest in his acting career.

2000s–2010s

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 Matthew Perry. Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean’s Eleven (2001) but dropped out to work on recording an album. In Ocean’s Twelve (2004), he makes a cameo appearance as himself. In 2007, he appeared in the Planet Terror half of the double feature Grindhouse as the villain, a mutant soldier. This marks Willis’s second collaboration with director Robert Rodriguez, following Sin City.

Willis has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman several times throughout his career. He filled in for an ill David Letterman on his show February 26, 2003, when he was supposed to be a guest. On many of his appearances on the show, Willis stages 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 buckshot wounds after the Harry Whittington shooting, or trying to break a record (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. His most recent appearance was on June 25, 2007 when he appeared wearing a mini-turban strapped to his head to accompany a joke about his own fictional documentary titled An Unappealing Hunch (a wordplay of An Inconvenient Truth).

Willis also appeared on 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 four films with Samuel L. Jackson (National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Unbreakable) 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 2007, he appeared in the thriller Perfect Stranger, opposite Halle Berry, the crime/drama film Alpha Dog, opposite Sharon Stone, and marked his return to the role of John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard. Subsequently, he appeared in the films What Just Happened and Surrogates, 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 cancelled. 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.

Willis starred with Tracy Morgan in the comedy Cop Out, directed by Kevin Smith and about two police detectives investigating the theft of a baseball card. The film was released in February 2010. Willis appeared in the music video for the song «Stylo» by Gorillaz. Also in 2010, he appeared in a cameo with former Planet Hollywood co-owners and ’80s action stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film The Expendables. Willis played the role of «Mr. Church». This was the first time these three legendary action stars 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 portrays 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.»

Upcoming films

Willis will star in the movie adaptation of the video game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, named Kane & Lynch.

Business activities

Willis owns property in Los Angeles, rents an apartment in the Trump Tower in New York City, and Trump Place, as well as a home in Malibu, California, a ranch in Montana, a beach home on Parrot Cay in Turks and Caicos, and multiple properties in Sun Valley, Idaho. In 2000 Willis, with 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 is a co-founder of Planet Hollywood, with actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. 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.

Personal life

Willis’ acting role models are Gary Cooper, Robert De Niro, Steve McQueen, and John Wayne.

Marriages and family

Брюс Уиллис
Bruce Willis
Брюс Уиллис на премьере фильма Крепкий орешек 4.0, июнь 2007
Имя при рождении:	Walter Bruce Willis
Дата рождения:	19 марта 1955 (54 года)
Место рождения:	Идар-Оберштайн, ФРГ
Гражданство:
Профессия:	актёр, музыкант
Карьера:	1980 — по настоящее
Награды:	«Золотой глобус» (1987), «Эмми» (1987, 2000)
IMDb:	ID 0000246

Брюс Уиллис, урождённый Уолтер Брюс Уиллис (англ. Walter Bruce Willis, род. 19 марта 1955, Идар-Оберштайн, ФРГ) — американский киноактёр, продюсер, музыкант. Один из самых высокооплачиваемых актёров Голливуда. Наибольшую известность получил за роли в таких фильмах как «Крепкий орешек» (1988), «Криминальное чтиво» (1994), «Пятый элемент» (1997), «Армагеддон» (1998), «Шестое чувство» (1999), «Город грехов» (2005).

Биография

Брюс Уиллис родился на американской военной базе в Идар-Оберштейне (Западная Германия) у американца и немки. Его отец Дэвид был сварщиком. В 1957 г., после того как окончилась его служба в Вооружённых силах, семья вернулась в Нью-Джерси. У Брюса — старшего из четырёх детей — было довольно бурное детство. В детстве Брюс заикался. Волнение и переживание буквально лишали его речи. Чтобы побороть себя и свой дефект, он записался в школьный театральный кружок. Уиллису нравилось выступать на сцене перед большой аудиторией. Так что учёбу в средней школе он совмещал с членством в драматическом кружке, где участвовал в постановках Шекспира и Уильямса. Вскоре Уиллис окончил Государственный колледж в Монклер, после чего перебрался в Нью-Йорк, где перебивался случайными заработками в барах, играл в фольклорном ансамбле «Акселераторы» на губной гармонике и изо всех сил стремился попасть на сцену.

Карьера

Слава пришла не сразу — Уиллису пришлось несколько лет играть в малоизвестных столичных театрах и исполнять эпизодические роли в телевизионных постановках, прежде чем на него обратили внимание и пригласили сниматься в телесериале «Детективное агентство „Лунный свет“» (1985—1989 гг.) За Уиллисом закрепилась репутация комика, однако в 1988 г. он неожиданно снялся в боевике «Крепкий орешек», который и принёс ему мировую известность. Впоследствии Уиллис не раз возвращался к амплуа героя-одиночки — достаточно вспомнить такие фильмы, как «Пятый элемент», «Восход Меркурия», а также три довольно успешных сиквела «Крепкого орешка».

В карьере Уиллиса случались и спады, и подъёмы. Например, в начале 90-ых он снялся в нескольких не самых удачных фильмах, но в 1994 г. сыграл заметную, хотя и не главную роль в культовом фильме Квентина Тарантино «Криминальное чтиво» и отвоевал утраченные позиции. В конце 90-ых последовал очередной спад, однако в 1999 г. Уиллис исполнил главную роль в фильме «Шестое чувство», который полюбился как зрителям, так и критикам. Уиллис заработал на этом фильме около 100 миллионов долларов.

В последние годы Уиллис активно сотрудничает с культовым кинорежиссёром Робертом Родригесом и уже снялся в двух его фильмах («Город грехов» и «Планета страха»).

Личная жизнь

С ноября 1987 г. по октябрь 2000 г. Уиллис был женат на актрисе Деми Мур. У них родились три дочери: Румер Гленн Уиллис (англ. Rumer Glenn Willis, р. 1988), Скаут Ляру Уиллис (англ. Scout LaRue Willis, р. 1991) и Талула Бэль Уиллис (англ. Tallulah Belle Willis, р. 1994). Сама пара считалась образцовой. После неожиданного развода Уиллиса и Мур ходили слухи о повторной свадьбе, однако Мур неожиданно вышла замуж за юного Эштона Катчера. Тем не менее, бывшие супруги сохраняют дружеские отношения и деловые связи. В настоящий момент женат на Эмме Хеминг.

Политические взгляды

Некоторые источники сообщают о том, что Уиллис хотел участвовать во второй иракской войне, но получил отказ из-за своего возраста. Он предложил 1 миллион долларов любому человеку, который выдаст Усама бин Мухаммада бин Авада бин Ладина и некоторых других террористических лидеров. Брюсу Уиллису не нравится, как в СМИ освещается иракский конфликт. Поэтому он собирается снять провоенный фильм, в котором американские солдаты будут показаны храбрыми борцами за свободу и демократию.

На вопрос о своём отношении к республиканской партии Уиллис ответил так: «Мне надоело отвечать на этот вопрос. Я республиканец только в том смысле, что я хочу ослабления власти. Я хочу, чтобы они перестали тянуть мои и ваши деньги, я не хочу 50%-ных налогов. Я хочу, чтобы эти лоббисты покинули Вашингтон. Сделайте всё это, и я признаю себя республиканцем. Я ненавижу правительство, ОК? Я аполитичен. Запишите это. Я не республиканец».

Интересные факты

Брюс Уиллис

• …левша.
• …заикался в детстве.
• …иногда носит четыре серёжки в левом ухе (первую дырку проделал в 14 лет).
• …в 2003 г. нанёс татуировку на своё правое плечо.
• …лютеранин.
• …очень неплохо говорит по-немецки.
• …в 1993 г. участвовал в рекламной кампании «Субару», в благодарность за это его именем была названа одна из моделей — Subaru Touring Bruce.
• …выступил в качестве судьи в финале конкурса «Мисс Италия» в 2005 г.
• …снялся в четырёх фильмах с Сэмюэлем Л. Джексоном: «Заряженное оружие, часть 1», «Криминальное чтиво», «Крепкий орешек 3: Возмездие» и «Неуязвимый».
• …не заявлен в титрах культового фильма «Четыре комнаты» / Four Rooms, а также фильма «Планета страха» / Planet Terror.
• …награждён французским Орденом Искусств и Литературы.
• …на пробах в сериал «Детективное агентство „Лунный свет“» был последним после почти 200 участников.

Фильмография

• 1980 — Первый смертный грех / The First Deadly Sin (в титрах не указан)
• 1980 — Принц города / Ein Guru kommt (в титрах не указан)
• 1982 — Вердикт / The Verdict (в титрах не указан)
• 1984 — Полиция Майами / Miami Vice (1-ый сезон, эпизод 7: Нет выхода/No Exit)
• 1985 — Детективное Агентство «Лунный Свет»
• 1987 — Знакомство вслепую / Blind Date
• 1988 — Крепкий орешек / Die Hard
• 1988 — Закат / Sunset
• 1989 — В провинции / In Country
• 1989 — Уж кто бы говорил / Look Who’s Talking (голос)
• 1989 — И это адекватно / That’s Adequate (эпизод)
• 1990 — Костёр тщеславия / The Bonfire of the Vanities
• 1990 — Крепкий орешек 2 / Die Hard 2
• 1990 — Уж кто бы говорил 2 / Look Who’s Talking Too (голос)
• 1991 — Билли Батгейт / Billy Bathgate
• 1991 — Гудзонский ястреб / Hudson Hawk
• 1991 — Последний бойскаут / The Last Boy Scout
• 1991 — Мысли о смерти / Mortal Thoughts
• 1992 — Смерть ей к лицу / Death Becomes Her
• 1992 — Игрок / The Player (эпизод)
• 1993 — Заряженное оружие, часть 1 / National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 (эпизод)
• 1993 — На расстоянии удара / Striking Distance
• 1994 — Цвет ночи / Color of Night
• 1994 — Стреляный воробей / Nobody’s Fool
• 1994 — Норт / North
• 1994 — Криминальное чтиво / Pulp Fiction
• 1995 — Крепкий орешек 3: Возмездие / Die Hard: With a Vengeance’
• 1995 — Четыре комнаты / Four Rooms
• 1995 — Двенадцать обезьян / Twelve Monkeys
• 1996 — Бивис и Батт-Хед уделывают Америку / Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (голос)
• 1996 — Герой-одиночка / Last Man Standing
• 1997 — Пятый элемент / The Fifth Element
• 1997 — Шакал / The Jackal
• 1998 — Меркурий в опасности / Mercury Rising
• 1998 — Армагеддон / Armageddon
• 1998 — Осада / The Siege
• 1999 — Завтрак для чемпионов / Breakfast of Champions
• 1999 — Шестое чувство / The Sixth Sense
• 1999 — История о нас / The Story of Us
• 1999 — Фрэнки едет в Голливуд / Franky Goes to Hollywood (эпизод)
• 2000 — Девять ярдов / The Whole Nine Yards
• 2000 — Малыш / The Kid
• 2000 — Неуязвимый / Unbreakable
• 2001 — Бандиты / Bandits
• 2002 — Война Харта / Hart’s War
• 2002 — Великий Чемпион / Grand Champion (эпизод)
• 2003 — Слёзы солнца / Tears of the Sun
• 2003 — Карапузы встречают Торнберри / Rugrats Go Wild! (голос)
• 2003 — Ангелы Чарли 2: Только вперед / Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (эпизод)
• 2004 — Десять ярдов / The Whole Ten Yards
• 2004 — Двенадцать друзей Оушена / Ocean’s Twelve (эпизод)
• 2005 — Заложник / Hostage
• 2005 — Город грехов / Sin City
• 2006 — Нация фастфуда / Fast Food Nation
• 2006 — 16 кварталов / 16 Blocks
• 2006 — Счастливое число Слевина / Lucky Number Slevin
• 2006 — Лесная братва / Over the Hedge (голос)
• 2007 — Фермер-астронавт / Astronaut Farmer (не указан в титрах)
• 2007 — Альфа Дог / Alpha Dog
• 2007 — Идеальный незнакомец / Perfect Stranger
• 2007 — Крепкий орешек 4.0 / Live Free or Die Hard
• 2007 — Планета страха / Planet Terror (эпизод)
• 2007 — Нэнси Дрю / Nancy Drew (эпизод)
• 2008 — Однажды в Голливуде / What Just Happened?
• 2008 — Убийство школьного президента (Второкурсник в российском прокате) / Assassination of a High School President
• 2008 — The Lost Eagles
• 2009 — Кейн и Линч: Смертники / Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
• 2009 — Суррогаты / The Surrogates

Награды

• 1987 — телевизионная премия «Эмми» (Emmy) за выдающуюся роль первого плана в сериале «Детективное агентство „Лунный свет“».
• 1987 — «Золотой глобус» — «Лучший актёр ТВ-сериала (комедия/мюзикл)» «Детективное агентство „Лунный свет“».
• 1998 — антипремия «Золотая малина» за худшую актёрскую работу в фильме «Армагеддон»
• 2000 — телевизионная премия «Эмми» (Emmy) за выдающуюся роль второго плана в сериале «Друзья».
• 2006 — на знаменитой голливудской Аллее Славы заложена плита с его именем.

Ссылки

• Брюс Уиллис(англ.) на сайте Internet Movie Database
• Брюс Уиллис на peoples.ru