March 30, 2022
by Carla Hay
Emmy-winning actor and prolific movie star Bruce Willis has retired from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, his family announced on Instagram on March 30, 2022. Aphasia is a brain disease that affects a person’s ability to speak and understand speech. The announcement was made by Willis’ second and current wife Emma Heming Willis; his ex-wife Demi Moore; and his five daughters: Rumer, Scout and Tallulah (from his marriage to Moore) and Mabel and Evelyn (from his marriage to Heming Willis). Moore and Willis were married from 1987 to 2000. Heming Willis and Willis have been married since 2009.
Walter Bruce Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, on March 19, 1955. His father David was an American soldier, and his mother Marlene was a German native. Willis (the oldest of four children) has a younger sister named Florence and two younger brothers: Robert (who is now deceased) and David. After David Willis Sr. was discharged from the military in 1957, the family moved to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey.
Bruce’s early acting career consisted mostly of doing TV commercials and off-Broadway theater. He reached worldwide fame with the 1985-1989 TV detective series “Moonlighting,” for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, in 1987. In 2000, he received his second Primetime Emmy Award (Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series), for guest-starring role on “Friends.”
He became a blockbuster movie actor (mostly in action films, sci-fi flicks and dramas) with the success of 1988’s “Die Hard,” which spawned several sequels. Bruce Willis’ other hit movies include 1994’s “Pulp Fiction,” 1995’s “12 Monkeys,” 1997’s “The Fifth Element,” 1998’s “Armageddon,” 1999’s “The Sixth Sense,” 2000’s “Unbreakable” and 2019’s “Glass.” In more recent years, he has starred in numerous low-budget independent films that have gotten mostly negative reviews from critics. Most of these movies (including 2021’s “Cosmic Sin,” “Apex” and “Fortress”) have had a limited theatrical release and/or gone directly to video or streaming services. His filmography lists several movies that are completed and are expected to be released in 2022 or 2023.