Published in Vol. 23 Issue 12 of SIN.ie, 12 Apr. 2022, Arts & Fashion
In a post shared by Bruce Willis’ eldest daughter on social media, the actor’s family announced his acting career was at an end.
“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” the post on Rumer Willis’ profile reads. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.” The post was signed by Rumer and her four siblings, the actor’s wife Emma Heming Willis and his ex-wife Demi Moore.
The type of aphasia the Die Hard actor is suffering from was not specified.
A sad news, ending a four-decade acting career marked by about 100-films, a Golden Globe Award and two Emmys. If you are in the mood to celebrate Bruce Willis’ legacy, here are some of the actor’s most acclaimed performances.
Die Hard (1988 – 2013)
Die Hard are the classic Bruce Willis’ movies. The first Die Hard was released in 1988, the fifth and last one in 2013. In it, Willis plays John McClane, NYPD’s detective lieutenant of Irish-American descent and father of two. This role propelled him from the status of TV star to the one of movie star, three years after the success of Moonlighting.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Willis continued his career by playing Butch Coolidge in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, released in 1994, between Die Hard 2 (1990) and Die Hard 3 (1995). Pulp Fiction won the Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. The movie was also nominated for seven awards at the 67th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won Best Original Screenplay, and was named Best Film of 1994 by the National Society of Film Critics, amongst other distinctions.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The sense of dread emanating from The Sixth Sense makes the horror in it a unique type of horror. Willis plays Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a child-psychologist in Philadelphia. Co-star Toni Collette is Lynn Sear, the worried mother of a 9-year-old boy (Haley Joel Osment) who claims he can see dead people. Willis’ character in The Sixth Sense contrasts with his character in Die Hard, the sensitive and quiet Dr. Crowe showing a lesser-known side of the action movies’ star.
Sin City (2005, 2014)
A-list action stars shared the screen with Willis in those two film noir movies by Robert Rodriguez, based on the Franck Miller’s graphic novels. I read a description of Sin City that says: “a city where the streets are always wet, the cars are ragtops and everybody smokes.” (Ebert, 2005) I will not develop, because the sentence speaks for itself.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
In Wes Anderson’s seventh’s feature Willis is a police captain (Captain Sharp) of a fictional island in New England. A heartfelt performance that shows a less “macho” side of him, Moonrise Kingdom, like Looper (2012, Rian Johnson), added another card to Willis’ portfolio of roles.
Let’s not forget that Bruce Willis also played Rachel Green (Jenifer Anniston)’s boyfriend in Friends, one of my favourite guest appearances of the show. From Hollywood he-man to more sensitive characters, Willis’ career has been a success. He will still be seen a few times in new productions expected to be released later this year, including Josh Sternfeld’s Fortress 2: Sniper’s Eyes and Sean O’Reilly’s Corrective Measures.
For more information on aphasia: https://aphasiaireland.ie/