Though his speaking issues were a source of insecurity for Willis, he managed to make it work. “So I was popular in that sense, but inside I was really shook up by the fact that I couldn’t get rid of this stutter.” His breakout performance in the 1980s TV dramedy “Moonlighting” put him on the map, but it was his portrayal of John McClane in the “Die Hard” film franchise that launched him into superstardom.
Tallulah Willis Gives Moving Update On Father Bruce Willis During ‘TODAY’ Interview
However, she also credits his request for a divorce to a desire for more freedom. Pint-sized compared to Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo and gentler than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, Willis was everyone’s last choice to play John McClane in “Die Hard,” according to Showbiz Cheatsheet. But he bought his place in history by fusing his everyman energy with quick-minded wit, winning over just about everyone in America. Willis also discussed the 1994 classic “Pulp Fiction,” and the disturbing scene he shared with Ving Rhames. “Those were a couple of dark days of shooting,” Willis said of acting with a ball gag in his mouth. After years of sobriety, Bruce Willis is allowing himself alcohol again, but in limited quantities, the “Die Hard” star told GQ magazine in a new cover story.
Willis himself would first work as a security guard at a nuclear power plant before he started acting in earnest first in stage productions then on-screen in the ’80s. But he didn’t dive right into action; on the contrary, Willis was a common presence in comedies when his career took off, thanks to the comedy-drama series Moonlighting. Once Willis found fame for his starring role in “Moonlighting,” he decided to try his hand at other performing arts — namely, music.
He added that although research about frontotemporal dementia is ongoing, much more needs to be done to better understand the disease and to raise public awareness. “Because his diagnosis is frontotemporal dementia, Mr. Willis clearly has a progressive, neurodegenerative disease as opposed to a stroke or a tumor or some other lesion on the brain,” he added. When we started talking to more crew members and filmmakers, it was honestly astounding to me that after making something like 22 films in the last four years, only now were rumblings about the situation starting to emerge on message boards like Reddit.
- By the time he was a teenager, he could more comfortably express himself, but until the age of nine, he stuttered when speaking.
- “‘Growing Pains’ was one of the vehicles — I was one of the guys. And the other guy was Bruce Willis. So, I guess there would have been a chance that I would have been in ‘Moonlighting’ and Bruce Willis would have been their dad.”
- Coop.” A highlight of my college summers was eating a steak dinner with Cliff Robertson, Cristina Ferrare and crew at 3 a.m.
- Their views clashed when Moore was offered a role in a film that would’ve taken her away from home.
Willis’ journey to action-packed, six-packed fame did not start with thrilling films of flashy gunfights; in fact, it did not even start in America. And for all the times he wrestled a situation into control, there were many uphill battles he faced in his personal life. This commercial campaign began in 1986 which obviously pre-dated his role as “John McClane” in 1988’s blockbuster Die Hard which can police dogs sniff out nicotine really made Willis into a superstar. I was obviously not old enough to drink alcohol at the time of these commercials, but man did he make wine coolers seem cool.
Bruce Willis has his own starring role in a video game
But he might not have ever played the part of psychologist Malcolm Crowe if he hadn’t owed the Disney studio, like, big time. Newfound fame can sometimes lead one to believe they are untouchable –- however, one can also soon be met with a rude awakening. One year before Willis quit drinking, his antics created a stir that landed him in trouble with the law. A 1987 article from the United Press International described a wild party gone wrong at Willis’s residence in Los Angeles. A neighbor called the police about the noise coming from Willis’s home, and when they went to investigate, they found a party in full swing, complete with loud music and alcohol.
Willis had a stutter until he discovered acting
Following his rise to fame in the late 1980s, Willis was hired by Seagrams to endorse its wine coolers, appearing in commercials for the company. However, Willis later pulled out of his deal with Seagrams when he realized that he had a problem. In 1988, Willis reportedly joined Alcoholics Anonymous in an attempt to get his drinking under control. However, there was a time in the movie star’s life when he struggled with speaking altogether. In a 2002 interview with Reader’s Digest, Willis spoke candidly about a debilitating stutter that he suffered as a child.
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Being only 8 blocks away from the center of “Off Broadway” (which encompassed not only small theaters but booking agencies and acting schools; there were TV studios even further west) made it a terrifically convenient location. You could finish a shift in the afternoon and, if you were working in a play, just walk over to backstage most of the time. Robert’s was also the news hub, and what we’d now call a networking center.