Bruce Willis
Birthdate: Mar 19, 1955
Birthplace: Idar-Oberstein, West Germany
Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD.Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, to a German mother, Marlene Kassel, and an American father, David Andrew Willis (from Carneys Point, New Jersey), who were then living on a United States military base. His family moved to the U.S. shortly after he was born, and he was raised in Penns Grove, New Jersey, where his mother worked at a bank and his father was a welder and factory worker. Willis picked up an interest for the dramatic arts in high school, and was allegedly 'discovered' whilst working in a café in New York City and then appeared in a couple of off-Broadway productions. While bartending one night, he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.After countless auditions, Willis contributed minor film appearances, usually uncredited, before landing the role of private eye 'David Addison' alongside sultry Cybill Shepherd in the hit romantic comedy television series Moonlighting (1985). His sarcastic and wisecracking P.I. is seen by some as a dry run for the role of hard-boiled NYC detective 'John McClane' in the monster hit Die Hard (1988), in which Willis' character single-handedly battled a gang of ruthless international thieves in a Los Angeles skyscraper. He reprised the role of McClane in the sequel, Die Hard 2 (1990), set at a snowbound Washington's Dulles International Airport as a group of renegade Special Forces soldiers seek to repatriate a corrupt South American general. Excellent box office returns demanded a further sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), this time co-starring Samuel L. Jackson as a cynical Harlem shop owner unwittingly thrust into assisting McClane during a terrorist bombing campaign on a sweltering day in New York.Willis found time out from all the action mayhem to provide the voice of 'Mikey' the baby in the very popular family comedies Look Who's Talking (1989), and its sequel Look Who's Talking Too (1990) also starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Over the next decade, Willis starred in some very successful films, some very offbeat films and some unfortunate box office flops. The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and Hudson Hawk (1991) were both large scale financial disasters that were savaged by the critics, and both are arguably best left off the CVs of all the actors involved, however Willis was still popular with movie audiences and selling plenty of theatre tickets with the hyper-violent The Last Boy Scout (1991), the darkly humored Death Becomes Her (1992) and the mediocre police thriller Striking Distance (1993).During the 1990s, Willis also appeared in several independent and low budget productions that won him new fans and praise from the critics for his intriguing performances working with some very diverse film directors. He appeared in the oddly appealing North (1994), as a cagey prizefighter in the Quentin Tarantino directed mega-hit Pulp Fiction (1994), the Terry Gilliam directed apocalyptic thriller 12 Monkeys (1995), the Luc Besson directed sci-fi opus The Fifth Element (1997) and the M. Night Shyamalan directed spine-tingling epic The Sixth Sense (1999).Willis next starred in the gangster comedy The Whole Nine Yards (2000), worked again with 'hot' director M. Night Shyamalan in the less than gripping Unbreakable (2000), and in two military dramas, Hart's War (2002) and Tears of the Sun (2003) that both failed to really fire with movie audiences or critics alike. However, Willis bounced back into the spotlight in the critically applauded Frank Miller graphic novel turned movie Sin City (2005), the voice of 'RJ' the scheming raccoon in the animated hit Over the Hedge (2006) and 'Die Hard' fans rejoiced to see 'John McClane' return to the big screen in the high tech Live Free or Die Hard (2007) aka 'Die Hard 4.0'.Willis was married to actress Demi Moore for approximately thirteen years and they share custody to their three daughters.
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Previous (14)
- 2021 | Survive the Game
Survive the Game
A Man's life on his farm is interrupted when a cop and a pair of dangerous criminals show up.
- 2021 | Midnight in the Switchgrass
Midnight in the Switchgrass
An FBI agent and Florida State officer team up to investigate a string of unsolved murder cases.
- 2021 | Out of Death
Out of Death
A corrupt Sheriff's department in a rural mountain town comes undone when an unintended witness throws a wrench into their shady operation.
- 2019 | Motherless BrooklynasFrank Minna
Motherless Brooklyn
In 1950s New York, a lonely private detective afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend.
- 2019 |
- 2018 | Nobody’s Fool
Nobody’s Fool
A woman is released from prison and reunites with her sister. She soon discovers that her sister is in an online relationship with a man who may not be what he seems.
- 2018 | Death WishasPaul Kersey
Death Wish
Dr. Paul Kersey is an experienced trauma surgeon, a man who has spent his life saving lives. After an attack on his family, Paul embarks on his own mission for justice.
- 2015 | Rock the KasbahasBombay Brian
Rock the Kasbah
A down-on-his-luck music manager discovers a teenage girl with an extraordinary voice while on a music tour in Afghanistan and takes her to Kabul to compete on the popular television show, Afghan Star.
- 2013 |
- 2013 | A Good Day to Die HardasJohn McClane
A Good Day to Die Hard
John McClane travels to Russia to help out his seemingly wayward son, Jack, only to discover that Jack is a CIA operative working undercover, causing the father and son to team up against underworld forces.
- 2012 |
- 1997 | The Fifth ElementasKorben Dallas
The Fifth Element
In the colorful future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon to keep Evil and Mr. Zorg at bay.
- 1990 | Die Hard 2
Die Hard 2
John McClane attempts to avert disaster as rogue military operatives seize control of Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
- 1988 |
