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 while living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. He enrolled in the Drama Program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
NEW ROCK OF AGES MOVIE SERIES
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. Īfter graduating from high school in 1973, Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. He joined the drama club, found that acting on stage reduced his stutter, and was eventually elected student council president. Willis, who spoke with a stutter, attended Penns Grove High School, where his schoolmates nicknamed him "Buck-Buck". His mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.
Willis has described his background as a "long line of blue-collar people". After being discharged from the military in 1957, his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey. Willis has a younger sister, Florence, and two younger brothers, Robert (deceased) and David. His father, David Willis, was an American soldier. His mother, Marlene, was German, from Kassel. Walter Bruce Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, on March 19, 1955. 2.5 2020s: Critical decline, health problems and retirement.2.2 1990s: Die Hard sequels, Pulp Fiction and dramatic roles.Films featuring Willis have grossed between US$2.64 billion and $3.05 billion at North American box offices, making him in 2010 the eighth-highest-grossing actor in a leading role.
He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006. Willis has received various accolades throughout his career, including a Golden Globe Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two People's Choice Awards. He made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Misery in 2015. In March 2022, Willis's family announced that he was retiring after being diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that affects language cognition.Īs a singer, Willis released his debut album The Return of Bruno in 1987, followed by two more albums in 19. In the later years of his career, Willis starred in a number of low-budget independent films, which were poorly received. Willis's other credits include The Last Boy Scout (1991), Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), Last Man Standing (1996), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Hart's War (2002), Tears of the Sun (2003), Hostage (2005), Lucky Number Slevin (2006), Surrogates (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Rock the Kasbah (2015) and Motherless Brooklyn (2019). He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985–1989) and appeared in over a hundred films, gaining widespread recognition as an action hero after his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013) and other roles. His career began on the off-Broadway stage in the 1970s. The third in Michael Glawogger’s globalization trilogy (following “Megacities” and “Workingman’s Death”) examines global prostitution.Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is an American retired actor. Greta Gerwig, so great in “Damsels in Distress,” gives this quirky romantic comedy a spin playing a jilted lover who tries a little bed-hopping to compensate in the days leading up to her 30th birthday. The 2012 Sundance award-winner for best screenplay. She rightfully expects the guy to be a nut, but what she doesn’t count on is falling in love with him. Rising star Aubrey Plaza dazzles in her first leading role, playing a jaded magazine reporter sent to interview a man (Mark Duplass) who placed a classified ad seeking a companion to accompany him on a trip back in time. Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”) directs.Īdam Sandler tries to wash from our mouths the putrid taste of his multi-Razzy-“winning” “Jack and Jill” with this family dramedy about a father (Sandler) trying to reconnect with his estranged son (“SNL’s” Andy Sandberg) on the eve of the lad’s wedding.
The story centers on Drew (Diego Boneta) and Sherrie (Julianne Hough), two aspiring stars who fall in love in 1987 Los Angeles. Tom Cruise leads an all-star cast in this big-screen version of the Tony-nominated musical celebrating the big-hair bands of the 1980s.