Bruce Willis Biography

Biography

Birth Name
Walter Bruce Willis
Date of birth (location)
19 March 1955
Idar-Oberstein, West Germany

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A relaxed, raffish performer whose ironic style and working-class persona have made him a fan favorite, Bruce Willis was a Jersey boy living large in the Big Apple before shooting to stardom as private investigator David Addison on TV's successful "Moonlighting" (ABC, 1985-89). The 1980s were wild, awash in booze and drugs, and while the devil-may-care bartender was right in the middle of their surreal after-hours swirl, he was also developing some legitimate acting chops. Having landed his first Off-Broadway role in "Heaven and Earth" (1977), he spent the next seven years paying his dues as a model, acting sometimes extremely far off Off-Broadway, appearing ever so briefly in movies (blink and you'll miss him in "The First Deadly Sin" 1980 and "The Verdict" 1982) and showing up occasionally as a guest on TV (e.g., "Hart to Hart" ABC, "Miami Vice" NBC). His big break came in 1984 when he replaced Ed Harris in Sam Shepard's Off-Broadway hit "Fool for Love", which in turn earned him an audition for "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985). Though he didn't get that part, he remained an extra day in Hollywood to throw his hat in the "Moonlighting" ring. Arriving in combat fatigues and sporting a punk haircut, he eventually beat out the other 3000 hopefuls, despite his unconventional look.

Willis displayed the same cocky charm that James Cagney exhibited early in his career, and the hip, dialogue-driven romantic comedy "Moonlighting" was one of the most inventive shows of the decade. Widely-publicized battles involving its two stars and creator Glenn Gordon Caron resulted in production delays and numerous repeat episodes, but the on-set tensions also helped simulate sexual energy with co-star Cybill Shepherd, adding an edge to their rocky relationship that was finally consummated at the end of the 1986-87 season. After appearing on several TV shows (i.e., "The Twilight Zone" CBS, 1985) and his own music special, "The Return of Bruno" (HBO, 1987), he graduated to features in two uneven Blake Edwards comedies, "Blind Date" (1987) and "Sunset" (1988). His charming "Moonlighting" smirk notwithstanding, Willis seemed just another fading TV personality unable to translate his appeal onto the large screen when agent Arnold Rifkin got him "Die Hard" (1988) and a $5 million payday, raising a cry throughout Hollywood that a movie actor without pedigree should not command such a sum. As it turned out, his salary proved a veritable bargain as the sleeper hit spawned a franchise and launched him as an action-hero on par with the likes of Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzennegger.

Willis' wise-guy machismo worked perfectly for NYC cop John McClane, and he reprised the role in large scale sequels "Die Hard II: Die Harder" (1990) and "Die Hard with a Vengeance" (1995). He also supplied the voice of Mikey in the hit comedy "Look Who's Talking" (1989) and its limp follow-up "Look Who's Talking Too" (1990), as well as showing ambition to stretch his talents with a surprisingly good performance as the cynical, shell-shocked Vietnam veteran of "In Country" (also 1989). He went on to flex his acting muscles as the low-life murder victim in "Mortal Thoughts" (1991, opposite then-wife Demi Moore) and the hapless plastic surgeon in the horror comedy "Death Becomes Her" (1992), high points in the midst of some extraordinary disasters. In fact, the ill-conceived "Bonfire of the Vanities" (1990), the self-indulgent action flop "Hudson Hawk" (for which he co-wrote the story and theme song), and the box-office disappointments "Billy Bathgate" and "The Last Boy Scout" (all 1991) conspired to put his career on very "iffy" footing. Though he enjoyed spoofing himself in Robert Altman's "The Player" (1992), it was well-received supporting turns as a prizefighter who refuses to take a dive in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and as Paul Newman's employer in "Nobody's Fool" (both 1994) that finally restored his bankability.

Terry Gilliam's "12 Monkeys" (1995) showed Willis to good effect as a time-traveling scientist whose self-sacrifice alters the course of the future for the good, but his collaboration with writer-director Walter Hill on "Last Man Standing" (1996), a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai epic "Yojimbo", was a torturously slow affair. As the 90s wore on, Willis comfortably wore the mantle of action hero (despite chafing at the garment's limitations) in such big-budgeted effects-laden efforts as Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" (1997), which enjoyed a tremendous worldwide box office against meager US returns, and the blockbuster "Armageddon" (1998), playing an ace oil driller who sacrifices his life to save the world. He attempted a change of pace with his first large-scale, villainous role, that of the titular mercenary killer in the very watchable, globe-trotting thriller "The Jackal" (1997), but was back to the same old, same old for "Mercury Rising" (also 1998), though he showed a softer side protecting an autistic nine-year-old from the villainous Alec Baldwin. His power hungry general also single-handedly altered the tone of that year's "The Siege" from a serious-minded thriller to a one-dimensional, cartoon shoot-em-up.

Willis debuted as a producer on "Sunset" and has not enjoyed much success on subsequent behind-the-scenes efforts with brother David receiving producer's credit (i.e., "Hudson Hawk", "Color of Night" 1994), though he professes "Hawk" finally made it into the black. One such outing provided him a change-of-pace role as Dwayne Hoover, the suicidal car salesman, in the art house production "Breakfast of Champions" (1999), a boon for fans of the Kurt Vonnegut novel but tough going otherwise. He wisely chose to act in that year's paranormal surprise "The Sixth Sense", which under the direction of M. Night Shyamalan offered him at his most subdued as he effectively played dramatic scenes opposite the flick's real star, 12-year-old Haley Joel Osment in the role of the boy who can see dead people. He also undertook a role which paralleled his own life in Rob Reiner's comedy-drama "The Story of Us" (also 1999), drawing on his own difficulties with Demi Moore for its sad-sack story of a marriage in trouble. In 2000 Willis continued to resist the call of the action hero in "Disney's The Kid", portraying a 40-year-old who gets to spend time with his eight-year-old self, reteaming with Shyamalan on the supernatural thriller "Unbreakable" and scoring a surprise hit with the mob comedy "The Whole Ten Yards" as the ex-mobster Jimmy "The Tuilp." Returning to the small screen for a three-episode arc on Perry's NBC's hit sitcom "Friends", Willis picked up a second Emmy Award playing the disapproving father of a college co-ed dating the character of Ross (David Schwimmer) who romances Rachel (Jennifer Aniston).

Back on the big screen, he was once again in laconic mode as the prison escapee who serves as the brains in a series of bank robberies muddied by the fact that he and his partner (Billy Bob Thornton) both have fallen in love with a runaway housewife (Cate Blanchett) in the overlong "Bandits" (2001). Willis was shown to better effect as an American P.O.W. presiding over a murder trial in the WWII drama "Hart's War" (2002) and as the leader of a special operations force on a search and rescue mission in the jungles of Africa in "Tears of the Sun" (2003). That year he also voiced the animated canine Spike in "Rugrats Go Wild" and had an uncredited, nearly unrecognizable cameo in "Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle," the comeback vehicle for his friendly ex, Moore, before returning as Jimmy the Tulip for the sequel "The Whole Ten Yards." He popped up with another cameo appearance, this time as himself in "Ocean's 12" (2004), the sequel to the 2001 caper comedy hit.

Willis returned to the thriller genre with the Miramax-produced "Hostage" (2005), with a screenplay written by bestselling novelist Robert Crais--in the film the actor plays a failed LAPD hostage negotiator who, in his new job as a suburban police chief, finds himself forced to rely on his old skills to save his estranged family. The film had its merits but sunk at the box office. Willis was better served in the highly stylized "Sin City" (2005), Robert Rodriguez's visually arresting adaptation of Frank Miller's crime noir comic book series in which Willis had the plumb role of Hartigan, the noble but world-weary and heart-troubled cop who goes to jail rather than lead the corrupt family of a pedophile to the victim he saved, only to become embroiled again with all of the players in his past, in the film's best segment, "That Yellow Bastard."