Trade mark

Frequently plays a man who suffered a tragedy, had lost something or had a crisis of confidence or conscience.

Mini Biography

Bruce Willis grew up mainly in PennsGrove, New Jersey and graduated from high school there before going to New York to become an actor. Waited tables and tended bar for a living until he began to get roles in plays. Was seen tending bar in New York by a casting director who liked his personality & needed a bartender for a small movie role.

Trivia

• Was high school student council president.
• His recording of "Respect Yourself" reached #5 in January of 1987. Bruce and Demi announce they are ending their marriage of eleven years. No reasons given. [24 June 1998]
• Ranked #22 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
• Has three daughters with Moore: Rumer Willis (b. 1988), Scout Larue (b. 1991) and Tallulah Belle Willis (b. 1994).
• His mother Marlene was born in Kassel, Germany.
• Appeared on "Late Show with David Letterman" (1993) to advertise for Demi Moore's Striptease (1996) by doing his own undressing act. [1996]
• As a young man his personality was very much like that of the character that he portrayed on "Moonlighting" (1985). He was always getting into trouble because of this and was bodily ejected from parties by the hosts for being obnoxious.
• Has been very vocal in his support of almost every major republican candidate in recent history except Bob Dole. He felt that presidential candidate Dole was out of line in his attacks on Demi Moore and her part in the movie Striptease (1996).
• Was the first actor to ever "act" in a video game. No one before has ever done voice work along with having their movements digitally added to the game.
• Stated he will no longer be doing violent action or "save-the-world" movies. [2001] Wears his watch upside down with the face on the inside of his hand. This is also visible in many movies he's done (Die Hard with a Vengeance, Mercury Rising, etc.) where they haven't requested him to flip it over.
• Memorial Day weekend, 1987: Was arrested after reportedly disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer who was called to quiet a raucous party at his home. The charges were dropped after Willis agreed to apologize to his neighbors. According to friends, he had a terrible stammer as a child.
• Younger brother Robert died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 42. [2001] Was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean's Eleven (2001) but dropped out. Attended Montclair State College in Montclair, NJ.
• Set a new benchmark for actors' salaries when he was paid $5 million for Die Hard in 1988. Eight years later his wife Demi set a benchmark of 12 million with Striptease. His ineptness as a waiter forced him to become a bartender.
• Was named Man of the Year by Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. [February 2002]
• Was born on a military base in Germany. Was president of a drama club at school.
• Worked in a chemical factory before going to college.
• He filled in as a last-minute host for David Letterman on February 26, 2003, a show he was supposed to be the guest for. It was Letterman's first "sick day" in 20 years (other than his time off for heart surgery).
• Ranked #3 in Star TV's Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s (2003) Lives in Hailey, Idaho, where he owns The Mint bar and the Liberty Theater. He also owns the old Hailey Drug Store, but the building has been vacant and unused since the early 90s. The scar on his right shoulder is from surgery due to complications from a broken arm when he was 17.
• Has been in 7 movies with numbers in the title: _First Deadly Sin, The (1980)_ , Twelve Monkeys (1995), Four Rooms (1995), Fifth Element, The (1997), Sixth Sense, The (1999), Whole Nine Yards, The (2000) and Whole Ten Yards, The (2004).
• Personally recommended Bonnie Bedelia for the role of his estranged wife in Die Hard (1988). He is the hero of singer Nick Lachey
• Producers chose him for the role of John McClane because they felt he added a warmth and a sense of humor to an otherwise humorless character.
• He ad-libbed many of John McClane's one-liners in the "Die Hard" films.
• Graduate of Penns Grove High School, Penns Grove, New Jersey. Class of 1973 who voted him "Most School Spirit."
• Dating actress and model Brooke Burns [2004] He was the only celebrity that attended Julia Roberts' wedding to Danny Moder.

Personal Quotes

"I'm much more proud of being a father than being an actor." "You can't undo the past... but you can certainly not repeat it."

"I'm staggered by the question of what it's like to be a multimilionaire. I always have to remind myself that I am."

Salary

Hart's War (2002) $22,500,000
Kid, The (2000) $20,000,000
Sixth Sense, The (1999) $100,000,000 (salary, gross and video participations)
Siege, The (1998) $5,000,000
Armageddon (1998) $14,800,000
Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995) $15,000,000
Pulp Fiction (1994) $800,000
Bonfire of the Vanities, The (1990) $3,000,000
Die Hard 2 (1990)$7,500,000
Look Who's Talking (1989) $10,000,000
Die Hard (1988) $5,000,000

Movie Quotes

Few actors have had as many ups and downs during the first decade of a career-or had to battle so many shifts in public perception. Painted by some as a Star with an Attitude, Willis has also shown himself to be a versatile actor willing to take chances. After "extra" work in The First Deadly Sin (1980) and The Verdict (1982), and a notable appearance as a wife-beating gunrunner on an episode of "Miami Vice," he became an overnight sensation (and won an Emmy) as the goofy private eye on "Moonlighting" (1985-89), opposite Cybill Shepherd. Feature-film work quickly followed, first with a pair of films for Blake Edwards: a moderately successful slapstick farce, Blind Date (1987), and Sunset (1988), a strange Hollywood whodunit set in the 1920s that miscast Willis as cowboy star Tom Mix.

Just as some wags were writing Willis off as a flash in the pan, he landed himself an action film; there was skepticism that he could carry a Stallone type of part, but the role of a loner cop in Die Hard (1988) was tailormade, replete with wisecracks, and the film became a tremendous hit. There was, of course, a Die Hard 2 in 1990, and a third, Die Hard With a Vengeance in 1995. The actor also starred in another smash the next year without even having to show up; he was the voice of a precocious baby in the comedy Look Who's Talking (1989). He also took his first serious screen role in the unsuccessful In Country (1989), as a shell-shocked Vietnam vet.

Willis' stock plummeted just as quickly with two mega-turkeys that cast him in arrogant roles: the writer in the misjudged adaptation of The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) and a safecracker in the overblown vanity production Hudson Hawk (1991), for which he provided the story and the title song (!). A return to Die Hard territory with The Last Boy Scout (1991) did only marginally better. Meanwhile, he gave sterling performances in supporting roles, as an abusive husband in Mortal Thoughts (1991, opposite wife Demi Moore) and a disloyal gangster in Billy Bathgate (also 1991), causing some to wonder if he wouldn't be better off not being a star. Recent films include Death Becomes Her (1992), The Player (1992, as himself in a funny cameo), National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I (1993, another gag cameo), Striking Distance (also 1993), Color of Night and fine character roles in Nobody's Fool and Pulp Fiction (all 1994).