Rumors have been circulating for some time that Bruce Willis is suffering from serious health problems. Now his family has confirmed this and made it public that the actor must therefore end his career.
Bruce Willis suffers from aphasia and will therefore no longer be active. This message has now been published by his family. His daughter Rumer Willis, among others, posted the message on her social media channels.
Aphasia is a language disorder that results from brain injury and results in impairments in a person’s ability to communicate, which can be severe. Among other things, it can impair the ability to speak for oneself, but also the ability to understand other people, with varying degrees of severity.
The public statement from the “Die Hard” star’s family thus confirms what has been making the rounds in film circles for some time: The former action superstar is suffering from an illness that may also have taken a toll on his acting skills.
Many fans have recently watched with horror as Bruce Willis took on smaller and smaller roles in increasingly bad films. In 2021 alone, he has featured in over half a dozen direct-to-video pickles. Nearly a dozen more such films have already been filmed for a 2022 release. Willis often only has mini roles in it and was only on set for a few days of shooting. Sometimes he is doubled, his performance often seems wooden, and the lyrics are more like they were said. In this context, he was often accused of listlessness.
But rumors of some form of dementia have persisted for a while. Willis only plays these small parts because they allow him to keep his illness a secret with a limited stay on set. Some of the texts are announced by a button in his ear. He only takes on so many of these cheap roles because he wants to earn as much money as possible for his family before he is no longer able to.
Bruce Willis: Action star against odds
Born in Germany to a US soldier stationed here and a German mother, Bruce Willis made his breakthrough as a TV star. He won several awards for his role as a private detective in the series “The Model and the Snoop”. At the time, nobody saw him as an action star, and there were many reservations about the idea of casting Willis, who had almost no cinematic experience, for the leading role in Die Hard. But instead of Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger, he got the part – and created a cult figure.
Though Willis has long balked at being an action star, for many fans he is primarily that. In the course of his long career, he was seen in numerous different films such as “Pulp Fiction”, “The Sixth Sense”, “Unbreakable”, “Looper”, “12 Monkeys”, “The Fifth Element”, “Moonrise Kingdom” or “Last Boy Scout” to name a few appearances outside of the “Die Hard” series.
In the past few years, however, he has been present almost exclusively in mostly really bad direct-to-video productions. He made himself rare in major Hollywood films – and had the little fortune in rare appearances. His larger role as David Dunn from “Unbreakable” in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Glass” drew many critical voices. According to unconfirmed reports, Willis has often been doubled here, which is why his character often appears hidden under a large hood.
How long he has been suffering from his illness is unknown. Back in 2015, however, news circulated that Bruce Willis was fired from the set of a Woody Allen film because he allegedly couldn’t remember his dialogue, which drove the rest of the cast to despair.
However, many fans will not remember him for this or for his youngest gherkins – but for the many grandiose cult films and masterpieces in which he took part. In the end, it only remains for us to wish Bruce Willis and his family a lot of strength for the future together.
