Bruce Willis - Biography

• Birography
• Family & Relationships
• Wonder Years
• Wallpapers

Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955), better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles. He is well known for the role of John McClane in the Die Hard series, which were mostly critical and uniformly financial successes. He has also appeared in over sixty films, including box office successes like Pulp Fiction, Sin City, 12 Monkeys, The Fifth Element, Armageddon, and The Sixth Sense.

Motion pictures featuring Willis have grossed US$2.64 billion to 3.05 billion at North American box offices, making him the ninth highest-grossing actor in a leading role and twelfth highest including supporting roles. He is a two-time Emmy Award-winning, Golden Globe Award-winning and four-time Saturn Award-nominated actor. Willis was married to actress Demi Moore and they had three daughters before their divorce in 2000, following thirteen years of marriage.

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

Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. His mother, Marlene K., was German and born in Kassel, and his father, David Willis, was an American soldier. Willis is the eldest of four children: he has a sister, Florence, and a brother, David. His brother Robert died of pancreatic cancer in 2001, aged 42. After being discharged from the military in 1957, Willis's father took his family back to Carneys Point, New Jersey.Willis has described himself as having come from a "long line of blue collar people"; his mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.Willis attended Penns Grove High School in his hometown, where he encountered issues with a stutter.He was nicknamed Buck-Buck by his schoolmates.Finding it easy to express himself on stage and losing his stutter in the process, Willis began performing on stage and his high school activities were marked by such things as the drama club and student council president.

After high school, Willis took a job as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant and also transported work crews at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey.

After working as a private investigator (a role he would play in the television series Moonlighting as well as in the 1991 film, The Last Boy Scout), Willis returned to acting. He enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in the class production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Willis left school in his junior year and moved to New York City.

After multiple auditions, Willis made his theater debut in the off-Broadway production of Heaven and Earth. He gained more experience and exposure in Fool for Love, and in a Levi's commercial.

Willis acquired major personal success and pop culture influence playing John McClane in 1988's Die Hard. This film was followed up by Die Hard 2: Die Harder in 1990 and Die Hard With a Vengeance in 1995.These first three installments in the Die Hard series grossed over US$700 million internationally and propelled Willis to the first rank of Hollywood action stars.

In the early 1990s, Willis's career suffered a moderate slump starring in flops such as The Bonfire of the Vanities, Striking Distance, and a film he co-wrote titled Hudson Hawk, among others. He starred in a leading role in the highly sexualized thriller Color of Night (1994), which was very poorly received by critics, but did well in the home video market and became one of the Top 20 most-rented films in the United States in 1995.However, in 1994, he had a supporting role in Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed Pulp Fiction, which gave a new boost to his career. In 1996, he was the executive producer of the cartoon Bruno the Kid which featured a CGI representation of himself.

He went on to play the lead roles in Twelve Monkeys (1995) and The Fifth Element (1997). However, by the end of the 1990s, his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like The Jackal, Mercury Rising, and Breakfast of Champions, saved only by the success of the Michael Bay-directed Armageddon which was the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide.The same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse. In 1999, Willis then went on to the starring role in M. Night Shyamalan's film, The Sixth Sense. The film was both a commercial and critical success and helped to increase interest in his acting career.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The First Deadly Sin	Man Entering Diner	(uncredited)
1982	The Verdict	Courtroom Observer	(uncredited)
1985	A Guru Comes	Extra	(uncredited)
1987	Blind Date	Walter Davis
1988	The Return of Bruno	Bruno Radolini
1988	Sunset	Tom Mix
1988	Die Hard	John McClane
1989	That's Adequate	Himself
1989	In Country	Emmett Smith	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
1989	Look Who's Talking	Mikey	Voice Only
1990	Die Hard 2	John McClane
1990	Look Who's Talking Too	Mikey	Voice Only
1990	The Bonfire of the Vanities	Peter Fallow
1991	Mortal Thoughts	James Urbanski
1991	Hudson Hawk	Eddie 'Hudson Hawk' Hawkins	Writer
1991	Billy Bathgate	Bo Weinberg
1991	The Last Boy Scout	Joseph Cornelius 'Joe' Hallenbeck
1992	The Player	Himself
1992	Death Becomes Her	Dr. Ernest Menville	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
1993	Loaded Weapon 1	John McClane	Uncredited
1993	Striking Distance	Tom 'Tommy' Hardy
1994	North	Narrator/Guardian angel
1994	Color of Night	Dr. Bill Capa
1994	Pulp Fiction	Butch Coolidge	Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor
1994	Nobody's Fool	Carl Roebuck	Nominated — Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actor
1995	Die Hard with a Vengeance	John McClane
1995	Four Rooms	Leo	Uncredited
1995	Twelve Monkeys	James Cole	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
1996	Last Man Standing	John Smith
1996	Beavis and Butt-Head Do America	Muddy Grimes	Voice Only
1997	The Fifth Element	Korben Dallas
1997	The Jackal	The Jackal
1998	Mercury Rising	Art Jeffries
1998	Armageddon	Harry S. Stamper	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
1998	The Siege	Major General William Devereaux
1999	"Franky Goes to Hollywood"	Himself	Short subject
1999	Breakfast of Champions	Dwayne Hoover
1999	The Sixth Sense	Dr. Malcolm Crowe	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
1999	The Story of Us	Ben Jordan
2000	The Whole Nine Yards	Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski
2000	Disney's The Kid	Russell 'Russ' Duritz
2000	Unbreakable	David Dunn
2001	Bandits	Joe Blake
2002	Hart's War	Col. William A. McNamara
2002	Grand Champion	Mr. Blandford
2003	Tears of the Sun	Lieutenant A.K. Waters
2003	Rugrats Go Wild	Spike	Voice Only
2003	Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle	William Rose Bailey	Uncredited
2004	The Whole Ten Yards	Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski
2004	Ocean's Twelve	Himself
2005	Hostage	Jeff Talley	Also Producer
2005	Sin City	John Hartigan
2006	Alpha Dog	Sonny Truelove
2006	16 Blocks	Jack Mosley	Also Producer
2006	Fast Food Nation	Harry Rydell
2006	Lucky Number Slevin	Mr. Goodkat
2006	Over The Hedge	RJ	Voice Only
2007	The Astronaut Farmer	Colonel Doug Masterson	Uncredited
2007	Perfect Stranger	Harrison Hill
2007	Grindhouse	Lt. Muldoon
2007	Nancy Drew	Himself	Uncredited
2007	Live Free or Die Hard	John McClane	Also Producer. Named 'Die Hard 4.0' outside North America
2008	What Just Happened	Himself
2008	Assassination of a High School President	Principal Kirkpatrick
2009	Surrogates	Agent Tom Greer
2010	Cop Out	Jimmy Monroe
2010	The Expendables	Mr. Church	Cameo
2010	Red	Frank Moses
2011	Set Up	Biggs
2011	Catch .44	Mel	post-production
2012	The Cold Light of Day	Martin	filming
2012	Lay the Favorite	Dink Heimowitz	filming
2012	G.I. Joe: Retaliation	General Joseph Colton	filming
2012	Looper	Older Joe	post-production
2012	The Expendables 2	Mr. Church	pre-production
2013	Kane & Lynch	Adam 'Kane' Marcus

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Miami Vice	Tony Amato	Episode: "No Exit"
1985	The Twilight Zone	Peter Jay Novins	Episode: "Shatterday"
1985–89	Moonlighting	David Addison Jr.	67 episodes
1996–97	Bruno the Kid	Bruno the Kid	Voice
1997	Mad About You	Amnesia patient	Episode: "The Birth Part 2"
1999	Ally McBeal	Dr. Nickle	Episode: "Love Unlimited"
2000	Friends	Paul Stevens	Three episodes
2002	True West	Lee	Television film
2005	That '70s Show	Vic	Episode: "Misfire"

Late Show with David Letterman appearances

Date	Costume, Product, or Skit
Feb 2006	Coffee (Starbruce)
Sept 2006	Robotic Mop (Robo Bruce)
Sept 2007	Wind-powered Turbine Helmet, Illegal Fireworks (Ka-Bruce), "Roof Jump" skit
Nov 2008	Sarah Palin wig, Turkey Deep Fryer (Fry Hard with a Vengeance)
May 2009	Rubber Band Helmet (Bruce Willis' Concussion-Buster), "'Obsessed' Movie Cameo" skit
Sept 2009	Blanket w/Hairpiece (Bruce Willis' Skanket)
Dec 2009	"Bruce the Late Show Intern" skit
Feb 2010	Jets Fan outfit, "Olympic Skier" skit, Underwear (Bruce Willis' Amazing Exploding Underpants)
Oct 2010	Meat Hairpiece

Producer

Year	Title	Notes
1988	Sunset	Co-executive producer
2002	The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course	Producer
2007	The Hip Hop Project	Executive producer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Willis