Bruce Willis Height, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Bruce Willis

• Bruce Willis, an American actor who gained popularity for his portrayal of David Addison Jr. in the comedy-drama series Moonlighting (1985-1989), went on to establish himself as an action hero with his iconic performance as John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988-2013). Willis is now retired from acting.

• After joining the drama club at Penns Grove High School, Bruce Willis found his passion for acting, which later led him to become a renowned American actor.

• Bruce Willis was an active member of the drama club during his school days and eventually became the student council president. Later, he attended Montclair State University and was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. However, he left school in 1977 before completing his degree.

• Although Bruce Willis was previously a Lutheran ^[19]Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church, he no longer practices the religion. In a July 1998 interview, he stated:

Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms. They were all very important when we didn’t know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred, or volcanoes happened. Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally! I choose not to believe that’s the way. And that’s what makes America cool, you know?”

• Bruce Willis and his then-wife Demi Moore supported Democratic Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’s Presidential campaign in 1988. However, four years later, he endorsed President George H. W. Bush’s re-election and spoke out against Bill Clinton. He gave a speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention and supported George W. Bush during the 1996 elections.

• In 2006, Willis expressed his belief that the United States should increase its involvement in Colombia to combat drug trafficking.

• During interviews, Willis advocated for higher salaries for teachers and police officers. He has also expressed disappointment with the US foster care system and the treatment of Native Americans. Additionally, he supports the right to bear arms, stating that legal gun owners have that right and that taking guns away only leaves them in the hands of bad actors.

• While Willis did not endorse or contribute to the 2008 presidential campaign, he stated in interviews conducted in June 2007 that he still held some Republican beliefs.

• On August 17, 2006, Willis’s name appeared in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times denouncing Hamas and Hezbollah and supporting Israel during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. In 2012, he publicly stated that he held unfavorable views toward Mitt Romney.

• After graduating from high school in 1973, Bruce 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 later became a private investigator before pursuing acting.

• Upon moving to New York in the early 1980s, Willis worked as a bartender at Kamikaze, a Manhattan-based art bar.

• Willis was chosen from a pool of 3,000 actors for the role of David Addison Jr. in the television show Moonlighting, which aired from 1985 to 1989. His work on the show earned him an Emmy award in 2000 for his role as the father of Ross Geller’s girlfriend on Friends. He went on to star in the 1987 film Blind Date, followed by Sunset (1988), where he played cowboy actor Tom Mix. However, it was his role as John McClane in Die Hard (1988) that propelled him to stardom. He continued to star in successful films such as Pulp Fiction (in the role of Butch Coolidge) (1994) and The Sixth Sense (1999) as Dr. Malcolm Crowe.
  

  Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction

  

  Bruce Willis as Dr. Crowe in The Sixth Sense

• Willis has also worked on animated films, including the 1996 cartoon Bruno the Kid, where he served as the executive producer and starred as a CGI version of himself. He also starred in Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996) and made a cameo appearance as himself in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019).

• Aside from acting, Willis has lent his voice to several films. He played the talking baby in Look Who’s Talking (1989) and its sequel, Look Who’s Talking Too (1990). He also voiced RJ the Raccoon in Over the Hedge (2006) and provided his voice and likeness to the character Trey Kincaid in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse (1998).

• Cheyenne Enterprises, a film production company, was founded by Willis and Arnold Rifkin in 2000. However, Willis resigned from the company and left Rifkin solely in charge after the release of Live Free or Die Hard.

• Aside from his film endeavors, Willis owns small businesses in Hailey, Idaho, including The Mint Bar and The Liberty Theater (later donated to Sun Valley Center for the Arts). He was also one of the original promoters of the restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, receiving payment through an employee stock ownership plan.

• In 2009, Willis entered into an agreement to become the international spokesperson for Sobieski Vodka, a Belvedere SA-owned brand, in exchange for a 3.3% stake in the company.

• On March 30, 2022, Willis’s family announced his retirement due to his diagnosis of aphasia, a condition caused by damage to the brain’s language comprehension and expression center. ^[20]The Guardian On February 16, 2023, his family announced that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. ^[21]CNN According to the family, Willis’s condition has “advanced,” and communication difficulties are only one of the symptoms.
  

  Demi Moore’s post on Bruce Willis’ retirement

• Despite struggling with stuttering during his youth, Willis discovered that his stuttering lessened after joining his school’s drama club.

• Willis’s experience as a real-life private investigator influenced his performances in the comedy-drama series Moonlighting and the action-comedy film The Last Boy Scout.

• According to People Magazine, Willis performed the majority of his own stunts for the Die Hard series.

• Bruce Willis has been inspired by acting role models such as Gary Cooper, Robert De Niro, Steve McQueen, and John Wayne.

• Although initially offered the role of Terry Benedict in Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Willis dropped out to focus on recording an album. He later made a brief appearance as himself in the sequel Ocean’s Twelve (2004).
  

  Bruce Willis in a scene from Ocean’s Twelve

• Throughout his career, Willis has made several appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, including filling in for the ailing host on February 26, 2003.
  

  Bruce Willis in The David Letterman Show

• In honor of Willis’s appearance in Japanese Subaru Legacy TV commercials, a limited production of Legacy was made called “Subaru Legacy Touring Bruce.”

• Prior to Michael Keaton’s casting, Willis was a contender for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the film Batman, according to DC Movies Fandom.

• Comedian Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis’ ex-wife Demi Moore roasted Willis on a Comedy Central program that aired on July 29, 2018. During the show, Willis put an end to the long-debated topic of whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie by stating that it is not.
  

  Demi Moore roasting Bruce Willis

  

  Joseph Gordon while roasting Bruce Willis

• Willis co-starred with Samuel L. Jackson in five films, including National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Unbreakable, and Glass.

• In 2005, Willis worked with his eldest daughter Rumer in the film Hostage.
  

  Bruce and Rumer Willis in Hostage

• Bruce Willis made an appearance in the music video for Gorillaz’s song “Stylo”.
  

  Bruce Willis in the music video Stylo

• During the filming of a scene in Die Hard, Willis fired a loud blank from his gun without earplugs, resulting in him losing about two-thirds of the hearing in his left ear.

• In The Expendables, Willis portrayed the character of CIA agent “Mr. Church” alongside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, marking their first on-screen appearance together.
  

  Bruce Willis in the movie The Expendables with Sylvester and Arnold

• On October 12, 2013, Katy Perry was the musical guest when Willis hosted Saturday Night Live.
  

  Bruce Willis’ appearance in SNL

• According to Buzzfeed, Willis is left-handed.

• Will Smith provided support to Willis during his divorce from Hollywood actress Demi Moore. Despite the divorce, Willis maintained a close relationship with both Moore and her subsequent husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, even attending their wedding.

• Willis exchanged vows with his wife Emma Heming twice. The couple had a non-legally binding ceremony followed by a civil ceremony in Beverly Hills just six days later.

• In 1996, Willis declined to endorse Clinton’s Republican opponent Bob Dole after Dole criticized Willis’s then-wife, Demi Moore, for her role in the film Striptease.

• As a military family member, Willis donated 12,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to the United States armed forces in 2002. Willis’s 8-year-old daughter, Tallulah, suggested the idea to him, and the cookies were distributed to sailors aboard USS John F. Kennedy and other troops stationed in the Middle East.

• During his visit to Iraq in 2003 as part of the USO tour, Willis sang to the troops with his band, The Accelerators.

• Despite considering joining the military to assist in the second Iraq War, Willis was dissuaded by his age, as per CNN.

• Bruce’s hand and footprints can be seen at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in LA.
  

  Bruce Willis’ Hand and Footprints in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

• Bruce is fond of animals and has a pet dog too.
  

  A picture showing Bruce’s love for dogs

  

  Bruce with his pet

• In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Bruce as the national spokesperson for Children in Foster Care. Willis wrote online, “I saw Foster Care as a way for me to serve my country in a system by which shining a little bit of light could benefit a great deal by helping kids who were literally wards of the government,” as per the White House – Official Website.

• Bruce Willis received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on October 16, 2006, which marked the 2,321st star in its history. The star is located at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard. During the reception, he expressed his excitement and shared,

“I used to come down here and look at these stars and I could never quite figure out what you were supposed to do to get one…time has passed and now here I am doing this, and I’m still excited. I’m still excited to be an actor.”

Bruce Willis’ Star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame

• In the past, it was rumored that Willis offered a reward of US$1 million to anyone who could provide information leading to the capture of terrorist leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, even non-combatants. However, he clarified in the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair that his statement was only hypothetical and was not meant to be taken literally. Willis has also expressed his dissatisfaction with the media’s coverage of the war and believes that they tend to focus on the negative aspects of the conflict, ignoring the soldiers’ positive contributions.

• During his free time, Bruce Willis enjoys engaging in watersports, especially kayaking, and skiing.
  

  Bruce Willis on a kayak

  

  Bruce Willis on a skiing trip

• He has been cast in low-budget movies targeting older audiences, sometimes referred to as “geezer teasers,” according to a leading magazine. ^[22]CBR

• As of his retirement in March 2022, Willis had finished filming eleven movies that were yet to be released, as reported by Slate Magazine. ^[23]Slate Magazine

• For his role in the first Die Hard film, Willis reportedly earned $5 million, ^[24]The Things while he received $7.5 million for Die Hard 2, which grossed approximately $240 million. He is said to have earned $15 million for Die Hard 3, which brought in a massive $360 million in ticket sales.

• In 1999, Willis allegedly accepted a pay cut from his regular $20 million fee to receive an upfront salary of $14 million and a share of the back-end profits for his role in The Sixth Sense.

• In an interview, Willis mentioned that he does not have a Twitter account because he does not know how to use it.

• There have been rumors that Willis was not paid for his three-episode guest appearance on Friends in Season 6, where he played the father of Ross’s college-aged girlfriend, due to a bet he made with Matthew Perry. ^[25]Cheat Sheet This rumor has been both confirmed and denied by Willis and Perry, respectively. Willis reportedly donated all the money he earned from Friends to several charities, including The American Foundation for AIDS Research, AIDS Project Los Angeles, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Rape Treatment Center, and UCLA Unicamp for underprivileged children.
  

  Bruce Willis in the TV show Friends

• Bruce Willis’ 1968 Dodge Charger, a rare “Bullitt” edition which was previously owned by Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay, was put up for auction. The car was originally purchased by Willis’ ex-wife, Demi Moore, in 1998, and was later sold to Jay Kay. The car is equipped with a massive 8.2-liter engine which underwent a $32,000 rebuild in 2014.
  

  Bruce Willis’ rare Bullitt edition 1968

• One of the four cars that were auctioned at the Petersen Automotive Museum in 2008 was Bruce Willis’ 1968 Pontiac Firebird 400.

• At the Petersen Automotive Museum auction in 2008, Bruce Willis sold his 1957 ‘Vette. This car was part of the first generation (1953-1962) and was the first model with an optional “Ramjet” fuel-injection system.

• Bruce Willis’ 1988 Lincoln limousine, which was not a muscle car, was auctioned off alongside two muscle cars at a 2009 Barrett-Jackson auction. The car was used during the filming of Willis’ TV series “Moonlighting” and “Die Hard.”

• In January 2018, Bruce Willis auctioned off his Le Mans Edition Bentley, which was the first of only 48 produced.

• Bruce Willis’ body double, Pablo Perillo, bears a striking resemblance to the actor.
  

  The Instagram account of Pablo Perillo

• During the peak of his fame on “Moonlighting,” Bruce Willis was paid $5-7 million over two years to promote Seagram’s Golden Wine Cooler products. However, Willis declined to renew his contract when he quit drinking alcohol in 1988, although he occasionally drinks wine with his meals. ^[26]US Magazine

• Bruce Willis is a non-vegetarian who occasionally drinks alcoholic beverages. ^[27]Bruce Willis – Instagram
  

  Bruce Willis drinking wine