Bruce Willis

Diagnoses

Passions

Vocation

Lifestyle

Family

American actor, a relatively unknown talent when cast in the TV series "Moonlighting" as a suave, wisecracking detective. He became an instant celebrity in 1985. Two years later he scooped up an Emmy for the show. He moved into tough-guy roles wearing a permanent smirk in "Die Hard," 1988 and its sequel, "Die Hard Two," 1990, as well as "Pulp Fiction," 1994. Born to a military dad, Willis was raised in New Jersey and graduated from Montclair state college. At the age of eight, he was nicknamed Buck-Buck because of a bad stutter that continued until he began acting. Willis lost his virginity, in the laundry room, at the age of 14 while working as a bellboy at the Holiday Inn. He took acting in college and worked in a factory job while serving his apprenticeship in theater. When he moved to New York to try out for stage roles, he tended bar, serving such elite people as Liz Taylor, Warren Beatty and Cher and acted in commercials such as Levi's 501 jeans. While starring on "Moonlighting," Willis appeared in Seagram's Wine cooler commercials with Sharon Stone. On 11/21/ 1987 he married Demi Moore, just four months after meeting at a movie screening in Hollywood. Their three adorable daughters were born in August 1988, June 1991 and March 1994. Moore became Hollywood's hottest female star with her roles in "Ghost," 1990. Her "Striptease," 1996, bombed at the box-office in spite of her buff body, strutting and stripping. In early 1998, Willis and Moore became ensnared in a messy, highly publicized $300,000 lawsuit against former nanny Kim Tannahil, whom they claim reneged on personal loans and violated a confidentiality agreement. The nanny in turn sued them for $900,000 in damages and back pay. On 6/24/1998, Moore's publicist announced that she and Willis were separating after more than ten years marriage, victims of the Hollywood syndrome of too high a profile and too much time apart on separate interests. Their complicated lives are dominated by conflicting work schedules, bodyguards, handlers and lawyers with too little time for the leisure and intimacy of average marriages. When Moore was making "G.I. Jane" in Richmond, VA two years prior, Willis did not visit the set and an outside source reported that they had been living separate lives for that long. They were held together by their mutual devotion to their daughters until 1998, when they went public with the finish of their marriage. With his cigars and fashionable stubble, Willis seems the more laid-back of the two, and is said to not show any "attitude." Commanding some $20 million a film, he installed the family in a $5 million estate on 48 acres in Hailey, ID. He invested about $20 million in the small Idaho town and another million in the New Jersey town where he grew up. The latter development project has since been disbanded. He suffered setbacks with box office disappointments, "Mercury Rising," and "The Jackal." On 6/29/1998, his film "Armageddon," the most expensive film ever made at Disney, was released to positive reviews and a lengthy stay at the box office. To top that, Willis went against the old rule, "Never star opposite a child," and with "The Sixth Sense," 1999, played in one of the ten top-grossing movies of all time. From April 1999, Willis was a couple with Spanish girlfriend Maria Bravo, 31, until September 2000. Though working on back-to-back projects, he visits his daughters at least once a month. He and Demi talk on the phone every day and share their parenting care. On October 20, 2004, the actor brought suit in Los Angeles against a movie studio for an accident he suffered while making "Tears of the Sun" in 2002. Willis was struck in the forehead by a projectile let loose during a pyrotechnic mishap and said he suffered mental, physical and emotional pain afterwards. He married model Emma Heming, age 30, in Turks and Caicos on March 21, 2009. Link to Wikipedia biography