Bruce Willis Diagnosed with Aphasia, Steps Away From Acting

[AndyDursin]

Prayers.

“To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” his family wrote in a joint statement shared to each of their Instagram accounts, adding that he will be “stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”

“This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,” the “Die Hard” star’s family continued. “We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.

[Monterey Jack]

Sad news, but considering his logy acting and preference for one-day shoots on direct-to-video dreck over the last decade, it's not surprising.

[Eric W.]

Tragic!

[Paul MacLean]

Willis has always been a symbol of virile toughness and bravery. It's always hard to see someone who embodies that type of persona struck down by a debilitating illness. Prayers for him and his family.

[Monterey Jack]

Even before the last decade's worth of work, Willis appeared in his share of stinkers, but he was always a dependable, charismatic lead who helped humanize action heroics with Die Hard. Could you IMAGINE Schwarzenegger or Stallone making this scene work...?



Here was a movie hero not afraid to show his fear, his pain, his emotional turmoil, and it's beautifully encapsulated in this moment of raw human connection with a person John McClane only knows as a voice on a walkie-talkie. Arnie or Sly would have just grimaced through bandaging their wounded feet and carried on with nary a limp, and certainly wouldn't have shown self-doubt or regret about being a bad husband. People always remember John McClane's quips and one-liners, but it's moments like this that showcase just how damn good an actor Willis was in his prime, even in a high-concept piece of action pyrotechnics. It's sad to lose him as a performer, and doubly so considering how his legacy was tarnished by these awful films he was churning out apparently just to sock money away for his family while he was still capable of doing so.

[AndyDursin]

It's really MOONLIGHTING, not the action movies, that showed what he was capable of as an actor. I think maybe the disappointment of his overall career choices is that he got hung up on action films and didn't try particularly hard with some of the choices he made. Being honest he sleptwalked his way through movies back in the 90s not just the last few years. Something like THE FIFTH ELEMENT stood out because that was the first time in a bunch of years where it looked like he was committed and really trying.

Of course he made more money that way, which is understandable, but I don't think he ever really grew as an actor. That's why yes he pulled off DIE HARD in a way other genre stars couldn't but I'd argue he often squandered that ability in a lot of bad movies. It's his early work where he was most impressive, MOONLIGHTING and the DIE HARD movies especially. His sense of humor and natural charisma was on hand there, but not enough of the time in a lot of subsequent roles. And unlike some other stars who you could count on to deliver reliably good performances there were a lot of times Willis looked bored and zoned out, and that was long before this hit seemingly.

At any rate, here are the sad details of the last few years. This might also explain how "indifferent" his performance was in Shyamalan's abysmal GLASS.

[Eric W.]

They shouldn't have kept throwing him out there. Greed... who knows what?... it shouldn't have happened.

[AndyDursin]

I have mixed feelings on how he prostituted himself over the last few years. Certainly it's uncomfortable and if he was becoming a safety liability as that article raises that's one thing. Otherwise, is it pure greed? Or are they fully aware how many years of intensive, day to day care he's going to need seeing as he's not even that old? You'd think he'd be set for life already with the career he's had -- but one never knows how people live making so much money. So he showed up and was fed lines through an ear-piece...that in of and itself is not a crime. Brando used to do it, and with him it was just laziness (oh sorry, "method"!).

[mkaroly]

It's really MOONLIGHTING, not the action movies, that showed what he was capable of as an actor...It's his early work where he was most impressive, MOONLIGHTING and the DIE HARD movies especially. His sense of humor and natural charisma was on hand there, but not enough of the time in a lot of subsequent roles. And unlike some other stars who you could count on to deliver reliably good performances there were a lot of times Willis looked bored and zoned out, and that was long before this hit seemingly.

Agreed. MOONLIGHTING especially...still remains one of my favorite shows of all-time while at the same time being one of the most crushingly depressing and frustrating TV shows of all-time. DIE HARD was fantastic...hard to think of other films he was in that I really enjoyed as much as the aforementioned performances....HUDSON HAWK? Lol...very much a guilty pleasure for me, that one. Maybe BANDITS and 12 MONKEYS with a tip of the cap to THE SIXTH SENSE.

[Eric Paddon]

I think this further explains his lack of participation in the "Moonlighting" oral history book that came out last year.

[Eric W.]

Bruce has been in an astounding amount of bad movies and his workload was insane right up to the end.