Bruce Willis ends acting career due to illness

After shooting several films in 2021, Bruce Willis is stepping down from acting, as he has developed aphasia — a language disorder that robs people of their ability to communicate. "As a result and after careful consideration, Bruce is ending his career that has meant so much to him," his family wrote on Instagram. We look back at the career of a world star who was born in Germany.

Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein — an idyllic small city in the Rhineland-Palatinate. His German mother baptized him Walter — Bruce being his middle name. His father David, an ex-GI, moved the family back to the United States before Bruce's second birthday. Willis grew up with his three younger siblings in New Jersey.

The confident man who would later lock lips with Demi Moore on the red carpet wasn't so confident in youth. Bruce was shy in high school and began to stutter. His classmates teased him with the nickname "Buck Buck." On stage, however, he felt comfortable. Theater courses served as therapy and helped him get rid of his speech impediment.

In 1984, Willis, who until then had only had a minor role in "Miami Vice," was cast in the role of private detective David Addison in the series "Moonlighting." Cybill Shepherd was the real star. The show, however, was a huge success, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe, becoming the springboard for Willis to Hollywood.

In 1988, Bruce Willis played New York police officer John McClane in the action thriller "Die Hard." The grumpy cop in a dirty, sleeveless undershirt became his signature role and made him an international star. Along with his colleague Mel Gibson, he embodied a new sort of action hero: the downtrodden regular guy who keeps getting knocked down, but never gives up until he eventually triumphs.

Bruce Willis was soon enjoying the sort of fame experienced by veteran action heroes, like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Willis joined them as an entrepreneur in the fast food restaurant chain Planet Hollywood, which later went bust. Here are the three heavyweights in action at the opening of a branch in Santa Ana, California.

In the mid-90s, Willis slowly and steadily began to shift his focus to character roles. He starred as a time-traveling convict in Terry Gilliam's sci-fi thriller "12 Monkeys" (1995). The film became a genuine cult classic, along with "Pulp Fiction" in which he also starred. Here, Willis shares a scene with Brad Pitt.

By the end of the 1990s, Willis was well established as a character actor. Starring alongside Hayley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense," Willis played a child psychologist who makes a gruesome discovery. The dark drama won praise from critics and was nominated in six categories for an Oscar, grossing nearly $700 million worldwide. It became Willis' largest film success.

Willis now belonged to the Hollywood elite and could choose his roles. In Korben Dallas' French production "The Fifth Element" (1997), he saved the world, complete with a hairstyle reminiscent of designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. This was perhaps no coincidence, as Gaultier designed the costumes for the film. Willis was called again to save the world a year later — less fashionably — in "Armageddon."

When he was not saving the world, Bruce Willis enjoyed singing R&B and playing the harmonica. For his debut album "The Return of Bruno" in 1987, he enlisted Grammy Award-winning Booker T. Jones and The Temptations. The album was released on the legendary Motown label and made it to the top 10 on the Billboard charts. Here, he joins soul and rock legend Tina Turner on stage in 1996.

In 1987, Bruce Willis married actress Demi Moore and they raised three daughters. In this snapshot they are — still — "the" Hollywood couple. After 13 years of marriage, they divorced; however, they continue to be close. Willis even attended the marriage of Demi Moore and her then-partner Ashton Kutcher.

Although sporting a tough image, Willis is very much the family man. He is now the father of five daughters. In this picture from 2004, he is seen with his then-girlfriend Brooke Burns, as well as his daughters Rumer, Scout und Tallulah, from his first marriage to Demi Moore.

Willis got married again, in 2009 to Anglo-Maltese model Emma Heming. Three of his daughters, as well as Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, all attended the wedding in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The couple have two daughters together, Mabel Ray and Evelyn Penn. The pair often travels to Germany to visit friends and relatives.