It doesn’t matter which generation you belong to, you must have come across some or another movie starring Bruce Willis. In every movie that he is a part of, he has been known to steal the show which is what has made him one of the most popular actors of all time.
Most recently, he has been on the news after being diagnosed with a cruel disease, which we will talk about later in the article, but we figured it was time we told you everything you need to know about Bruce Willis.
Bruce Willis has been one of the most famous actors since the 90s and continues to be loved by fans all across the world. The more you learn about him, the more you realize that there was plenty you didn’t know about him. So, keep reading this article to find out about Bruce Willis’s net worth, biography, and much more:
Bruce Willis’s Net Worth
Bruce Willis’ net worth is an estimated $250 million. He has been earning between eight and nine figures per film since the 1990s. He earned $114 million from The Sixth Sense between his salary and his cut of the film’s gross earnings.
His films have grossed around $3 billion altogether. For his more recent direct-to-video films, he was earning $2 million for an average of two days’ work, amounting to about 15 minutes of screen time each.
He has made some money from endorsements over the years, as well. While starring in Moonlighting, he was the face of Seagram’s Golden Wine Coolers, earning somewhere between $5 million and $7 million over two years. In 2009, he appeared in a campaign for Norwich Union insurance, advertising their name change to Aviva.
That same year, he became the face of Belvedere’s Sobieski Vodka and was compensated with a 3.3 percent stake in the company. He also owns several small businesses, including The Mint Bar and The Liberty Theater in Hailey, Idaho.
Bruce Willis Biography
Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. After his father was discharged from the military, the family relocated back to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey, in 1957. As a child, he spoke with a stutter. After joining the drama club in high school, he found that acting helped him to work through his stutter. He was elected student council president while attending Penns Grove High School and graduated in 1973.
Upon graduating high school, he worked at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant as a security guard. He also worked as a driver for the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey, and as a private investigator. After working for a while, he decided to pursue acting as a career.
He enrolled at Montclair State University where he studied drama until he left school and moved to New York City in 1977. He worked as a bartender to support himself while he auditioned for roles during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
His big break came when he was cast in the television series Moonlighting as David Addison, Jr. The show ran from 1985 through 1989, during which time he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Bruce Willis Early Days
In 1987, Bruce Willis landed his first lead role in a feature film, co-starring with John Larroquette and Kim Basinger in Blake Edwards’ Blind Date. The following year, he portrayed Tom Mix, the real-life cowboy actor, in Edwards’ Sunset.
He instantly became a film and action star when he starred as John McClane in Die Hard in 1988, performing the majority of his own stunts. The film grossed over $138 million globally.
He returned to his comedic roots in 1989, providing the voice of a talking baby in Look Who’s Talking and in its 1990 sequel Look Who’s Talking Too. Willis also was a successful recording artist in the late 1980s, releasing a pop-blues album called The Return of Bruno. He reprised the role of John McClane in Die Hard 2 in 1990 and Die Hard with a Vengeance in 1995.
Bruce Willis Career
Apart from the Die Hard films, the early 1990s were not as successful for Willis. He starred in a number of box office flops, such as The Bonfire of the Vanities, Hudson Hawk, and Color of Night. Finally, in 1994, he found success again in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, co-starring John Travolta, with whom he worked on Look Who’s Talking. Then in 1996, he starred in two animated films: Bruno the Kid, which he executive produced, and Beavis and Butt-head Do America, with his then-wife Demi Moore.
Bruce Willis Movies
His career took another downturn as he starred in more critical failures, like Mercury Rising and Breakfast of Champions. In 1998, he starred in Michael Bay’s Armageddon, which became the highest-grossing film that year. Another of his most popular and successful films came along in 1999 when he starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s paranormal thriller The Sixth Sense.
Bruce Willis Comedy Series
In 2000, Willis appeared on several episodes of the comedy series Friends, portraying the father of Ross’ younger girlfriend. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and was nominated for an American Comedy Award for the role. In 2004, he made a cameo appearance in Ocean’s Twelve as himself.
He appeared in several more movies, including the film adaptation of Sin City, the animated film Over the Hedge, and Planet Terror, half of Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse. He also worked with his daughter Rumer on 2005’s Hostage. He once again reprised the role of John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard in 2007.
Bruce Willis Series
2010 was a prolific year for Willis. In February, he starred in the comedy Cop Out alongside Tracy Morgan. He also made a cameo appearance in The Expendables, starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, and a number of other Hollywood action stars.
In October, he starred in the film adaptation of the comic book mini-series RED. In 2012, he starred in Moonrise Kingdom with Bill Murray and Frances McDormand and returned for The Expendables 2 in a larger role. In February 2013, he returned to the Die Hard franchise for a fifth installment, A Good Day to Die Hard. That October, he made his Broadway debut in Misery, the stage adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.
Bruce Willis frontotemporal dementia
Over the last ten years, Willis has starred mainly in direct-to-video films, ranging from independent thrillers to low-budget sci-fi movies. More recently, fellow cast and crew on the films said that he had to be fed lines through an earpiece and sometimes seemed to be confused as to why he was there.
Eventually, the scenes for his 2021 film Out of Death had to be shot in a single day, with his dialogue greatly reduced. Willis’ family announced his retirement on March 30, 2022, revealing that he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that affects language expression and comprehension, usually due to brain damage.
He had already completed eleven films that had not yet been released at the time of his retirement. On February 16, 2023, his family announced that he also had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.
Bruce Willis’s Dating History
Willis met actress Demi Moore in August 1987 at a film premiere. They were married on November 21, 1987, and shared three children. They filed for divorce on October 18, 2000, and the divorce was finalized the same day.
His friend, the actor Will Smith, helped him through the divorce. He remains friends with Moore and even attended her wedding to her next husband, actor Ashton Kutcher.
Willis was engaged to actress Brooke Burns and broke up with her in a matter of ten months in 2004. He then married Emma Heming, a model, on March 21, 2009. Moore and Kutcher attended the wedding, as well as his daughters from his first marriage.
Bruce Willis Family
Willis’ parents were Marlene and David Willis. His mother was a German woman who worked in a bank, and his father was an American soldier. After being discharged from the military, his father also worked as a welder, factory worker, and mechanic. He is the eldest of four children. His younger sister is named Florence, and he has two younger brothers, David and Robert, the latter of whom is deceased.
Willis has five daughters. Three of his daughters are from his first marriage to Demi Moore: Rumer, born in 1988; Scout, born in 1991; and Tallulah, born in 1994. Rumer is a well-known actress in her own right, having appeared in films such as The House Bunny and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
She also made her Broadway debut in 2015, starring in the musical Chicago as Roxie Hart. Scout also has worked as an actress, but she also has had a clothing line and, more recently, she has been pursuing a music career. Tallulah released her own clothing line, Wyllis, in 2020. His two youngest daughters with his current wife, Emma Heming, are Mabel and Evelyn, born in 2012 and 2014.
Conclusion
There are plenty of options to choose from, but we would love to know your favorite Bruce Willis performance in the comments below!
Deepti is a prolific content writer for OpenMediaHub who specializes in movies, tv shows, and web series, along with occasional reviews. Her interests lie in watching different genres and reading comics books, although her main passion is writing for as long as she remembers.
