Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is an American actor, and film producer. He came to fame in the late 1980s and has since retained a career as both a
Hollywood leading man and a supporting actor, in particular for his role as
John McClane in the
Die Hard series. Willis was married to actress
Demi Moore and they had three daughters before their divorce in 2000 after thirteen years of marriage. Willis has released several albums and has appeared in several television shows. He has also starred in over sixty films, including
Pulp Fiction,
Sin City,
Die Hard,
Unbreakable,
Armageddon and
The Sixth Sense.
Motion pictures featuring Willis have
grossed US$2.55 to US$3.04 billion at North American
box offices, making him the seventh highest-grossing actor in a leading role, and eighth highest including supporting roles.
He is a two-time
Emmy Award-winning,
Golden Globe Award-winning, and four-time
Saturn Award-nominated actor and has publicly shown his support for the
United States armed forces.
Biography
Early life
Willis was born in
Idar-Oberstein,
West Germany, the son of a
Kassel-born
German mother, Marlene, who worked in a
bank, and David Willis, an
American soldier.
Willis was the eldest of four children (his siblings are Florence, David, and Robert). After being
discharged from the
military in 1957, Willis' father took his family back to
Penns Grove, New Jersey, where he worked as a
welder and factory worker.
His parents separated in 1972 while Willis was in his teens.
He was always an outgoing youngster, although he grew up with a
stutter.
[ Note: See also List of stutterers] Willis attended
Penns Grove High School in his hometown.
[Petersen, Melody. "Bruce Willis Drops Project, Leaving Town More Troubled", The New York Times, May 9, 1997. Accessed December 2, 2007. "Mr. Willis grew up in Carneys Point, attended Penns Grove High School and even worked in one of the Du Pont factories before he found fame on the television series Moonlighting and through his Die Hard films."] Finding it easy to express himself on
stage and losing his stutter in the process, Willis began performing on stage and his high school activities were marked by such things as the drama club and school council
president.
