Bruce Willis
Actor
Born: March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany
Grew Up In: Carneys Point, New Jersey
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2011: Arts & Entertainment

In an acting career that spanned five decades, Bruce Willis reigned as one of America’s biggest box-office stars in hit films ranging from romantic comedies to action-packed thrillers.

Willis was born to a German mother and an American soldier who was stationed at a military base in West Germany. After his father’s discharge from the military, Willis’s family relocated to southern New Jersey. Willis attended Penns Grove High School in Carneys Point, a township of about 8,000 people in Salem County. After graduation, Willis worked as a security guard at a nuclear plant and a private investigator before enrolling in Montclair State University to study drama.

Willis dropped out of college in 1977 and moved to Manhattan to pursue acting jobs. Supporting himself as a bartender, he secured a number of off-Broadway roles and TV commercial shoots. Following a few minor film appearances, Willis landed the plum role as a wisecracking detective opposite star Cybill Shepherd in the ABC-TV comedy-drama “Moonlighting.” The series ran from 1985-1989 and earned Willis an Emmy and a Golden Globe award.

In 1987, amid the success of “Moonlighting,” Willis scored his first Hollywood starring role in the romantic comedy “Blind Date.”  The following year, Willis struck gold as fictional New York City detective John McClane in the action thriller “Die Hard.” The film established Willis as a box-office champion and spawned four sequels, each with Willis in the starring role. His popularity even resulted in a hit recording, the 1987 album “The Return of Bruno,” which reaching No. 14 on the Billboard albums chart.

For the ensuing decades, Willis was among Hollywood’s most successful and versatile actors. In 1990, he hit the jackpot again with the supernatural romance film “Ghost,” co-starring with his then-wife Demi Moore. In 1994, he was part of the ensemble cast in the critically acclaimed crime film “Pulp Fiction.” Other key films included the sci-fi thrillers “12 Monkeys” (1995) and “The Fifth Element” (1997); and the psychological thriller “The Sixth Sense” (1999).

Willis was still at the top of his game in 2010, when he starred in the buddy movie “Cop Out” with Tracy Morgan. In 2012, he had a key role in the comedy-drama “Moonlight Kingdom.” The following year, he starred in “A Good Day to Die Hard,” the fifth and final installment in the “Die Hard” franchise. In 2015, at the age of 60, he made his Broadway debut alongside co-star Laurie Metcalf in an adaptation of the Stephen King novel “Misery.”

Although past his box-office prime, Willis was still working in films until shortly before his 2022 retirement for health reasons. In 2023, his family announced that Willis was suffering from frontotemporal dementia, a progressive disease that affects the patient’s cognition and communication skills. The family has expressed hope that media attention on Willis’s plight will raise awareness of the disease.