One of today’s premier movie stars, Bruce Willis was born Walter Bruce Willison on March 19th, 1955 in Odat-Obenstein, West Germany. He grew up mainly in PennsGrove, New Jersey. After finishing high school, he went to Montclair State College in Montclair, New Jersey.

Willis got his break into the movie industry while tending bar. A casting director who needed a bartender for a film spotted him and decided he would be perfect for the film The First Deadly Sin (1980). Willis continued playing small roles until he was granted the lead role in “Moonlighting” (1985). In the show, Maddie’s (Cybil Shepherd) husband had left with all the money, leaving her only with a run-down detective agency. She was intending to sell it, but David Addison (Willis) convinced her to stay on and run the agency. Addison’s character was very similar to Willis’ own and he often got into troucle for his obnoxious behaviour. The show ran until 1989.

Willis made his starring debut in 1987 with Blind Date. He played a workaholic who needed a date for a business dinner. He was set up with Nadia (Kim Basinger), who had a very low tolerance for alcohol. Early on, she had a glass of champagne and went completely nuts. Things were further complicated when David (John Larroquette), her ex, showed up.

That year, Willis made his attempt to make it in the music industry. He put together his band, Bruce Willis and the Accelerators, and recorded the album The Return of Bruno for Motown records. The album produced a Top Ten hit, a remake of “Respect Yourself”. The band was featured in the 1988 movie The Return of Bruno. Also appearing in the movie were Michael J Fox, Gene Simmons, Elton John, Bill Graham, Dick Clark, Jon Bon Jovi, and Paul Stanley. The band made another album, If It Don’t Kill You, It Just Make You Stronger, in 1989, but it was not as successful.

Also in 1987, Willis married Demi Moore, who was just starting to break into the big time. Little Richard performed the wedding in Las Vegas. Their first child, Rumer Willis, was born a year later.

In 1988, Willis stared in his first action movie, Die Hard. In the movie McClane’s (Willis) wife was taken hostage by a group of terrorists in a tall building. Unfortunately for the terrorists, McClane, a New York cop, had just flown into town to spend Christmas with his wife. The film was a major success. It spawned two sequels, Die Hard 2 (1990), which took place in an airport, and Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), in which Samuel Jackson co-starred.

Now a major star, Willis continued to appear in financially successful movies such as Look Who’s Talking (1989), in which he did the voice of Mickey. Unfortunately, he also appeared in far less successful movies like The Bonfire of The Vanities (1990) and Billy Bathgate (1991). In 1991, he made his first, and so far only, attempt at writing, Hudson Hawk. He starred as the title character, who had just been released after ten years in jail. He intended to spend the rest of his life honestly, but the Mayflowers (Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard) blackmailed him into stealing a work by Leonardo DaVinci. James Coburn and David Caruso also appeared. The movie bombed both commercially and critically.

Willis continued to appear in various comedy and action movies throughout the early nineties. Then in 1994, he appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, a collection of interrelated short stories. Willis played Butch, a boxer that was paid by a gangster (Ving Rhames) to throw a fight. Then, not only did Butch win the fight, but he also killed his opponent in the ring. He fled immediately and met up with his girlfriend (Maria de Medeiros). Unfortunately, she forgot the watch that belonged to his father. His father had died a POW in Vietnam and had gone to great lengths to make sure that Butch got the watch. Therefore, Butch had to return to get the watch, creating numerous complications. The film, which also starred John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, and Uma Thurman, was a major commercial and critical success and helped establish Willis as a serious actor.

He further built this reputation with Twelve Monkeys (1995). Terry Gilliam directed this movie which was inspired by the short French film La Jetée (1962). In the movie, most of the world’s population was wiped out by a plague during the late nineties. The plague was supposedly started by a secretive organisation known as The Twelve Monkeys. James Cole (Willis) was sent back in time to find information and possibly prevent the plague. Either that or he was just completely insane. The movie also starred Madeliene Stowe as a psychiatrist and Brad Pitt as an inmate in an insane asylum. Like Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys was a critical and commercial hit. Willis has said that these are the only two movies that he accepted after only reading the script once.

After those two movies, most of Willis’ shows were action movies. The most commercially successful was Armageddon (1998). An asteroid was about to hit Earth, so NASA, in its infinite wisdom, sent a group of oil-rig platform workers into space to destroy it. This was despite the fact that none of the workers had any experience in space. Willis played Harry S Stamphler, the leader of the workers. Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, and Steve Buscemi also co-starred.

Also that year, Willis and Moore separated. They had three children, with Scout Larue born in 1991 and Tallulah Belle born in 1994.

Willis’ latest movie, Breakfast of Champions (1999), has only been released in Europe. Willis starred as a wealthy car-dealership owner on the brink of suicide in a fictional small town. Nick Nolte and Albert Finney co-starred. The movie was based on a novel by Kurt Vonnegut.

Willis will also appear in three upcoming movies. The Story of Us will co-star Michelle Pfeiffer and Rob Reiner. The Sixth Sense, which will co-star Donnie Wahlberg, should be released in September. In 2000, Willis will star in The Whole Nine Yards, which will also feature Rosanna Arquette, Natasha Henstridge, Matthew Perry.

Bruce Willis has established a niche for himself starring in action movies such as Die Hard, The Last Boyscout (1991), and The Seige (1998). Although this is not the most critically acclaimed of genres, it is the most financially rewarding. Willis was paid $14.8 million for Armageddon. However, he has also shown that he can be a good actor with movies such as Pulp Fiction and Twelve Monkeys. These, along with his occasional comedy, have established Willis as one of Hollywood’s top stars.