Yippee Ki-Yay, Bruce Willis!

It’s December, which means it’s time for the debate – is Die Hard a Christmas movie? It’s set during the holiday season, there’s a Christmas party, and catchy Christmas tunes on the radio. But it’s also an action movie with more bullets than bows, and plenty of Grinches, but no Santas. Whatever your opinion, one thing we can all agree on, is that Bruce Willis was awesome in the movie (and its sequels).

One of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Willis is known for his work in the action genre, for his comedic skill on film and TV, and for his dramatic chops. He retired from acting in 2022 due to frontotemporal dementia.

He was born Walter Bruce Willis on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, Germany where his father was stationed in the US military. Willis grew up in New Jersey where he was nicknamed Bruno, was his high school’s student council president, and he developed his interest in acting. Following graduation, he worked at a chemical factory and as a security guard, while he studied acting at Montclair State University.

Willis moved to New York City where he worked as a bartender and waiter while starting his acting career. His big break came in 1977 in the Off-Broadway production of Heaven and Earth, then his first notable film role was in 1980 in The First Deadly Sin. He had a small role in The Verdict with Paul Newman and he did guest appearances in Hart to Hart and Miami Vice.

In 1985, Willis became a TV star, playing the macho, wisecracking private investigator David Addison opposite Cybill Shepherd in Moonlighting. While on the show, he starred in Blind Date, married Demi Moore, and recorded the blues album, Return to Bruno. He and Moore would be married until 2000 and they had three daughters together.

In 1988, he starred in Die Hard as cynical cop John McClane who singlehandedly takes down a group of thieves when they take over the Los Angeles high rise where his wife works. Willis returned to the role in Die Hard 2 (1990) also set at Christmas, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) a summer sizzler, Live Free or Die Hard (2007) added his adult daughter, and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) featured his McClane’s son.

Willis voiced baby Mikey in Look Who’s Talking, he played a journalist in Bonfire of the Vanities, was in Hudson Hawk, The Last Boy Scout, and he portrayed a down and out boxer in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. He was in 12 Monkeys, The Fifth Element, The Jackal, Mercury Rising, and he led the action blockbuster Armageddon. He teamed with M. Night Shyamalan as a child psychologist for a boy who sees dead people in The Sixth Sense and he played David Dunn, a man who super-heroic characteristics in Unbreakable.

He played a former hitman opposite Matthew Perry in The Whole Nine Yards and was in a few episodes of Friends as the father of Ross’ girlfriend. He was in The Kid, Lucky Number Slevin, Planet Terror, and Cop Out. Willis starred in film adaptations of comic, first in portraying dective John Hartigan in Sin City and then as retired CIA Agent Frank Moses in Red.

He and his second wife, Emma Heming Willis, got married in 2009 and had two daughters together.

In 2010, he joined Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and other action stars for the 1980s style action movie The Expendables. Willis was in Moonrise Kingdom, Looper, Red 2, Once Upon a Time in Venice, Death Wish, and he revived David Dunn for Glass, a sequel to Unbreakable. His final movie, Assassin, was released in 2023.