Thanks to iconic films like Die Hard and The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis quickly cemented his status as a mega movie star.
As for his personal life? Well, he's also turned a few heads. He had his high profile marriage (and divorce) to Demi Moore, on-set demands that once got people fired, and even a music career.
Eager to learn more? Here are 10+ facts about the actor.
He may seem like your all-American man, but Bruce's dad first met his mom when he was stationed in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany.
Two years after Bruce was born, they moved to Carneys Point, New Jersey.
He also got rid of Grant’s husband and producer Joe Feury, cinematographer William Fraker, and wardrobe designer Carol Oditz.
Yikes! The reason? Creative differences, of course. This move resulted in the film never finishing.
This was Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, and The Kid.
It worked out for him, in any case.
He truly is a "neat" guy.
He ended up donating his paycheck to five of his favorite charities: The American Foundation for AIDS Research, AIDS Project Los Angeles, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Rape Treatment Center, and UCLA Unicamp for underprivileged children.
Back when he was a struggling actor, he took odd jobs to make ends meet.
This led to him tending bar at Chelsea Central on New York City's Upper West Side.
“Bruce was the best bartender in New York,” actor John Goodman told The New York Post.
“He kept an entire joint entertained all night. He just kept the show going. He was amazing.”
He has three kids — Rumer, Scout, and Tallulah — with ex-wife, Demi Moore (two with his other ex-wife).
"They are not my possessions, but they are my angels. They are my three favourite people on earth and I could sit and talk to them all day long, all year long, and goof around with them," he told The Guardian.
Before he became one of the most talked-about action stars in the 1980s, Bruce dropped a Motown album called "The Return of Bruno."
His rendition of "Respect Yourself" even landed number five on the Billboard Hot 100!
You may know him as a movie star, but back in the '80s, he played David Addison on Moonlight from 1985 to 1989.
He beat out thousands of other actors for the part.
In addition to cementing himself as a movie star, he even earned a salary that was unheard of at the time.
20th Century Fox agreed to pay Willis $5 million for the role, while other stars like Tom Cruise were only getting $3 million at the time.
"And I was a TV actor! The day after I signed the deal, every actor in Hollywood’s salary went up to $5 million," he said.
Bruno may be his nickname, but it's also the name of the animated character he played on Bruno the Kid.
The 1996 show, which was about an 11-year-old spy, only lasted one season.
The only thing that helped him overcome it was acting.
"When I stepped off the stage, I started stuttering again," Willis told Reader's Digest. "And I went, 'This is a miracle. I've got to investigate this more.'"
While he landed the part in the end, he did turn quite a few heads in the process.
According to Newsweek, he had "a spiky-punk hairdo, combat fatigues and an earring,"
According to the actor, his tendency to say, "Whaaa?'" happened after he filmed one scene under the table.
While the actors were shooting blanks, the sound of the gun was still so loud and close to Bruce's ear.
The pair first met in 1987 at the premiere of action-comedy Stakeout. Fun fact: her fiancé at the time was in the film.
Clearly, things didn't work out, though, as Bruce and Demi got married four months later.
Despite this, there's no bad blood.
"We managed to move the heart of our relationship, the heart of what created our family, into something new that gave the girls a loving, supportive environment with both parents," Moore wrote in her memoir, Inside Out.
Nothing can keep this family apart — not even a pandemic!
As "best friends," it wasn't weird at all when Willis went to stay with Demi and their three kids.
He just wanted to feel safe.
"I want to live in a world - and so do the Iraqi people - where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed," he told news anchor, Rita Crosby. "Doesn't everybody want that? Who doesn't want that?"
