In a statement posted on Instagram, the family of the Die Hard star wrote that he “has some health problems” that “affected his cognitive abilities”. “To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce had some health problems and was recently diagnosed with aphasia, which affects his cognitive abilities,” they wrote. As a result, and with great care, Bruce is moving away from a career that meant so much to him. They continued: “This is a really difficult time for our family and we are so grateful for your continued love, compassion and support. We move forward as a strong family unit and we wanted to bring his fans because we know how much he means to you, as well as you to him. “As Bruce always says, ‘Live it’ and together we intend to do just that.” Aphasia is a form of brain damage that impairs the expression and comprehension of language. It leaves sufferers unable to communicate effectively and is often the result of a stroke. The statement is signed by Willis’s wife, Emma, Demi Moore’s ex-partner and all his children. Willis became famous in the mid-1980s for his role in the television comedy-drama Moonlighting, opposite Cybill Shepherd, where the couple played private detectives. In 1988 Willis starred in the first film Die Hard, which began a series of action hero roles, including The Last Boy Scout in 1991, Armageddon in 1998, and some sequels to Die Hard. Willis also visited Iraq on a USO tour in 2003. He was born in West Germany in 1955 to a military family. When he was two years old his family moved to New Jersey and joined the high school drama club to help overcome his stuttering. Register After working as a security guard in the 1970s, Willis began a theater course at Montclair State University and later in the decade moved to New York to begin his acting career. He played several roles outside of Broadway before moving to California and securing the role in Moonlighting. His first starring role in a feature film was in 1987’s Blind Date. Willis had a semi-successful music career, releasing The Return Of Bruno in 1987, a blues and soul album released by Motown. His lead single, “Respect Yourself”, a duet with the June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters, was a hit in the Top 10 in the US and UK. In the 1990s, Willis appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic Pulp Fiction and later scored an Emmy for his film on the sitcom Friends. In 2015, Willis made his Broadway debut in a critical production of Stephen King’s Misery. Since the early 2010s, Willis has appeared primarily in live-action movies, with notable exceptions in Moonrise Kingdom and Looper. His latest film, the robbery film A Day To Die, was released earlier this month.
