On This Day

Birthday of Bruce Willis

March 19th 1955

09:39 19 March 2024

American actor Bruce Willis was born on this day in 1955. Willis had appeared in several TV and film productions, usually uncredited, when he landed his first major role as David Addison in the hit US television show 'Moonlighting'. His first lead role in a feature film came opposite Kim Basinger in Blake Edwards' 'Blind Date' (1987). Edwards cast him again as real-life cowboy actor Tom Mix in 'Sunset' (1988) but it was his next role as John McClane in 'Die Hard' (1988) that catapulted him to movie star and action hero status and began a hugely successful franchise. Willis was now firmly established as one of Hollywood's most bankable leading men, going on to star in films including 'In Country' (1989), 'Die Hard 2' (1990), 'The Bonfire of the Vanities' (1990), 'Hudson Hawk' (1991), 'The Last Boy Scout' (1991), 'Death Becomes Her' (1992), 'Striking Distance' (1993), 'Pulp Fiction' (1994), 'Color of Night' (1994), 'Die Hard: With a Vengeance' (1995), 'Twelve Monkeys' (1995), 'Last Man Standing' (1996), 'The Fifth Element' (1997), 'Armageddon' (1998), 'The Sixth Sense' (1999), 'Unbreakable' (2000), 'Hart's War' (2002), 'Sin City' (2005), 'Lucky Number Slevin' (2006), 'Die Hard 4.0' (2007), 'RED' (2010), 'Moonrise Kingdom' (2012), 'The Expendables 2' (2012), 'Looper' (2012), 'A Good Die to Die Hard' (2012), 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For' (2012), 'Death Wish' (2018) and 'Motherless Brooklyn' (2019).

In March 2022, Willis's family announced that he was retiring from acting after suffering from aphasia, and in February 2023 he was officially diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia.

In a career that spanned five decades, Bruce Willis appeared in films that grossed in excess of $2.5 billion, placing him in the top ten most successful movie stars of all time in terms of box office receipts. Happy Birthday Bruce.