Here’s a fact, straight from Bruce Willis himself: he only knows two languages, English and Bad English. This bilingual proficiency turn up in a number of his films, but what is there to Willis besides his famously burly tough-guy action hero personas? We’ve seen him ascend towers captured by gunmen and travel the stars to save the world, but what are the secrets that are at the core of Willis himself? Willis’ journey to action-packed, six-packed fame did not start with thrilling films of flashy gunfights; in fact, it did not even start in America. And for all the times he wrestled a situation into control, there were many uphill battles he faced in his personal life. Learn all this and more secrets here. Bruce Willis was born in Germany

1. by Tdavis28
12 Interesting Things You Didn’t Know About
Bruce Willis

2. ADVERTISEMENT
UPDATED 3/28/2022
Here’s a fact, straight from Bruce Willis himself: he only knows two
languages, English and Bad English. This bilingual proficiency turn up in a
number of his films, but what is there to Willis besides his famously burly
tough-guy action hero personas? We’ve seen him ascend towers captured by
gunmen and travel the stars to save the world, but what are the secrets that
are at the core of Willis himself?
Willis’ journey to action-packed, six-packed fame did not start with thrilling
films of flashy gunfights; in fact, it did not even start in America. And for all the
times he wrestled a situation into control, there were many uphill battles he
faced in his personal life. Learn all this and more secrets here.
Bruce Willis was born in Germany

3. Thanks to Die Hard, Willis has an image of an all-American modern cowboy,
whose utterance of “yippee-kay-yay” is the last thing enemies hear, Willis
himself was not born in the United States. In fact, his father was an American
soldier who met Willis’ mother, Marlene, while he was stationed in the divided
country. Marlene was a native of Kassel, while his father, David, was from
Carneys Point, New Jersey. Willis himself was born in Idar-Oberstein, West
Germany, on March 19, 1955. Ultimately, Willis spent two years in Germany
before his family moved back to David’s hometown after he was restationed
there.
RELATED: Actor Bruce Willis Has Two Major Regrets In His Career
Of his family, Willis says he comes from a “long line of blue-collar people.”
With regard to his parents, that saw his father as a welder and his mother
working at a bank. Willis himself would first work as a security guard at a
nuclear power plant before he started acting in earnest first in stage
productions then on-screen in the ’80s. But he didn’t dive right into action; on
the contrary, Willis was a common presence in comedies when his career
took off, thanks to the comedy-drama series Moonlighting.
Willis had a severe stutter throughout his
childhood

4. Bruce Willis saw his stutter vanished under specific circumstances / Everett Collection
Throughout his childhood and into his teenage years, Bruce Willis was
markedly outgoing. All the while, Willis actually had some difficulty speaking
due to the fact that he had a severe stutter. By the time he was a teenager, he
could more comfortably express himself, but until the age of nine, he stuttered
when speaking.
During an interview with Reader’s Digest, Willis found a way to bypass his
stutter, and the discovery was a complete accident. It was when he auditioned
for his high school drama club’s production of A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur’s Court. On stage, he opened his mouth to speak, he did so without a
stutter. The secret was location. “When I stepped off the stage, I started
stuttering again,” Willis revealed. “And I went, ‘This is a miracle. I’ve got to
investigate this more.'”

5. He sported a very choice wardrobe for his
‘Moonlighting’ audition
His audition outfit left
something to be desired / (c) Columbia Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection
Across 66 episodes, Moonlighting tells the story of private detectives and the
mysteries they encounter that need unraveling. Premiering in 1985, it is held

6. as one of the earliest successful examples of a dramedy, combining elements
of humor and intensity in a cohesive formula. Throughout its runtime, it was
produced and distributed by ABC, with Bruce Willis playing Detective David
Addison, full of witty comments and poor financial fortune.
However, network executives weren’t quite convinced by Willis, especially
when he turned up wearing combat fatigues, an earring, and had his hair up in
spikes like a punk, according to Newsweek. However, just as the people
behind Die Hard would give Willis a shot years later, show creator Glenn
Gordon Caron thought Willis as someone worth taking on. His suspicions
were further validated thanks to a screen test with him and Cybill Shepherd,
who played Maddie “Madelyn” Hayes. The two had undeniable chemistry, and
no wardrobe malfunction could detract from that.
It’s (die) hard to believe Bruce Willis ended up
in the action film
Thanks to Moonlighting, Willis was firmly associated with comedy. While the
show did incorporate a few different genres, blending drama with humor, Willis
himself was seen as a goofball, not an action star. So, when Die Hard director
John McTiernan approached Willis to play the tough-as-nails John McClane,
the studio was rather confused and surprised.
It was almost even more surprising when Willis was offered $5 million for the
role. By this point in his career, he hadn’t been in many other projects, none of
the film’s scope, and was considered a television actor, not movie star. But he
was given an offer he couldn’t refuse – though it came with a different price.
Filming ‘Die Hard’ caused Willis to suffer
permanent hearing loss
DIE HARD, Bruce Willis, 1988, TM & Copyright (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett
Collection

7. Welcome to the party, pal! Moonlighting proved Willis’ big breakout role, and
though it was intensely different from that of John McClane in the Die Hard
franchise, it definitively paved the way for him to find blockbuster success. But
this even more bombastic breakthrough came with a cost.
John McTiernan, who directed the first and third entries in the five-part series,
wanted scenes to feel as authentic as possible, and with plenty of loud bangs
– all the bells and whistles for a quintessential (Christmas) action film. The
actors used blanks during “shootings” to capture the ruckus of a gunfight. But
during the table scene when McClane fires from under a table to kill one of the
terrorists, the sound proved so loud that – combined with the close quarters
near Willis’ ear – Willis lost two-thirds of his hearing in his left ear.
Bruce Willis has his own starring role in a video
game
Willis was the visual basis for the protagonist of Apocalypse / YouTube
By the time Willis had Die Hard, Armageddon, and The Fifth Element under
his belt, his was a recognizable image. So much so, he ended up the visual

8. basis for a character in a video game. Sony released Apocalypse, a
third-person sci-fi shooter, for the PlayStation; Willis was offered the
opportunity to actually appear in the game as the sidekick to the main
character.
This first plan fell through. Instead, he got an even better deal, this time as the
leading character, who was modeled after his appearance and used his voice
for lines. Apocalypse stands out as a video game essentially for an actor that
was not based on a specific existing IP.
Willis was battling alcoholism while promoting
Seagrams wine coolers
Now, Willis is more mindful of his alcohol consumption / YouTube

9. Once Willis became a household name, he developed that attractive spark
celebrities possess that allow them to convince fans to buy such-and-such
product or service. Few could say “no” to the Duke promoting a Western bank
company in an ad set against nature and family bonding.
Similarly, Willis ended up becoming a big promoter of Seagrams and
appeared in an ad in the ’80s that is still considered one of the most campy;
Willis cracks open a cold one with the boys while hanging out on a porch.
However, at that time, Willis himself was also drinking a lot of alcohol, too
much, he would someday realize himself, and be bluntly told when he was
involved in a drunk driving bust. “I had been sober,” he shared. “But once I
realized that I wasn’t gonna run myself off the pier of life with alcohol, drinking
vodka out of the bottle every day . . . I have wine now, mostly when I eat.”
Introducing the artist formally known as Bruce
Willis

10. He’s not just an actor, but dabbles in singing quite a bit / Amazon
In theory, everyone loves the idea of an idol who can do it all. The image of
Willis does not usually conjure up sounds of syrupy ballads or catchy jingles,
but Willis did, in fact, release a collection of his own music. The Return of
Bruno was a soul album released in 1987 under the very same Motown label
that backed the Temptations and the Point Sisters.
Incidentally, those artists also received backup vocals from those artists; in the
latter’s case, it was specifically R&B icon Ruth Pointer who lent her voice to

11. Willis’ musical endeavor. Ultimately, the album did actually see success,
especially Willis’ cover of “Respect Yourself.” In 1989, he dabbled again in
music with the album, If It Doesn’t Kill You, It Just Makes You Stronger. After
that, it was business as usual, besides a brief musical moment in Rugrats Go
Wild, where he voiced Spike the dog, along with a spoke word track for North
Hollywood Shootout, the brain child of the Blues Traveler.
With a cartoon of his own, Willis could reach all
types of audiences
Willis’ cartoon persona was a kid whose alter ego was Willis / Amazon
This work was enough to make Bruno something of an alter ego for Willis, to
the point that Willis got his own cartoon persona in the form of Bruno the Kid,
a series that follows an 11-year-old boy who becomes one of the best spies
for espionage organization GLOBE. However, GLOBE does not know their

12. reliable spy is actually not even a teenager because Bruno uses an avatar in
the form of a fully-grown man…one Bruce Willis.
Willis tapped into his musical history to sing the show’s theme song as well,
blending his two go-to mediums succinctly.
Little Richard married him to Demi Moore

13. One of the original
Hollywood power couples, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore / Photo by: Stephen Trupp STAR MAX, Inc.
1997 / ImageCollect
Bruce Willis and Demi Moore met during the premiere of Stakeout (1987),
when the two actually had other dates with them, according to CheatSheet.
That very year, the two were wed in holy matrimony and in extravagant style,
thanks to the ceremony’s officiator. Not only did their marriage represent the
formation of yet another Hollywood power couple, but it was also overseen
by rock icon Little Richard.

14. Little Richard became a minister in his later career following the death of his
mother, finding renewal through religion. This allowed him to perform the
ceremony for Willis and Moore, as well as Bruce Springsteen and Cindy
Lauper.
Willis personally put a $1 million bounty on the
most infamous terrorists at the time
Willis is outspoken about supporting the troops / YouTube
Since the campaigns of Fred Thompson and George W. Bush, Willis has not
shied away from voicing his political support for certain candidates, and
treated national and global issues with similar passion, including the War on
Terror and Operation Iraqi Freedom. This saw him visit military personnel to
show his support firsthand.
Additionally, he personally put out two bounties of significant sum on two
specific individuals: Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. An article from
BBC dates this action to around 2003, while Willis was also traveling from
base to base to sing for the troops. U.S. military personnel can’t accept any

15. financial rewards besides their government pay, so he could not offer this to
soldiers like he originally planned; instead, the bounty was open to any
civilians who might accomplish the goal instead. “If you catch him,” Willis also
stressed, “just give me four seconds with Saddam Hussein.”
Michael Clarke Duncan received an
endorsement for ‘The Green Mile’ straight from
Willis himself
Armageddon / Everett Collection
Michael Clarke Duncan began acting in 1995 and would go on to star in
prominent roles in well-known films like Armageddon, Brother Bear, Planet of
the Apes, and more. Before all that, though, were four years of building a
name for himself. He met particular success in 1999 with The Green Mile,
landing a breakout role opposite Tom Hanks and an Academy Award
nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

16. All that is thanks, in part, to Bruce Willis. For a time, Duncan worked as a
bodyguard for other stars like Will Smith and L. L. Cool J, before working with
Willis in Armageddon in 1998. When Willis read the script for The Green Mile,
he felt Duncan would be a perfect John Coffey, and contacted director Frank
Darabont to make it happen. After guarding stars, Duncan really was one.
Sadly, he passed away in 2012, but left a brilliant light in his wake.
‘The Sixth Sense’ was a debt repaid to Disney
Willis sort of owed them one after the last incident / (c) Buena Vista Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett
Collection. (image upgraded to 16.8 x 12 in)
Sometimes, the absence of big booms and shattering glass gives the actors
time to breathe and strut their stuff in subtler ways. This was the case in M.
Night Shyamalan’s supernatural psychological thriller, The Sixth Sense. In
this 1999 film, Willis played child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, a job he
was only able to take on by striking another from his schedule.

17. Previously, Willis was supposed to be in The Broadway Brawler, a Disney
movie. But tensions erupted between cast and crew, and when the dust
settled, Willis had walked away from the project and just about everyone was
fired. Disney chairman Joe Roth wanted there to be peace between studio
and actor – and thus avoid litigation troubles – so he suggested to Willis he
commit to two Disney films and see them through. Those ended up being The
Kid and The Sixth Sense. It had to be at that right moment…It’s like it was
meant to be…wait, wrong Shyamalan movie.
Bruce Willis today / © Vertical Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection