One of Hollywood’s stars who have conquered the box office for years, Bruce Willis, faces the most dramatic moment of his life. The actor, who will turn 68 on Sunday 19 February, has been diagnosed frontotemporal dementiaa serious neurodegenerative disease of the brain, complex to diagnose and treat, affecting behavior and speech, as well as being irreversible.

This bleak outlook will keep the actor, who had already announced his retirement when he was diagnosed with aphasia last year, from returning to work. His family made known this painful situation that Willis suffers. his current wife Emma Hemming; his ex-wife, Demi Moore; and his five daughters accompany and support him constantly.

For this reason, a review of the most remembered films and characters that the actor has offered to the public, many of which are already iconic, such as those of Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, The fifth element and the sixth sense.

An exercise to combat stuttering

Curiously Bruce, son of a German bank employee and an American soldier he started taking an interest in acting in high school, when a teacher advised him to take up theater to combat his stuttering. The advice worked, it worked, and over the years, Willis has become an international star.

Its beginnings were in television, like protagonist of the series Moonlight) in which, together with Cybill Shepherd, they played a couple of private detectives. The character of him, David Addison, a very astute and somewhat sophisticated man who loved fun and the good life, was well received and opened the big doors of Hollywood for him.

After various comedies, such as Blind date OR Murder in Beverly HillsWillis made the leap with Die Hardin 1988 which was an absolute success and made him famous all over the world. His character, New York cop John McClane is the hero who faces a group of criminals who take hostages in a tower in Los Angeles, where he is passing through. Furthermore, his wife is among the hostages.

In Die Hard, Willis himself performed the stunts, in one of the highest-grossing action films in history. So much so that the character continued in four other sequels, between 1990 and 2013: Die Hard 2; Die Hard 3: Revenge; die hard 4.0 AND Die Hard: A good day to die.

Meanwhile, between the sequel films, Willis returned to comedy and also voiced the child Look Who’s Talkingwith John Travolta and Kirstie Alleyand was part of the cast death suits youwith Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn.

In the hands of Tarantino

In 1994 there was another success in his career with the Quentin Tarantino film, pulp Fiction, where he shared the cast with John Travolta and Uma Thurman. In the film that also hit the box offices around the world, Willis played Butch Coolidge, a penniless boxer who steals betting money and has to run away, all in an atmosphere of lots of action, chases and a touch of parody and humour.

The following year he shared the cast with Brad Pitt in Twelve monkeysdirected by Terry Gillian, in a futuristic and apocalyptic plot in which he places the body of a prisoner, James Cole, who lives underground like the entire population after a virus has contaminated the planet’s surface.

Cole tries to get a reprieve by going back in time to find out who spread the virus, the terrorist organization known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. In his mission, filled with action and danger, he has recurring and confusing dreams of being shot down at an airport.

In his hit streak, Willis filmed in 1997, The fifth elementdirected by Luc Besson, where science fiction is once again the protagonist, with a story that takes place in the 23rd century. In this case, Willis is once again the hero charged with saving Humanity and life on Earth, threatened by an imminent attack by a cosmic entity.

Korben Dallas, his character, is a taxi driver and former Special Forces commander who goes on a similar crusade with the young Leeloo he plays. Mile Jovovich. The goal is to recover four mystical stones essential to defend the planet.

Armageddon and Sesto Senso, two successes

Following that same course of action and catastrophe, Willis was part, in 1998, of the large cast of Armageddon, in which a group of oil rig drillers is sent by NASA to a huge asteroid that threatens Earth, to destroy it with a nuclear bomb. Willis worked alongside Ben Affleck and Owen Wilson, among others, as Harry Stamper, the foreman.

In 1999, another film that received awards along with audience acclaim was Sixth Sensedirected by M. Night Shyamalanin which Bruce Willis is a child psychologist trying to figure out how to help a boy cope with his supernatural powers.

The film brought suspense and terror to the depths of the hand of the supernatural, in a brilliant dramatic counterpoint between Willis’ character and that of the boy, played by the little boy. Haley Joel Osmenttormented by paranormal events that he cannot comprehend.

His appearance on Friends

Already installed as an international star, in 2000, Willis participated in a chapter of the successful series friendswhere he appeared as the boyfriend of Rachel Green, the character of Jennifer Aniston.

For that brief appearance, Willis once again demonstrated his aptitude for comedy beyond all the action films that starred him. and in 2001 received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

In 2005 he starred in the film no city, based on the comic that had three parts directed by Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and Quentin Tarantino. And in the years that followed he continued to shoot, but none of the films achieved the impact of the blockbuster sequence he starred in in the 1990s.

The love of music

On the other hand, Willis is also a musician and has devoted a lot of time to this facet of him. In 1987, he recorded the album Bruno’s returnof pop blues. One of the themes, respect yourself, it became a hit.

Still with music as a refuge, Bruce continued to record. His second album was IIf it doesn’t kill you, it only makes you strongerwhich some refer to as the “world of music”.

The actor, in addition to singing, plays the harmonica and has, more than once, appeared before audiences at Planet Hollywood restaurant openings which he shared with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ex Demi Moore, among other events .