The immobilized author is then held hostage and tortured by Annie for a number of days, as she forces him to write a new novel starring his best-selling fictional creation, Misery Chastain. Once Willis found fame for his starring role in “Moonlighting,” he decided to try his hand at other performing arts — namely, music. The result was an album released in 1987, “The Return of Bruno,” in which Willis sang and played harmonica alongside some pretty impressive recording artists (via Diffuser). The name “Bruno” came from an alter ego invented by Willis, called Bruno Radolini.

He opened up a diner and refurbished a rundown bar, as well as built a theater for Hailey citizens to enjoy classic live entertainment. It isn’t unusual for a superstar to grow weary of the spotlight, especially with eyes on his or her every move. Shortly after Bruce Willis married Demi Moore in 1987, the couple decided to withdraw from the Hollywood ruckus and found solitude in the small town of Hailey, Idaho.

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. 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. 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.

After a diagnosis with the disorder aphasia, Bruce Willis’ family announced his retirement, ending a 42-year career. His family released a statement on Instagram, stating that the communication disorder was “impacting his cognitive abilities,” per Variety. Aphasia generally affects how people speak and understand language, but the severity of it varies.

Instead, they struggle to plan and sequence their thinking and have trouble setting priorities, according to the National Institute on Aging. They may parrot the same activity or word again and again, become disinterested in life, and act impulsively — saying inappropriate words or doing things others might perceive as embarrassing. Behavior variant frontotemporal dementia, or bvFTD, is characterized by changes in executive functions, thinking and planning. “Aphasia really means problems with language, and that can vary from having trouble finding your words to understanding what people say.

Rumer Willis reveals why mom Demi Moore’s 2012 relapse was ‘triggering’

Damage to the temporal lobe in the brain affects the ability to understand speech; additional damage to the frontal lobe affects the ability to speak. It’s unclear to what extent Willis is affected, but as expert Swathi Kiran writes in The Independent, most people affected by aphasia have trouble recalling words. The “Die Hard” production set was a loud one, since it left Bruce Willis nearly deaf in one ear. In an interview with The Guardian, Willis revealed that an accident on the set of “Die Hard” left him partially deaf in his left ear. As he jokingly described it, he now has a “tendency to say, ‘Whaa?'” when speaking to others. Rumer Willis, Willis’ eldest daughter, elaborated on his father’s condition, saying his hearing loss is due to a scene in “Die Hard” when “he shot a gun off next to his ear,” Rumer said (per the Toronto Sun).

Willis had a stutter until he discovered acting

With the news of Little Richard’s death in 2020, Moore posted a wedding photograph of herself and Willis with Little Richard on Instagram, saying, “Bruce and I were so lucky and honored to have him officiate our wedding back in 1987 — thankful for the memories.” Fame doesn’t usually happen overnight, and Bruce Willis’s story is no different. After high school, Willis found work at a chemical factory, and later as a security guard at a nuclear power plant. He then dropped out of Montclair State College during his sophomore year and moved to New York City, where he worked for years as a bartender (via Washington Post). When it was taken over by Robert Losick, it still had the name B.J.’s, and prior to that it was called Sunbrite Bar, a hangout for the notorious Irish-American crime gang called The Westies. (One innovation of Losick’s was live jazz in the joint or on the stereo; it tended to deter the stray Westie who might wander in.) For the aspirant theater crowd, it was a safe space (in the parlance of our times).

Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia

According to the Los Angeles Times, the aphasia diagnosis and subsequent retirement arrived after he had demonstrated diminished abilities in the previous few years. Collaborators on film sets reported Willis seeming unaware, out of sorts, and having such difficulty remembering and delivering his lines that scripts would be edited on the fly to accommodate the actor. He also sometimes required the use of an earpiece (through which an assistant would feed him his lines) and a body double. The story goes that in 1997, Willis was doing a project for Disney called “Broadway Brawler,” a romantic comedy that had him playing a retired pro hockey player who falls in love with a woman played by Maura Tierney. Unfortunately, Willis had issues with members of the crew, particularly the director, producer, and cinematographer. His beef with these key players on the project led to each of them getting fired, and eventually, the entire film was scrapped.

1. This type of dementia tends to present in younger people, specifically those in their 40s, 50s and 60s, the two experts said.
2. In March 2022, the family of Bruce Willis announced that his 40-year career in entertainment would be coming to a sudden and permanent halt.
3. Willis appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman several times throughout his career.
4. They can even make up nonsense words and sprinkle those into their speech and writing.

Rumer and her sisters cut off communication with their mother for three years after the incident. Watching her mother relapse into drug abuse was harrowing for Rumer, partly because it reminded her of her own issues. Armstrong said in his book “Revenge of the Nerd” that Willis once divulged a mistake in his early relationship with Shepherd, which Armstrong interpreted as a sexual liaison. Additionally, Willis’ fame ballooned four seasons into the series with the release of “Die Hard,” which may have hampered his relationship with Shepherd. Shepherd would later joke about their strained relationship in Willis’ comedy central roast, noting that the two hadn’t spoken to each other in 30 years, per Nine Network.

Prior to that, Williams was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease and Lymphedema and had been in rehabilitation for alcohol abuse. “The decision to share this news was difficult and made after careful consideration, not only to advocate for understanding and compassion for Wendy, but to raise awareness about aphasia and frontotemporal dementia,” a care team for Williams said in a statement. Former talk show host Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, the same conditions that have affected actor Bruce Willis. Kaufman and James described how people who worked on set with Willis had worried about him and Your Ultimate Biofeedback Therapy Toolkit picked up signs of a problem far earlier than the public was aware. The two spoke with me about how they reported this story and what it says about Hollywood today.