Disney Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Disney Wiki

Walter Bruce Willis is a retired German-born American actor, comedian, producer, singer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles as David Addison in the ABC comedy-drama series Moonlighting (19851989), as well as John McClane in the Die Hard film series (which is now owned by Disney following the merger of Disney and 20th Century Studios), which were mostly critical, albeit uniformly financial successes, and has appeared in over 100 other films. He is also well-known for voicing Spike the dog in Nickelodeon's 2003 animated crossover film Rugrats Go Wild, as well as RJ the raccoon in DreamWorks' 2006 animated film Over the Hedge.

For Disney, he portrayed Russ Duritz in the 2000 comedy film The Kid. He also played Bo Weinberg in the 1991 Touchstone Pictures film Billy Bathgate, Dr. Malcolm Crowe in the 1999 Hollywood Pictures film The Sixth Sense, Dwayne Hoover in Breakfast of Champions, Dr. Bill Capa in Color of Night, and David Dunn/The Overseer in Unbreakable, a role he later reprised as a cameo in Split under Universal Pictures, as well as in Glass. Additionally, he portrayed Harry S. Stamper in Armageddon and Tom Greer in Surrogates.

Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. His mother, Marlene, was German from Kassel, and his father, David Willis, was an American soldier. Willis has a younger sister, Florence, and two younger brothers, Robert (deceased) and David. After being discharged from the military in 1957, his father relocated the family to his hometown of Carneys Point, New Jersey. Willis has described his background as a "long line of blue-collar people". His mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.

Willis, who spoke with a stutter, attended Penns Grove High School, where his schoolmates nicknamed him "Buck-Buck". He joined the drama club, found that acting on stage reduced his stutter, and was eventually elected student council president. After graduating from high school in 1973, Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works factory. After working as a private investigator, he turned to acting.

On March 30, 2022, Willis' family announced that he would be retiring from acting after he had been diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that affects language cognition. At the time of his retirement, Willis had completed eight films awaiting release in 2022 and 2023.

Roles[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

References[]

External links[]

Advertisement