Bruce Willis

Musician and actor Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, usually in stunning action films. Together, they've been featured in films that earned more than $2.5 billion USD. Walter Bruce Willis was born March 19, 1955 in Idar-Oberstein (West Germany) to Marlene Kassel and David Andrew Willis (from Carneys Point New Jersey), both of whom were living at the United States military base. His family emigrated to the U.S. soon after he was born. Willis was raised in Penns Grove by his mother, who worked at the bank, while his father, a welding employed in a factory and welder. Willis began to develop an interest in drama during high school. He was allegedly "discovered" whilst working in an establishment in New York City and then was featured in several off-Broadway productions. As a bartender one night, he was seen by the casting director who was impressed by his persona and was in need of bartenders for a minor movie part. After many auditions, Willis was credited with a couple of film appearances which were usually uncredited. He then landing the role of private investigator "David Addison" along with sultry Cybill Shepherd in the hit romantic comedy TV series Moonlighting (1985). The sarcastic and wisecracking P.I. is the highlight of his career. is considered by some to be an exercise in preparation for the part of the hard-boiled NYC detective "John McClane" in the monster-movie Die Hard (1988), in which Willis the character alone fought an uncompromising gang of international thieves in the Los Angeles skyscraper. In the sequel, Die Hard 2 (1990), Willis reprised his character in the role of McClane. The plot set in Washington's Dulles International Airport where a group of rebellious Special Forces soldiers are trying to reclaim an unjust South American general. A sequel, Die Hard with the vengeance (1995), was a hit. The film starred Samuel L. Jackson as an unrepentant Harlem shopowner who is forced to aid McClane in a attack on a hot New York day.