Last May, renowned Hollywood actor Bruce Willis announced his retirement from the entertainment industry due to health concerns. Initial reports from the actor’s family cited his struggle with aphasia, with later clarification revealing his diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.
Now, Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron has described Bruce Willis as “incommunicative.” Caron disclosed the latest information on the actor’s health status during a conversation regarding the recent streaming release of the 1980s prime-time dramedy, where Willis starred alongside Cybill Shepherd as an emerging talent.
Bruce Willis Couldn’t Communicate His Sentiments To Glenn Gordon Caron
Despite encountering years of challenges related to rights clearance in bringing the detective series to Hulu, the Emmy-nominated producer expressed that Willis is genuinely pleased that the show has reached a broader audience. Although, as Caron lamented, Willis is unable to directly communicate this sentiment.
Caron told The New York Post:
“He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader — he didn’t want anyone to know that — and he’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce. When you’re with him you know that he’s Bruce and you’re grateful that he’s there but the joie de vivre is gone.”
According to the producer’s statement, he endeavors to meet with Bruce Willis approximately once a month, maintaining communication with Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, and his daughters from his previous marriage to Demi Moore.
Considering the recent health update, it’s highly likely that the action film Assassin, which was filmed in 2021, will go down as his final appearance on the silver screen. However, his family expressed their wish that Willis’ enduring star influence could persist in impacting people’s lives, drawing attention to the condition he is currently contending with.
Bruce Willis Is Counted Among The Most Bankable Hollywood Stars
Throughout Willis’s film trajectory, which began while Moonlighting was still being produced, his approach has not so much been about transforming himself chameleon-like but rather about pushing that persona into fresh and unexplored territories.
Bruce Willis’ triumphs at the box office enabled him to demand some of the largest salaries in Hollywood, particularly during the mid-to-late 90s and 2000s. Throughout this era, Bruce consistently secured a minimum base salary of $14 million for a single film.
His highest compensations included $14 million for The Last Boy Scout in 1991, $15 million for 1995’s Die Hard: With a Vengeance, $16.5 million for 1996’s Last Man Standing, and $14.8 million for 1998’s Armageddon.
Bruce Willis’ Best Roles Over The Years
He had a career marked by undeniable lows as well as striking highs, where it’s inconceivable to envision anyone else stepping into Willis’ role. Hitting the screens merely a year after The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable left audiences bewildered, expecting a continuation of the same. Despite concluding with a twist, the film diverged from the anticipated path, as instead of delivering another supernatural thriller, M. Night Shyamalan chose to present a superhero-origin narrative.
Even at his most casual, Willis infused his characters with a distinct vulnerability in 12 Monkeys. This vulnerability grew more profound over time, potentially accounting for why some of Willis’s most compelling portrayals reside within narratives centered on time travel and the prospect of redemption.
Besides, the debate isn’t about whether Die Hard is Bruce Willis’s paramount action film. Rather, it revolves around whether Die Hard stands as the greatest action film overall. If so, a significant portion of the acclaim is owed to Willis, whose portrayal of John McClane commences as an East Coast individual perplexed by the eccentricities of California and endeavoring to mend his relationship with his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia).
