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Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a Golden Globe- and double Emmy-winning German-born American actor and singer. He came to fame in the late 1980s and has since retained a career as both a Hollywood leading man and a supporting actor, in particular for his role as John McClane in the Die Hard series. Willis was married to actress Demi Moore and they had three daughters before their divorce in 2000 after thirteen years of marriage. Willis has released several albums and has appeared in several television shows. He has also starred in over sixty films, including Pulp Fiction, Sin City, Unbreakable, Armageddon, and The Sixth Sense. Motion pictures featuring Willis, have grossed US$2.55 to US$3.04 billion at North American box offices, making him the sixth highest-grossing in a leading role, and eighth highest including supporting roles. He has received multiple awards and honors during his career and has publicly shown his support for the United States armed forces. raffish performer whose relaxed style and working-class persona made him an indelible favorite during his star-making turn on the quirky detective series, “Moonlighting” (ABC, 1985-89), actor Bruce Willis used his cocky charm and insatiable will to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world. A surprisingly versatile performer, Willis hit his peak as an action hero during the late 1980s and early 1990s, especially as the star of the behemoth hit “Die Hard” (1988). Proving he was more than a one-note song, Willis put his acting chops on display as Butch, the washed-up pugilist in director Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” (1994). His career hit a bumpy road, however, as he approached middle age – around the same time his fabled marriage to fellow A-lister Demi Moore came to an end. But Willis later reinvented himself as a lead of serious dramas, especially with an impressive turn as haunted psychiatrist Dr. Malcolm Crowe in director M. Night Shyamalan’s landmark thriller, “The Sixth Sense” (1999). Willis would continue his association with Shyamalan well into the next decade, refining his image as a venerable actor with true talent – and enough of a sense of humor to return to his “Die Hard,” once again starring as a middle-aged John McClain in “Live Free or Die Hard” (2007). The eldest of four children, Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, where his father was a welder serving in the U.S. military. The family later moved to Penns Grove, NJ, where Willis spent the remainder of his childhood. Nicknaming himself ‘Bruno’ to gain confidence, Willis quickly became a popular student; even going on to become student body president. Unfortunately, Willis’ political career went up in smoke his senior year when he was suspended for three months – allegedly for smoking pot. After toiling around New Jersey and working menial jobs following graduation – namely at a nearby DuPont chemical factory and as a security guard at a nuclear power plant – Willis decided to give acting a try. While taking classes at Montclair State College, the future star also began to play harmonica in a local blues band called the Loose Goose – a regular ritual which helped the fledgling musician overcome his natural stutter. Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, the son of a Kassel-born German mother, Marlene, who worked in a bank, and David Willis, an American soldier. Willis was the oldest of four children (his siblings are Florence, David, and Robert). After being discharged from the military in 1957, Willis' father took his family back to Penns Grove, New Jersey, where he worked as a welder and factory worker. His parents separated in 1972 while Willis was in his early teens. He was always an outgoing youngster, although he grew up with a stutter. Willis attended Penns Grove High School in his hometown. Finding it easy to express himself on stage and losing his stutter in the process, Willis began performing on stage and his high school activities were marked by such things as the drama club and school council president. After high school, Willis took a job as a security guard and he also transported work crews at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. He quit after a colleague was killed on the job, and became a regular at several bars. Willis learned to play the harmonica and joined an R&B band called Loose Goose. After a stint as a private investigator (a role he would play in the television series Moonlighting as well as in the 1991 film, The Last Boy Scout), Willis returned to acting. He enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in the class production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Willis left school in his junior year and moved to New York City. Willis returned to the bar scene, only this time for a part-time job. After countless auditions, Willis made his theater debut in the off-Broadway production of Heaven and Earth. He gained more experience and exposure in Fool for Love, an appearance on television's Miami Vice, and in a Levi's commercial. Willis left New York City and headed to California to audition for several television shows. He auditioned for the TV series Moonlighting (1985–89), while competing against 3,000 other actors for the position and was selected to play David Addison Jr. The starring role helped to establish him as a comedic actor, with the show lasting five seasons. During the height of the show's success, beverage maker Seagram hired Willis as the pitchman for their Golden Wine Cooler products. The memorable ad campaign paid the rising star between five and seven million dollars over two years. In spite of that, Willis decided not renew his contract with the company when he decided to stop drinking alcohol in 1988. One of his first major film roles was in the 1987 Blake Edwards film Blind Date alongside Kim Basinger and John Laroquette. However, it was his then-unexpected turn in the film Die Hard that catapulted him to fame. He performed most of his own stunts in the film, and the film grossed $138,708,852 worldwide. Due to its box office success, the film would eventually tender three sequels, with the most recent entry, Live Free or Die Hard, released in June 2007. He also provided his voice for a talking baby in Look Who's Talking and its sequel. Willis broke through both professionally and personally with the school’s production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” With the determination of someone who knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, Willis promptly dropped out of MSC at 19 and moved to New York City, NY to find acting work. In 1977, Willis landed his first stage gig with a role in an off-Broadway production of “Heaven and Earth.” But for the most part, he struggled to find acting work while paying the rent with bartending gigs at Chelsea Central and Kamikaze. Willis continued to perform in other off-Broadway roles and appeared briefly in films like “The First Deadly Sin” (1980) and “The Verdict” (1982), as well as occasionally landing guest spots on episodes of “Hart to Hart” (ABC, 1979-1984) and “Miami Vice” (NBC, 1984-89). During the wild 1980s – an era awash in booze and drugs – his devil-may-care bartender attitude fit in perfectly with the night owls of the Big Apple’s surreal after-hours swirl. And like many bartenders-by-night/thespians-by-day, Willis was also developing serious acting chops. In 1984, his first big break came when he replaced Ed Harris in Sam Shepard's off-Broadway hit, "Fool for Love.” This led to an audition for "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985) – the Susan Seidelman-helmed mistaken identity comedy starring Madonna and Rosanna Arquette. Though he failed to land the part, Willis stuck around Hollywood an extra day to read for what became a career-launching role – playing wisecracking private investigator David Addison on ABC’s wildly successful “Moonlighting.” Arriving to the audition in combat fatigues and sporting a punk haircut, he eventually beat out 3,000 other hopefuls because of his unconventional look and cocky attitude. Starring opposite a smug, but demure Cybill Shepherd, Willis possessed the charm of a young Jimmy Cagney. Before long, the hip dialogue-driven romantic comedy became one of the most inventive shows of the decade. Unfortunately, the show’s success also bred its share of personality conflicts. Widely publicized battles involving the two stars and show creator Glenn Gordon Caron resulted in production delays and numerous repeat episodes. But the behind-the-scenes tensions helped fuel the palpable onscreen sexual energy between Willis and Shepherd. The carnal edge to their rocky relationship was finally consummated at the end of the 1986-87 season – an event considered by many fans to be the moment when the series “jumped-the-shark.” Willis did, however, win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama that same season. In the late-1980s, Willis enjoyed moderate success as a recording artist, recording an album of pop-blues entitled The Return of Bruno, which included the hit single "Respect Yourself", promoted by a Spinal Tap-like rockumentary parody featuring scenes of him performing at famous events including Woodstock. Follow-up recordings were not as successful, though Willis has returned to the recording studio several times. In the early 1990s, Willis' career suffered a moderate slump starring in flops such as The Bonfire of the Vanities, Striking Distance and a film he co-wrote entitled Hudson Hawk, among others. He starred in a leading role in the highly sexualized thriller Color of Night (1994), which was very poorly received by critics but has become popular on video. However, in 1994 he had a supporting role in Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed Pulp Fiction, which gave a new boost to his career. In 1996, he was the executive producer of the cartoon Bruno the Kid which featured a CGI representation of himself. He went on to play the lead roles in Twelve Monkeys and The Fifth Element. However, by the end of the 1990s, his career had fallen into another slump with critically panned films like The Jackal, Mercury Rising, and Breakfast of Champions, saved only by the success of the Michael Bay-directed Armageddon which was the highest grossing film of 1998 worldwide. The same year his voice and likeness were featured in the PlayStation video game Apocalypse. In 1999, Willis then went on to the starring role in M. Night Shyamalan's film, The Sixth Sense. The film was both a commercial and critical success and helped to increase interest in his acting career. He once had to appear in the sitcom Friends without pay, because he lost a bet to Matthew Perry, his co-star in the comedy The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards. He won a 2000 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Friends (in which he played the father of Ross Geller's much-younger girlfriend). He was also nominated for a 2001 American Comedy Award (in the Funniest Male Guest Appearance in a TV Series category) for his work on Friends. Willis was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean's Eleven (2001) but dropped out to work on recording an album. In Ocean's Twelve (2003), he makes a cameo appearance as himself. He recently appeared in the Planet Terror half of the double feature Grindhouse as the villain, a mutant soldier. This marks Willis' second collaboration with director Robert Rodriguez, following Sin City. After appearing in guest spots on several TV shows, in addition to starring in the series pilot for an updated incarnation of "The Twilight Zone" (CBS, 1985-87), Willis headlined his own music special, "The Return of Bruno" (HBO, 1987), a mockumentary highlighting fictional blues singer Bruno Radolini (Willis) and his band, The Heaters. From there, Willis landed starring roles in two uneven Blake Edwards’s comedies, "Blind Date" (1987) and "Sunset" (1988). The actor’s charming "Moonlighting" smirk notwithstanding, little of Willis’ small screen appeal translated to the big screen and he was pegged as just another fading television personality unable to make the transition into features. But when Hollywood super-agent Arnold Rifkin landed Willis the lead role in the action-film "Die Hard,” Willis was thrust into the big time. News broke that he would earn an unprecedented $5 million payday, raising a hue and cry throughout Hollywood that no actor with such trifling films credits should command such a substantial amount of money. In hindsight, Willis’ salary was a bargain. The action thriller – about a New York cop (Willis) trapped in a corporate high-rise when a gang of terrorists hold employees hostage – spawned a franchise and launched Willis as an action-hero on par with the likes of Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Willis' wise-guy machismo worked perfectly for the film’s hero, John McClane, leading him to reprise the role in the sequel "Die Hard II: Die Harder" (1990). Meanwhile, he supplied the voice of Mikey in the hit comedy "Look Who's Talking" (1989) and its limp follow-up "Look Who's Talking Too" (1990), then stretched his talents with a surprisingly good performance as the cynical, shell-shocked Vietnam veteran of "In Country" (1989). Willis went on to flex his acting muscles as the low-life murder victim in "Mortal Thoughts" (1991, opposite then-wife Demi Moore) and the hapless plastic surgeon in the horror comedy "Death Becomes Her" (1992) – occasional high points in the midst of some extraordinary disasters. Less successful were the abysmal "Bonfire of the Vanities" (1990) based on Tom Wolfe’s novel, the self-indulgent action flop "Hudson Hawk" (1991) – for which he co-wrote the story and theme song – as well as the box-office disappointments "Billy Bathgate" (1991) and "The Last Boy Scout" (1991), all of which threatened to permanently damage his career. Once again, critics were wont to write Willis off, just as they did during his post-“Moonlighting” missteps. He defied them all, however, rebounding nicely with several off-beat roles that ran counter to his action hero persona. After spoofing himself in Robert Altman's Hollywood satire "The Player" (1992), he emerged as a prizefighter who refuses to take a dive in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994). Though overshadowed by costar John Travolta’s sudden return to the limelight after his career had been pronounced dead, Willis nonetheless resuscitated himself in the film’s most memorable performance. He next starred in director Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi masterpiece "12 Monkeys" (1995), playing a time-traveling scientist whose self-sacrifice alters the course of the future for the betterment of mankind. Later that year, however, Willis suited up for a third go-round as John McClane opposite co-star Samuel L. Jackson in the underrated, “Die Hard with a Vengeance” (1995). Willis’ collaboration with writer-director Walter Hill on "Last Man Standing" (1996), a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai masterpiece "Yojimbo," turned out to be a torturous affair. As the 1990s wore on, Willis comfortably wore the mantle of action hero – despite chafing at the garment's limitations – in such big-budgeted effects-laden efforts as Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" (1997), which enjoyed a tremendous worldwide box office against meager US returns, and the blockbuster "Armageddon" (1998), which depicted him as an oil driller who sacrifices his life to save the world from a giant meteor. Around that same period, Willis attempted a change of pace with his first large-scale, villainous role as the titular mercenary killer in the watchable, but ultimately disappointing thriller, "The Jackal" (1997). It was back to the same old, same old for "Mercury Rising" (1998), an action thriller about an FBI agent (Willis) helping an autistic child (Miko Hughes) find safety after accidentally discovering a secret code. Willis’ power hungry general also single-handedly altered the tone of "The Siege" (1998) from a serious-minded thriller to a one-dimensional, cartoon shoot-em-up. In 1999, Willis finally made a life-long pet project, playing Dwayne Hoover, the suicidal car salesman from author Kurt Vonnegut’s "Breakfast of Champions.” He wisely chose to act in that year's paranormal surprise hit, "The Sixth Sense,” which presented him at his most subdued, endearing and effective opposite 12-year-old Haley Joel Osment, a boy who sees dead people. The star also undertook a role which paralleled his own life in Rob Reiner's comedy-drama "The Story of Us" (also 1999), drawing on his own difficulties with Demi Moore for its sad-sack story of a marriage in trouble. In 2000, Willis continued to resist the call of the action hero, playing a fast-paced, but unhappy Los Angeles executive who gets in touch with his physically manifested inner child (Spencer Breslin) in “Disney's The Kid.” After reuniting with M. Night Shyamalan in the supernatural thriller "Unbreakable" (2000), Willis scored a surprise hit with "The Whole Ten Yards," a broad comedy in which he was ex-mobster and friendly suburban neighbor Jimmy "The Tulip" Tudeski. Returning to the small screen for a three-episode arc on NBC's hit sitcom "Friends” (1994-2004), Willis picked up his second Emmy playing the disapproving father of a college co-ed dating the character of Ross (David Schwimmer) who winds up romancing Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). On the big screen, Willis was back to being laconic in "Bandits" (2001), playing a prison escapee who robs a number of banks with his hypochondriac partner (Billy Bob Thornton), even though both fall in love with a runaway housewife (Cate Blanchett). Willis was used to better effect as an American P.O.W. presiding over a murder trial in the WWII drama "Hart's War" (2002), then as the leader of a special operations force on a search and rescue mission in the jungles of Africa in "Tears of the Sun" (2003). That year he also voiced the animated canine Spike in "Rugrats Go Wild" and had an unaccredited, nearly unrecognizable cameo in "Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle," the comeback vehicle for friendly ex-wife Moore, before reprising Jimmy the Tulip for the dreadful sequel "The Whole Ten Yards.” He popped up with another cameo appearance, playing himself in "Ocean's 12" (2004), the rather unworthy sequel to the 2001 caper comedy hit. Willis returned to the thriller genre with the Miramax-produced "Hostage" (2005), with a screenplay written by bestselling novelist Robert Crais. In the film, he was a failed LAPD hostage negotiator who, as a suburban police chief, finds himself forced to rely on his old skills to save his estranged family. Though the film had merits, it failed at the box office. He was better served in the highly stylized "Sin City" (2005), Robert Rodriguez's visually arresting adaptation of Frank Miller's crime noir comic book series. In the film's best segment, "That Yellow Bastard," Willis had the plum role of Hartigan, a noble, but world-weary and heart-troubled cop who goes to jail rather than lead the corrupt family of a pedophile to the victim he saved, only to become embroiled again with all of the players in his past. Returning to animation, Willis voiced the manipulative and opportunistic raccoon, RJ, in DreamWorks’ “Over the Hedge” (2005), an amusing, though standard comedy about a group of forest critters trying to reclaim a neighboring backyard after waking from their long winter’s nap. In “Lucky Number Slevin” (2006), he was a notorious hit man who helps a man (Josh Hartnett) trapped between two crime bosses (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley) – thanks to a case of mistaken identity – to get them before they get him. After a small part as a bigwig cattle supplier in “Fast Food Nation” (2006), Willis made a cameo as a retired astronaut who tries to convince a determined farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) not to build his own rocket ship in “The Astronaut Farmer” (2006). Willis returned to leading man status in the well-made popcorn thriller “16 Blocks” (2006), playing a hard-drinking, hard-living New York City cop tasked with transporting a petty criminal (Mos Def) to his grand jury testimony against a corrupt cop (David Morse), only to learn the hard way that the cop wants the witness dead. Willis made another off-kilter cameo, this time as a macho military fanatic in the “Planet Terror” segment of “Grindhouse” (2007), a compilation of two 90-minute horror flicks from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez that was a throwback to the days of bloody, sex-fueled, low-rent double features that played in seedy 42nd Street theaters in New York City. He then reverted to playing the heavy in “Perfect Stranger” (2007), a dull and lifeless thriller about an investigative reporter (Halle Berry) who poses as a temp at an advertising agency in order to unravel the murder of a friend connected to a powerful ad executive (Willis). Meanwhile, action fans had cause to scream a celebratory “Yippee-ki-yay, motherf*****!” in the summer with the long-awaited return of hero-cop John McClane in the fourth installment of the “Die Hard” series, “Live Free or Die Hard” (2007). Returning to the signature role he created nearly twenty years earlier, Willis played an older, less resilient John McClane entering middle-age who – when duty calls – would prove that once an action hero, always an action hero. Willis has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman several times throughout his career. He filled in for an ill David Letterman on his show February 26, 2003, when he was supposed to be a guest.He interviewed Dan Rather in what he would later call "the most serious conversation of my entire life". On many of his appearances on the show, Willis stages elaborate jokes, such as wearing a day-glo orange suit in honor of the Central Park gates, having one side of his face made up with simulated buckshot wounds after the Harry Whittington shooting, or trying to break a record (parody of David Blaine) of staying underwater for only 20 seconds. On April 12, 2007, he appeared again, this time wearing a Sanjaya Malakar wig. His most recent appearance was on June 25, 2007 when he appeared wearing a mini-turbine strapped to his head to accompany a joke about his own fictional documentary entitled An Unappealing Hunch (a wordplay of An Inconvenient Truth). Willis also appeared on Japanese Subaru Legacy television commercials, optimizing the car for sale, with the backing music of Jade from Sweetbox, "Addicted" and "Hate Without Frontiers". Tying in with this, Subaru did a limited run of Legacys, badged "Subaru Legacy Touring Bruce", in honor of Willis. Willis has appeared in four movies with Samuel L. Jackson (National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, Pulp Fiction, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Unbreakable) and both actors were slated to work together in Black Water Transit before dropping out. Willis also worked alongside his eldest daughter, Rumer, in the 2005 film Hostage. In 2007, he recently finished the thriller Perfect Stranger, opposite Halle Berry, the crime/drama film Alpha Dog, opposite Sharon Stone, and marked his return to the role of John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard. Willis' future projects include three other films that will debut between 2008 and 2009. Willis will join the Assassination of a High School President, which is a 2008 comedy where he will be a Catholic school principal and his real-life eldest daughter, Rumer, will star as a student investigating missing SAT scores. His two 2009 films will include the drama Morgan's Summit, where he will depict a late night radio host who promotes kindness, but changes his demeanor after a brutal crime causes him to seek revenge and The Last Full Measure, a drama film based on a true story about a Vietnam War veteran. Willis was slated to play U.S. Army general William R. Peers in director Oliver Stone's Pinkville, a drama about the investigation of the 1968 My Lai massacre. However, due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike, the film was cancelled and Willis instead joined the film, The Surrogates, which is based on the comic books of the same name. At the premiere for the film Stakeout, Willis met actress Demi Moore who was dating actor Emilio Estevez at the time. Willis married Moore on November 21, 1987 and had three daughters (Rumer Glenn Willis (born 1988), Scout LaRue Willis (1991) and Tallulah Belle Willis (1994)) before the couple divorced on October 18, 2000. The couple gave no public reason for their breakup. Willis reacting on his divorce stated "I felt I had failed as a father and a husband by not being able to make it work" and credited actor Will Smith for helping him get through the divorce. Willis and Moore currently share custody of the three daughters they had during their thirteen-year union. Since their breakup, rumors persisted that the couple planned to re-marry, but Moore has since married the younger actor Ashton Kutcher. Willis has maintained a close relationship with both Moore and Kutcher, even attending their wedding. Since his divorce he has dated models Maria Bravo Rosado and Emily Sandberg and also was engaged to Brooke Burns, until they broke up in 2004 after dating for ten months. Recently, he has been spotted dating Playboy Playmates Tamara Witmer and Karen McDougal on different occasions. Willis has expressed interest in getting married again and having more children. Bruce Willis was, at one point, Lutheran (specifically Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod); but no longer practices, based on a statement he made in the July 1998 issue of George magazine: “ Organized religions in general, in my opinion, are dying forms", he says. "They were all very important when we didn't know why the sun moved, why weather changed, why hurricanes occurred, or volcanoes happened", he continues. "Modern religion is the end trail of modern mythology. But there are people who interpret the Bible literally. Literally!" he says incredulously. "I choose not to believe that's the way. And that's what makes America cool, you know? ” In early 2006, Willis, who usually lives in Los Angeles, moved into an apartment located in the Trump Tower in New York City. Willis also has a home in Malibu, California, a ranch in Montana, a beach home on Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos, and multiple properties in Sun Valley, Idaho. Willis owns his own motion picture production company called Cheyenne Enterprises which he started with his business parter Arnold Rifkin in 2000. He also owns several small businesses in Hailey, Idaho including The Mint Bar and The Liberty Theater and is a co-founder of Planet Hollywood along with actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. His dog, a Yorkshire Terrier is named Wolf Fishbein ("Wolfie") after a character in the Woody Allen movie Crimes and Misdemeanors. Willis, an avid New Jersey Nets fan, made controversial comments on April 29, 2007 during a live broadcast of a Nets home playoff game vs. the Toronto Raptors on TSN by saying a catch phrase from his Die Hard films, "Yipee-ki-yay motherfucker", at the end of the interview. Reacting to the backlash, he later blamed his actions on jet lag, stating: "Sometimes I overestimate my ability to function under duress with less than enough sleep". On May 5, 2007, someone using the screen name "Walter_B" started posting detailed responses onto Ain't it Cool News, where people were discussing the fact that Live Free or Die Hard received a PG-13 rating, instead of an R rating like the earlier three Die hard films. The responses included detailed information on Live Free or Die Hard, which was yet to be released; the theme of the Die Hard film series, direct criticisms of other movie crews and casts, and many movie trivia answers. "Walter_B" was Bruce Willis himself, directly posting his opinions. Many people were skeptical that "Walter_B" was indeed Willis, but on May 9, Willis revealed his identity on a video chat session (using iChat). In 2007, Willis stated he was not in favor of war in Iraq, but instead liked, “to support the young men and women who are over there participating in the war”. He has endorsed every Republican presidential candidate except Bob Dole in 1996, because Dole had criticized Moore for her role in the movie Striptease. Willis was an invited speaker at the 2000 Republican National Convention, and continues to vocally support gun ownership. He has criticized the religious right and its influence on the Republican party. In February 2006, Willis appeared in Manhattan to talk about 16 Blocks with reporters. One reporter attempted to ask Willis about his opinion on current events but was interrupted by Willis in mid-sentence: “ I'm sick of answering this fucking question. I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government, I want less government intrusion. I want them to stop shitting on my money and your money and tax dollars that we give 50 percent of... every year. I want them to be fiscally responsible and I want these goddamn lobbyists out of Washington. Do that and I'll say I'm a Republican... I hate the government, OK? I'm apolitical. Write that down. I'm not a Republican. In several June 2007 interviews, he declared that he still maintains some Republican ideologies but is currently an independent. In an interview for the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, Bruce Willis said he was skeptical that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and suggested that some people involved in the assassination are still in power today. In 2006, he proposed that the United States should invade Colombia in order to end the drug trafficking. In several interviews with USA Weekend, Willis has said that he supports large salaries for teachers, and says that he is disappointed in the United States' foster care and treatment of Native Americans. Willis also stated that he is a big supporter of gun rights: "Everyone has a right to bear arms. If you take guns away from legal gun owners, then the only people who have guns are the bad guys." Even a pacifist, he insists, would get violent if someone were trying to kill him. "You would fight for your life." Throughout his film career, Willis has depicted several military characters in films such as The Siege, Hart's War, Tears of the Sun, and Grindhouse. Growing up in a military family, Willis has been publicly supportive of the United States armed forces. In 2002, Willis' youngest daughter, Tallulah, suggested that he purchase Girl Scout cookies to send to troops. Willis purchased 12,000 boxes of cookies, and they were distributed to sailors aboard USS John F. Kennedy and other troops stationed throughout the Middle East at the time. In 2003, Willis visited Iraq as part of the USO tour, singing to the troops with his band, The Accelerators. Some reports from military officials suggest that Willis tried to enlist in the military to help fight the second Iraq war, but he was turned away because of his age. It was believed he offered $1 million to any civilian who turns in terrorist leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; in the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, however, he clarified that the statement was made hypothetically and not meant to be taken literally. Willis has also criticized the media for its coverage of the war, complaining that the press were more likely to focus on the negative aspects of the war: “ I went to Iraq because what I saw when I was over there was soldiers — young kids for the most part — helping people in Iraq; helping getting the power turned back on, helping get hospitals open, helping get the water turned back on and you don't hear any of that on the news. You hear, 'X number of people were killed today,' which I think does a huge disservice. It's like spitting on these young men and women who are over there fighting to help this country. ” Willis has said that he wants to "make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy." The film will follow members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, who spent considerable time in Mosul and were decorated heavily for it. The film is to be based on the writings of blogger Michael Yon, a former United States Army Special Forces Green Beret who was embedded with Deuce Four and sent regular dispatches about their activities. Willis described the plot of the film as "these guys who do what they are asked for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom." In 1996, Roger Director, a writer and producer from Moonlighting wrote a roman à clef on Willis titled A Place to Fall. Cybill Shepherd wrote in her 2000 autobiography, Cybill Disobedience, that Willis was angry at Director, because the character was written as a "neurotic, petulant actor." |
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