Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis, actor and musician, is known for his smart and hard-edged parts in action films. In total, he's appeared in films that have grossed more than $2.5 billion dollars. 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 resided on an United States military base. The family relocated to the U.S. shortly after he was born, and he was raised in Penns Grove, New Jersey where his mother worked in a bank and where his father worked as a welder and factory worker. Willis was drawn to drama during his high school. While working at an New York City café, the cafe was "discovered". Then, he began to appear in several off-Broadway productions. He was bartending when a casting director spotted his charisma and asked to cast him as an bartender in a short film. Willis was part of countless auditions before landing the role in the cult romantic comedy, Moonlighting (1985), as David Addison. The sly and wise-cracking P.I. Many view it as an opportunity to practice to prepare for Willis as McClane in Die Hard (1988), in which he was the sole defender of the gang of thieves at the Los Angeles skyscraper. He reprised his role as McClane in the sequel, Die Hard 2 (1990) and was set in wintery Washington's Dulles International Airport as a group of renegade Special Forces soldiers seek to return a corrupt South American general. The success of the film at the box office prompted a further sequel, Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), this time with co-star Samuel L. Jackson as the sly Harlem shop owner unwittingly thrust to assist McClane in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing campaign during a hot day in New York.