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Bruce Willis - done with acting


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Bruce Willis might be the GOAT of luck ass

  • minimal range as an actor, but he owned the fact that he could hit his one note when asked
  • >75% of the movies he was in were dogshit
  • struck lightning with Die Hard after every major star of the '80s turned it down including Stallone, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds, and Nick Nolte. Oh yeah, Paul Fucking Newman reportedly passed
  • Pulp Fiction might have resurrected Travolta's career (but he already had the bona fides), but he absolutely validated Willis' chops
  • he never took himself too seriously. He knew he was a lucky MFer and got every fucking bit out of looking camera right and rasping a variation of "welcome to the party, pal" again and again to his fans' delight

 

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On 3/30/2022 at 1:34 PM, Don Johnson said:

23 of his last 24 movies were direct to video.  All since 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Willis_filmography

 

I watched "Once Upon A Time in Venice" on I think Hulu last year.  Honestly I didn't hate it.  It wasn't a masterpiece but for a direct-to-video movie I went into with no expectations it was pretty enjoyable.

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Bruce Willis might be the GOAT of luck ass
  • minimal range as an actor, but he owned the fact that he could hit his one note when asked
  • >75% of the movies he was in were dogshit
  • struck lightning with Die Hard after every major star of the '80s turned it down including Stallone, Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds, and Nick Nolte. Oh yeah, Paul Fucking Newman reportedly passed
  • Pulp Fiction might have resurrected Travolta's career (but he already had the bona fides), but he absolutely validated Willis' chops
  • he never took himself too seriously. He knew he was a lucky MFer and got every fucking bit out of looking camera right and rasping a variation of "welcome to the party, pal" again and again to his fans' delight
 

They can’t all be in Twilight
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On 3/30/2022 at 10:13 PM, Bateshorn said:

I love many of his movies, but I have a soft spot for The Last Boyscout.  There’s something about the way it’s shot in that blue smokey light, the gratuitous violence and endless gun clips, bad guys you saw in every movie, inside jokes about buddy cop duo’s  that just screams 90s movie you watched over and over at the dollar theater to me.

 

Saw this and decided to give it a watch. Great flick. Laughed out loud 5 or 6 times. Extremely well written for what it is.

I've seen the football player shooting his way into the end zone clip plenty of times. Never knew what it was from. 

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43 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Saw this and decided to give it a watch. Great flick. Laughed out loud 5 or 6 times. Extremely well written for what it is.

I've seen the football player shooting his way into the end zone clip plenty of times. Never knew what it was from. 

And young Halle Berry before the nose job

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8 hours ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Pulp Fiction might have resurrected Travolta's career (but he already had the bona fides), but he absolutely validated Willis' chops.

I always thought Willis was the star of that movie, notwithstanding the hilarity of Travolta and Jackson.

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Success can be finding your lane, and hammering that home. And putting yourself in the situation to get lucky.

Willis always came across as a good guy, and someone that didn't necessarily take himself too seriously.   Sucks for anyone to have a neuro issue that takes away their memory, personality, and loss of function. 

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On 3/30/2022 at 10:13 PM, Bateshorn said:

I love many of his movies, but I have a soft spot for The Last Boyscout.  There’s something about the way it’s shot in that blue smokey light, the gratuitous violence and endless gun clips, bad guys you saw in every movie, inside jokes about buddy cop duo’s  that just screams 90s movie you watched over and over at the dollar theater to me.

 

I watched that movie so many times in high school that I memorized most of his lines. He made being a being a cigarette smoking burned out drunk who doesn't give a fuck seem really cool.

I  remember trying to explain to my H.S. girlfriend why he was so cool. She didn't get it.

 

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1 hour ago, Superhero said:

I was initially diagnosed with aphasia in 2016. I knew something wasn't right, and I walked into the ER feeling confused, slurring, unable to speak properly, and having difficulty understanding what the docs and nurses were telling me. They thought I was having a stroke, and gave me the red carpet treatment all the way to the ICU.

Turns out I was having focal seizures that affected the area of brain that processes language. It was really rough at first, KNOWING what's going on, but not being able to communicate with people in either English or Chinese (speaking, hearing/understanding, or even typing). It would come and go, but there were days when I was shut down for the entire day. A lot of thoughts crossed my mind then... whether I would be able to work again, what kind of burden I would be to my wife and our 2 kids (4 and 1 at the time), whether I'll ever be normal again. Luckily my family really stepped up, and the doctors did their best to understand what was going on.

6 years later I have it fairly under control with a heavy daily dose of anti-seizure medication everyday. But I can't stop wondering whether I'd be on meds for the rest of my life.

Sorry, just rambling here... the word aphasia just took me back to a really dark period in my life.

Best of luck to Bruce. I feel his pain.

I seem to recall you going through that at the time -- did you discuss it as it was unfolding on Surly (or maybe it was on Shaggy)?

Glad to hear you're doing better.

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Anybody mention the movie he's in with Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina and Tom Sizemore when they were Pittsburgh PD river boat detail? Cheesy as hell but I dug it. Guilty pleasure. Called Striking Distance or something -- I'm too lazy to look it up.

Edited by C-Man
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On 3/31/2022 at 8:21 AM, Capt. Squints said:

You can also add Fury to the growing list.

nope. he was trash in fury. wooden and stupid. 

On 3/31/2022 at 9:19 AM, huge said:

Look, anyone that says Brad Fucking Pitt is a bad actor is a dunce

he’s a great actor. but not in fury. 

On 4/1/2022 at 1:09 AM, ztejas said:

People think Brad Pitt is a shitty actor? 

no. but nobody bats 1.000

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3 hours ago, Superhero said:

I was initially diagnosed with aphasia in 2016. I knew something wasn't right, and I walked into the ER feeling confused, slurring, unable to speak properly, and having difficulty understanding what the docs and nurses were telling me. They thought I was having a stroke, and gave me the red carpet treatment all the way to the ICU.

Turns out I was having focal seizures that affected the area of brain that processes language. It was really rough at first, KNOWING what's going on, but not being able to communicate with people in either English or Chinese (speaking, hearing/understanding, or even typing). It would come and go, but there were days when I was shut down for the entire day. A lot of thoughts crossed my mind then... whether I would be able to work again, what kind of burden I would be to my wife and our 2 kids (4 and 1 at the time), whether I'll ever be normal again. Luckily my family really stepped up, and the doctors did their best to understand what was going on.

6 years later I have it fairly under control with a heavy daily dose of anti-seizure medication everyday. But I can't stop wondering whether I'd be on meds for the rest of my life.

Sorry, just rambling here... the word aphasia just took me back to a really dark period in my life.

Best of luck to Bruce. I feel his pain.

I’m curious about this, or aphasia in general. to what extent are cognitive abilities affected? is it just producing and/or interpreting speech? does bruce willis still understand the world around him and just lacks the ability to communicate what he’s thinking? or does he not know what’s going on?

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2 hours ago, C-Man said:

I seem to recall you going through that at the time -- did you discuss it as it was unfolding on Surly (or maybe it was on Shaggy)?

Glad to hear you're doing better.

It was the Shaggy days. My wife has a video of me holding my phone with the Shag on the screen and me trying to read something. One of these days I'll share the video, but I'd dox myself.

Thanks, and yes doing much better. BUT I actually had a seizure this afternoon right after the previous message. I fell asleep at my desk and my head was down. I'd don't keep track, but I'd bet the last 10 times I had a seizure were when I fell asleep and my head dropped. Maybe I should just lie down for a nap or go to bed if I'm that tired...

This afternoon's seizure put me in a brief aphasia phase. I was aware of the seizure but there was nothing I could do about it except to lie down and hope it wasn't anything worse. Nobody was home at the time, but I know if I tried to speak to anyone, I'd struggle to put together a sentence it still wouldn't make sense.

 

13 minutes ago, futureman said:

I’m curious about this, or aphasia in general. to what extent are cognitive abilities affected? is it just producing and/or interpreting speech? does bruce willis still understand the world around him and just lacks the ability to communicate what he’s thinking? or does he not know what’s going on?

For ME at least, the cognitive abilities are now intact, but it wasn't always the case. At first, I'd get confused and frustrated because I knew something was wrong but I couldn't do anything about it. A few years in, I'd understand what people were saying but I just couldn't communicate back. The speech part of my brain would just shut down and it would go into a "reboot" period. I'd hold up my finger to let my coworkers know I needed a few minutes. After that I'd be able to answer their question. The frequency and duration of these "reboots" reduced, and the medication I'm on seems pretty effective, but not completely able to prevent seizures.

That said, I had 2 grand mal seizures and those REALLY knocked me out for a few hours. When I "woke up" from those seizures, the world would be spinning, I didn't know where I was, and what had happened. My second grand mal was at home where I hit my head on the way down. My wife heard me drop, and when she came down, she said I had stopped breathing and was turning purple.

All in all, I'm happy to still be alive, can be a good-ish husband and a fun dad. I can still work and contribute to my family finances, and not cause my wife, parents, sister and in-laws any additional stress. But who knows how long this current medication will last. It seems like my dosage keeps going up. At a certain point, I may have to add another medication to keep the seizures / aphasia away.

 

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On 4/3/2022 at 7:35 PM, futureman said:

nope. he was trash in fury. wooden and stupid. 

he’s a great actor. but not in fury. 

no. but nobody bats 1.000

Wooden and stupid in Fury? He was great in it..albeit a little old for the character he portrayed. You're either being contrary or you didn't actually watch the movie.

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1 minute ago, Capt. Squints said:

Wooden and stupid in Fury? He was great in it..albeit a little old for the character he portrayed. You're either being contrary or you didn't actually watch the movie.

brad pitt is a great actor and he was also fucking dogshit in fury. it happens. 

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  • 10 months later...

Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Dementia After Retiring Due to Aphasia

Quote

After Bruce Willis’ family announced in March 2022 that the 67-year old actor had been diagnosed with aphasia and would retire from acting, his condition has now progressed into frontotemporal dementia.

His family posted a statement on Thursday about Willis’ latest diagnosis.

“Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD). Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis,” his family wrote in a statement on the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration’s website.

Rumer Willis also shared the news, along with a photo of her father, on Instagram.

 

Frontotemporal dementia, which is often diagnosed at a younger age than other forms of dementia, can be characterized by personality changes, speech difficulty and motor impairment. It’s the cause of 10% to 20% of all dementia diagnoses, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Willis’ acting career began in the early 1980s with roles in films like “The Verdict,” “Blind Date” and “Sunset.” In 1985, his career boomed with his starring role opposite Cybill Shepherd in the ABC series “Moonlighting” and his iconic performance as action star John McClane in 1988’s “Die Hard.” In addition to starring in four “Die Hard” sequels, he’s had memorable turns in “Pulp Fiction,” “12 Monkeys,” “The Fifth Element,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Armageddon” and more.

During his 40 years of acting, Willis’ movies have grossed more than $5 billion around the world. He’s been nominated for five Golden Globes (winning one for “Moonlighting”) and three Emmys (winning one for “Moonlighting” and another for his “Friends” guest role). In the last several years, he’s only appeared in an assortment of direct-to-video movies. His last major film role was in 2019’s “Motherless Brooklyn” and the M. Night Shyamalan movie “Glass.”

Bruce Willis’ Career in Photos, From ‘Moonlighting’ to ‘Glass’

Read the Willis family’s full statement below.

As a family, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the outpouring of love and compassion for Bruce over the past ten months. Your generosity of spirit has been overwhelming, and we are tremendously grateful for it. For your kindness, and because we know you love Bruce as much as we do, we wanted to give you an update.

Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD). Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.  

FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone. For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know. Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.  

Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others, and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately. We know in our hearts that – if he could today — he would want to respond by bringing global attention and a connectedness with those who are also dealing with this debilitating disease and how it impacts so many individuals and their families.  

Ours is just one family with a loved one who suffers from FTD, and we encourage others facing it to seek out the wealth of information and support available through AFTD (@theaftdtheaftd.org). And for those of you who have been fortunate enough to not have any personal experience with FTD, we hope that you will take the time to learn about it, and support AFTD’s mission in whatever way you can. 

Bruce has always found joy in life – and has helped everyone he knows to do the same. It has meant the world to see that sense of care echoed back to him and to all of us. We have been so moved by the love you have all shared for our dear husband, father, and friend during this difficult time. Your continued compassion, understanding, and respect will enable us to help Bruce live as full a life as possible. 

-Emma, Demi, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, and Evelyn 

 

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On 4/3/2022 at 1:54 PM, Superhero said:

I was initially diagnosed with aphasia in 2016. I knew something wasn't right, and I walked into the ER feeling confused, slurring, unable to speak properly, and having difficulty understanding what the docs and nurses were telling me. They thought I was having a stroke, and gave me the red carpet treatment all the way to the ICU.

Turns out I was having focal seizures that affected the area of brain that processes language. It was really rough at first, KNOWING what's going on, but not being able to communicate with people in either English or Chinese (speaking, hearing/understanding, or even typing). It would come and go, but there were days when I was shut down for the entire day. A lot of thoughts crossed my mind then... whether I would be able to work again, what kind of burden I would be to my wife and our 2 kids (4 and 1 at the time), whether I'll ever be normal again. Luckily my family really stepped up, and the doctors did their best to understand what was going on.

6 years later I have it fairly under control with a heavy daily dose of anti-seizure medication everyday. But I can't stop wondering whether I'd be on meds for the rest of my life.

Sorry, just rambling here... the word aphasia just took me back to a really dark period in my life.

Best of luck to Bruce. I feel his pain.

 

I went into the ER recently because my bp shot up to 210 over 125 and my heart rate was 130.  I'm sure the accompanying anxiety just exacerbated the problem, though I was doing my best to meditate.  Anyway, a doc in the ER said, "The right side of face is drooping, so we're gonna admit you."  I also had the red carpet experience you described, I guess certain symptoms bump you to the front of the line.

The CT scan and MRI were all negative for stroke and after a 2-day stay no one really knew what had happened.  

I'm curious, do they have you on gabapentin or pregabalin as an anticonvulsant?

Also, sent a few prayers up for you.  

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32 minutes ago, GoPokes83 said:

All those way too young girlfriends and he won’t be able to relive banging them in his mind during his old age. Poor bastard, pretty sure I’d rather die than face that prognosis

Unfortunately I have too much experience around dementia...not sure about FTD but with some dementia the person thinks they are still wherever they were 30 or 40 years ago 

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