Bruce Willis showed that heroes don’t have to be made of marble

Bruce Willis appeared He burst into the limelight in 1985 as a charming, soft-spoken private investigator who could talk his way out of trouble. Championship for five seasons vs Sybil Shepherd on TV Extra work (“He, She, and the Riddles”), he became a star from the beginning, showing an edgy sense of humor but also an idea of ​​the action hero he would turn into a few years later in Die hard (“It’s Too Hard to Die”) from 1988.

Unlike his colleagues, prominent action stars, and partners in the Planet Hollywood franchise, Arnold Schwarzenegger And Sylvester Stallone, Willis has shown remarkable range in his roles, mixing blockbusters with a wide range of comedic and dramatic nuances throughout his career. And he did all this with a refreshing human touch. As Sean O’Connell writes in his new book, Bruce Willis: Celebrating the Cinematic Legacy of the Unbreakable Hollywood IconBruce Willis proved that “Heroes don’t have to be carved from marble to win.”

It was an exciting career as Welles sought out actors and directors he wanted to work with, often knowing his name would help get his project greenlit.

There is something deeply sad about referring to the 69-year-old Willis in the past tense, as well as the arrival of a book that serves as a retrospective of his career, a memoir. But that’s the way things are. In 2022, the actor announced his retirement from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, which last year developed into frontotemporal dementia that has now left him unable to communicate and will ultimately be what takes his life.

It’s a very cruel way to leave, and it seems even worse when you consider Willis’s incredible talent for “boo-boo”, so to speak, even if some of his best roles – Butch V. Pulp Fiction, doctor. crow in sixth Sense-They were rather stoic. The book says that his colleague John Goodman knew Willis when the future star was a bartender in New York and was sure from then on that Willis would become a successful actor just by the way he struck up a conversation with customers.

It is therefore difficult not to view this book as a kind of farewell, even though it is also, as its title suggests, a celebration of an amazing journey. The author provides a film-by-film breakdown of Welles’ career, dividing his works into categories (e.g. comedies, action films, science fiction, etc., with the “Die Hard” film series having its own section right). It was a remarkable career as Welles sought out actors and directors he wanted to work with, often knowing his name would help get his project greenlit.

the Quentin Tarantino He wasn’t yet famous Quentin Tarantino when Willis signed on for a supporting role in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction” (Willis wanted to play Vincent Vega, a role played by John Travolta, but ultimately said he was happy playing the boxer Butch). With the strange association with an old watch). As O’Connell points out, his role in the film is mostly silent, proving that Welles did not need to open his mouth to have a strong screen presence.

Likewise, M. Night Shyamalan was unknown when he asked the actor about The Sixth Sense. The film was a huge success and became the highest grossing of Welles’ career due to what turned out to be a genius deal he struck: a 17.5% share of the film’s profits and DVD revenues. “The Sixth Sense” made Willis the first actor to earn more than $100 million in a single film.

Even just leafing through the book is enough to remind the reader of the eclecticism of Welles’s choices (at the time). Add to the above-mentioned films productions such as “Looper”, and “Twelve monkeys”Or “The Fifth Element” or “Death Is Too Much for You” or “Moonrise Kingdom” among others, and you’ve had a long career that has often zigzagged when you expected it to stumble.

There are also some less-mentioned films, the last ones he directed, mostly the B-grade action films that have been pouring in over the past few years – most of them pretty bad, some of them showing signs of his cognitive impairment. drop. This is not the way to remember such a unique actor and star, and the author wisely buries these credits in the back of the book or in the back of memory, where they should remain.

With data from the Los Angeles Times