For over four decades, Bruce Wills brought iconic, sometimes egotistical, and always unforgettable characters to the silver and small screen.
After making a splash as wisecracking detective David Addison in Moonlighting, the German-born star portrayed Paul Stevens in Friends, hosted Saturday Night Live twice and appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
But arguably the 69-year-old’s leading role was the sardonic vigilante John McClane in the Die Hard franchise.
In the first instalment of John McTiernan’s Die Hard, Bruce Willis plays a New York City police detective who finds himself embroiled in a terrorist takeover.
While hoping to reconcile with his estranged wife Holly Gennaro-McClane (played by Bonnie Bedelia) on Christmas Eve, McClane is forced to grapple with assailants as they take over a Los Angeles skyscraper, dubbed the Nakatomi Plaza.
In Die Hard 2, McClane is waiting for his wife to land at Washington Dulles International Airport when terrorists take over the air traffic control system.
As expected, the third, fourth, and fifth films in the series follow similarly, but did you know Willis once made a promise while filming the franchise that he broke more than three decades later?
In July 2022, the now-retired actor – who suffers from a brain disorder called frontotemporal dementia (FTD) – celebrated the 34th Die Hard anniversary by heading back to the iconic skyscraper where the first film was set.
The location, Fox Plaza in Century City, served as the setting for Nakatomi Plaza in the original blockbuster, with McClane promising to ‘never even think about going up in a tall building again’.
Bruce Willis played John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (20th Century Studios)
In a monochromatic Instagram post shared by his wife Emma Heming Willis, 46, the 12 Monkeys favourite could be seen taking in the Los Angeles skyline from atop the tower.
“Nakatomi Plaza 34 years later,” she wrote. The clip then featured a video montage capturing some of Willis’ best bits from the movie.
Willis’ family confirmed in March 2022 that the star would be calling time on his career due to brain disorder aphasia, which is ‘impacting his cognitive abilities’.
In February 2023, Willis’ family revealed they had a ‘clear diagnosis’ of frontotemporal dementia.
In September, Willis’ daughter and The Whole Ten Yards actress Tallulah, 30, revealed her father was currently in a ‘stable’ condition.
“He’s doing stable, which, in this situation is good and is hard,” she told Today. “There’s painful days, but there’s so much love.
“It’s really shown me to not take any moment for granted, and I really do think that we’d be best friends. I think he’s very proud of me. You have to be in the moment. You have to be present.”
