Last week brought the tremendously sad news that Bruce Willis is stepping away from acting owing to health issues. Recently diagnosed with aphasia, a condition that affects cognitive abilities, it emerged that the star, aged 67, has been struggling with learning his lines and reacting to cues.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, Mike Burns, who directed Willis in the 2021 crime thriller Out of Death, was asked to reduce the star’s dialogue to lighten his workload.
The admission evoked an outpouring of sympathy online for Willis, as fans expressed their love for the actor whose career spans back to the 1980s. Back then, his breakthrough came as David Addison, the wise-cracking private detective, in TV’s comedy-romance Moonlighting. The show ran for five seasons, winning Willis an Emmy. By the time it wound up in 1989, Willis was a bona fide movie star — largely thanks to his role in Die Hard.
Even now, it’s hard to quantify the enormous impact Willis made in Die Hard as John McClane, the vest-wearing cop who single-handedly takes down a criminal gang raiding his wife’s workplace on Christmas Eve. Compared to the muscle-bound tanks such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Willis was more grounded, more vulnerable. When he picked broken shards of glass from his feet, you felt every wince, every cry of pain. Here was a reluctant hero we could all relate to.
Willis played McClane a further four times, with diminishing returns, but here remained a character who changed action movies for ever. When you look at stars such as Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson or Ryan Reynolds now — who boast similar everyman qualities — you can see the template that Willis first engineered. Like McClane, Willis was also a born survivor — even early '90s box office bombs such as Hudson Hawk and The Bonfire of the Vanities were not enough to derail his career.
He had no protective movie-star ego about wanting to look like an action star. He completely dove into this character
Rian Johnson,
director
Indeed, for all the smooth-talking schtick, Willis possessed a brilliant ability to reinvent his persona with edgy filmmakers — risks that paid off spectacularly. His role as the prize fighter Butch in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction remains one of his most memorable parts; one minute he’s cooing softly to his girlfriend and promising her blueberry pancakes, the next he’s gunning down John Travolta’s hitman Vincent Vega in his own apartment and singing about “Captain Kangaroo”.
Perhaps even better was his turn in Terry Gilliam’s time-travel masterpiece 12 Monkeys, which came a year later in 1995. He plays James Cole, the sanity-threatened prisoner sent back from the future to stop a viral apocalypse. Gilliam wasn’t a big fan of Willis’. “I hated the Trumpian mouth he does in films,” the director later recalled, demanding that Willis dial down the smirking, a go-to staple for the actor. He did, with masterful results.
Others will doubtless point to M Night Shyamalan’s twisty supernatural tale The Sixth Sense, another huge hit in Willis’ career, in which he plays, with real conviction, a child psychologist who connects with Haley Joel Osment’s troubled boy Cole.
Yet, the same year — 1999 — Willis was also acting for the esteemed Alan Rudolph in his Kurt Vonnegut Jr adaptation Breakfast of Champions, as car dealership owner Dwayne Hoover. It didn’t quite land, but once again showed Willis’ penchant for gambling.
This continued into the 2000s, albeit less frequently. He found work with Richard Linklater (Fast Food Nation), Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom) and Rian Johnson (Looper), directors who sculpted Willis’ movie-star persona into something interesting; unique. In Anderson’s case, he saw Willis at his most tender, as a police officer leading a search party for some runaways, in this nostalgic look at a bygone America. The New York Times rightly praised it as a “wonderful” performance.
Ever better, sci-fi Looper had Johnson tap into Willis’ stock-in-trade: “He’s typically the hero who is going to find the right person and kill them and save the day,” the director told me. Only this time, in a wild inversion, his time-travelling assassin discovers that his target is his younger self.
“He had no protective movie-star ego about wanting to look like an action star,” said Johnson. “He completely dove into this character.”
Recently, Willis’s career was reduced to generic B movies, such as Fortress and American Siege, producers banking on his movie-star charisma to sell their titles to the video-on-demand market, regardless of quality. The Golden Raspberry Awards even created a one-off category called ‘Worst Performance by Bruce Willis in a 2021 Movie’, nominating him eight times, which rather spoke to the volume of films he was churning out.
The Razzies rescinded the award, which went to his turn in Cosmic Sin, upon hearing of his diagnoses. Yet even in these fallow years, Willis found some gems — notably Motherless Brooklyn, Edward Norton’s 1950s-set detective yarn, and M Night Shyamalan’s Glass, which had Willis reprise his character from 2000’s Unbreakable — a superhero-style project that arrived long before they’d become fashionable.
That's Willis all over: a Hollywood trailblazer.
PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Batti Gul Meter Chalu
Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5
MATCH INFO
Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium, Malayisa
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia on October 10
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Core42
Current number of staff: 47
Director: Shady Ali
Cast: Boumi Fouad , Mohamed Tharout and Hisham Ismael
Rating: 3/5
MATCH RESULT
Al Jazira 3 Persepolis 2
Jazira: Mabkhout (52'), Romarinho (77'), Al Hammadi (90' 6)
Persepolis: Alipour (42'), Mensha (84')
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Votes
Total votes: 1.8 million
Ashraf Ghani: 923,592 votes
Abdullah Abdullah: 720,841 votes
All you need to know about Formula E in Saudi Arabia
What The Saudia Ad Diriyah E-Prix
When Saturday
Where Diriyah in Saudi Arabia
What time Qualifying takes place from 11.50am UAE time through until the Super Pole session, which is due to end at 12.55pm. The race, which will last for 45 minutes, starts at 4.05pm.
Who is competing There are 22 drivers, from 11 teams, on the grid, with each vehicle run solely on electronic power.
The specs: 2018 Honda City
Price, base: From Dh57,000
Engine: 1.5L, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 118hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 146Nm @ 4,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 5.8L / 100km
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The specs: 2018 Infiniti QX80
Price: base / as tested: Dh335,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.1L / 100km
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Results
5.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Al Battar, Mickael Barzalona (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer).
6.05pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Good Fighter, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
6.40pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Way Of Wisdom, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.15pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m; Winner: Immortalised, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
7.50pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Franz Kafka, James Doyle, Simon Crisford.
8.25pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Mayadeen, Connor Beasley, Doug Watson.
9pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Chiefdom, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The biog
Born: High Wycombe, England
Favourite vehicle: One with solid axels
Favourite camping spot: Anywhere I can get to.
Favourite road trip: My first trip to Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan. The desert they have over there is different and the language made it a bit more challenging.
Favourite spot in the UAE: Al Dhafra. It’s unique, natural, inaccessible, unspoilt.
The specs: 2019 BMW i8 Roadster
Price, base: Dh708,750
Engine: 1.5L three-cylinder petrol, plus 11.6 kWh lithium-ion battery
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power: 374hp (total)
Torque: 570Nm (total)
Fuel economy, combined: 2.0L / 100km
