If you caught Bruce Willis’ last slate of films, you’d think he was still every bit the unstoppable action hero everyone knows him to be. Despite most of these movies going straight to video, it’s pretty impressive that the “Die Hard” icon managed to squeeze in over a dozen projects toward the tail end of his career and well into his golden years. But if you watched closely, you’d notice that something was… off. In fact, both audiences and colleagues began to notice that the Bruce Willis they knew was no longer quite there.
In February 2023, just before his final film, “Assassin,” dropped, the real reason became public. Willis had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an aggressive disease that impacts personality and language. It also happens to be the very same disease that plagues Wendy Williams. What’s even more heartbreaking is that the announcement came only ten months after they had disclosed his struggle with aphasia. “FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone,” the family noted in their statement, which was signed by his wife, Emma Heming; his ex-wife, Demi Moore; and his kids, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, and Evelyn. “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.”
It’s hard to imagine such a legendary talent facing an illness that has taken him away from the very thing he loves. And for those who worked with him, the signs of his decline had been painfully clear even before the official diagnosis.
Many of his peers and fans noticed that he was no longer THE Bruce Willis
Despite Bruce Willis’ final films leaning toward the low-budget, low-stakes side of things, pulling off those roles was far from easy for the action icon. Colleagues revealed to The Los Angeles Times that Willis struggled on set, often forgetting lines to the point that he had to wear an earpiece, or “earwig,” to have his lines fed to him. Production crews even trimmed scripts to help him wrap scenes faster. And action scenes? Mostly handled by stunt doubles, as Willis could no longer shoulder the physical demands. Director Mike Burns of “Out of Death” shared, “After the first day of working with Bruce, I could see [Willis’ worsening condition] firsthand and I realized that there was a bigger issue at stake here and why I had been asked to shorten his lines.” In fact, there were moments when Willis seemed unsure why he was even on set, reportedly asking the crew, “I know why you’re here, and I know why you’re here, but why am I here?”
Fans noticed the shift, too. In his review of “Assassin,” Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times noted that although Willis delivered his lines accurately, he was lacking his “trademark twinkle,” appearing “disengaged” and without the physical energy one would expect in an action film. Sadly, the spark that once defined his performances was notably absent.
Willis officially retired from acting after his family announced his aphasia diagnosis in 2022. These days, he and his family are taking it one step at a time. “He’s doing stable, which in this situation is good, and is hard,” Tallulah Willis told Today in September 2024. “There’s painful days, but there’s so much love.”
