Cinema: American actor Bruce Willis suffers from an incurable form of dementia
Former actor Bruce Willis, seen in October 2019 in New York City.
© Charles Sykes/Invision via AP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
The illness of Bruce Willis, 67, has worsened.
The American actor, who ended his career in the spring of 2022, now suffers from an incurable form of dementia, similar to Alzheimer's disease, according to a new medical diagnosis made public by his family on Thursday February 16.
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The hero of the "Die Hard" film saga initially suffered from aphasia, a language disorder caused by brain damage.
But since last year, "
Bruce's disease has progressed and we now have a more precise diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia
", explained his relatives in a press release.
“
Unfortunately, the communication difficulties are just a symptom of the illness that Bruce is facing
,” the family added, saying they were “
relieved to finally have a clear diagnosis
”.
“No treatment for this disease”
Frontotemporal degeneration (FTD)
is a neurodegenerative disease, related to Alzheimer's disease.
People with FTD may experience memory problems, behavioral changes, or difficulty speaking or moving.
“
Today, there is no treatment for this disease, a reality which we hope will be able to change in the years to come
”, underlined these relatives, in this press release signed by his wife Emma Heming Willis, as well as only by his ex-wife, actress Demi Moore, and his children Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn.
"
As Bruce's condition evolves, we hope the media will work to bring attention to this disease, which needs much more awareness and research
," they added.
According to some American specialists, frontotemporal dementia appears most often in patients aged 40 to 65, and accounts for one-fifth of dementia cases.
The image of an invincible hero in the cinema
Walter Bruce Willis' star had already faded before his retirement, but he remains one of Hollywood's most recognized action movie actors.
His career has forged him an image of an infallible hero, the antithesis of his current illness.
He first distinguished himself in the 1980s with a recurring role in the "Clair de lune" series alongside Cybill Shepherd.
His role as David Addison Jr earned him an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor in 1987.
But it was the 1988 action movie Die Hard that made him an international star as the invincible John McClane.
The shaved head and smirk had become the trademark of the actor, who took over this role for two sequels in the 1990s ("58 minutes to live" and "A day in hell"), confirming his notoriety and becoming one of the references of the genre.
Highly sought after in Hollywood, he chained the big productions, whether classic action films ("The Last Samaritan", "The Jackal", "Armageddon") or crossbred with science fiction like "The Army of the twelve monkeys”, which had seduced the critics, or “The Fifth Element” by Luc Besson.
He will also tour with directors as famous as Brian De Palma, Robert Zemeckis but especially Quentin Tarantino, who makes him play a boxer on the return in "Pulp Fiction" in 1994, when he is at the height of his glory.
The film was awarded a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Bruce Willis will also make notable performances, for their darker and more dramatic tone, under the direction of M. Night Shyamalan with his fantastic thrillers "Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable".
He continued to tour a lot, but no longer found the same success and his notoriety eroded little by little, despite incursions into other genres, such as comedy (“My neighbor the killer” in 2000).
He signs for two new parts of the “Die Hard” saga (in 2007 and 2013) which convince neither critics nor the public.
During the previous decade, Bruce Willis had not hesitated to make fun of himself and the clichés that stuck to his skin, as in “Top Cops” or the second part of “Expendables”.
(With
AFP
)
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