Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is an American actor, producer, and singer. Born to a German mother and American father in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, he moved to the United States with his family in 1957. His career began on the Off-Broadway stage in the 1970s. He later achieved fame with his leading role on the hit television series Moonlighting (1985–1989). He has since appeared in over 70 films and is widely regarded as an «action hero», due to his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013), and other such roles.

His credits also include Death Becomes Her (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element and The Jackal (both 1997), Armageddon and Mercury Rising (both 1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Sin City (2005), Red (2010), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Expendables 2 (2012), Looper (2012), and as David Dunn in the Unbreakable film series: Unbreakable (2000), Split (2016) and Glass (2019). He made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Misery in 2015. As a musician, Willis released his debut album, The Return of Bruno, in 1987. He has released two more solo albums since then, in 1989 and 2001.

Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in the town of Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. His father, David Willis, was an American soldier. His mother, Marlene, was German, born in Kassel. Willis is the oldest of four children with a sister named Florence and two brothers, Robert (deceased) and David.

After being discharged from the military in 1957, Willis’s father took his family back to Carneys Point Township, New Jersey.^[10] Willis has described himself as having come from a «long line of blue collar people».^[10] His mother worked in a bank and his father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker.^[5] Willis attended Penns Grove High School in his hometown, where he encountered issues with a stutter.^[10] He was nicknamed «Buck-Buck» by his schoolmates.^[5][11][12] Willis joined the drama club in high school, and acting on stage reduced his stutter. He was eventually appointed student council president.^[5] He attended college at Montclair State University.^[13]

After he graduated from high school in 1973, Willis took a job as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant^[14][15] and transported work crews at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey.^[15] After working as a private investigator (a role he would play in the television series Moonlighting and the 1991 film The Last Boy Scout), Willis turned to acting. He enrolled in the Drama Program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in the class production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Willis left school in his junior year in 1977 and moved to New York City, where in the early 1980s he supported himself as a bartender at the West 19th Street art bar Kamikaze.^[16] At the time, he lived in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan.^[17] He performed as an extra in Paul Newman’s closing summation scene in The Verdict in 1982.

Willis is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and two People’s Choice Awards. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006.