Walter Bruce Willis is an American actor and film producer. Born in Germany to a German mother and American father, Willis moved to the U.S. with his family when he was two years old. His career began on the off-Broadway stage in the 1970s. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series Moonlighting and has since appeared in over 70 films, gaining widespread recognition as an action hero after his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise and other subsequent roles.

Willis’s other credits include Hudson Hawk , Pulp Fiction , 12 Monkeys , Last Man Standing , The Fifth Element , Mercury Rising , The Sixth Sense , Tears of the Sun , Hostage , Over the Hedge , What Just Happened , Moonrise Kingdom , and Motherless Brooklyn .

As a singer, Willis released his debut album The Return of Bruno in 1987, followed by two more albums in 1989 and 2001. He made his Broadway debut in the stage adaptation of Misery in 2015. Willis has received numerous accolades during his career, 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.
After graduating from high school in 1973, Willis worked as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant and transported crew members at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey. After working as a private investigator, he turned to acting. He enrolled in the Drama Program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He left school in 1977 and moved to New York City, where he supported himself in the early 1980s as a bartender at the Manhattan art bar Kamikaze while living in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.