Actor and musician Bruce Willis is well known for playing wisecracking or hard-edged characters, often in spectacular action films. Collectively, he has appeared in films that have grossed in excess of $2.5 billion USD, placing him in the top ten stars in terms of box office receipts.

Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, to a German mother, Marlene K. (from Kassel), and an American father, David Andrew Willis (from Carneys Point, New Jersey), who were then living on a United States military base. His family moved to the U.S. shortly after he was born, and he was raised in Penns Grove, New Jersey, where his mother worked at a bank and his father was a welder and factory worker. Willis picked up an interest for the dramatic arts in high school, and was allegedly "discovered" whilst working in a café in New York City and then appeared in a couple of off-Broadway productions. While bartending one night, he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.

Trivia

Was high school student council president.
His recording of "Respect Yourself" reached #5 in January 1987.
Bruce and Demi announce they are ending their marriage of 11 years. No reasons given. [June 1998]
Ranked #22 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
He was born on a military base in Germany. His mother, Marlene, was German, and was born in Kassel, Germany. His father, David Willis, was American-born, and had English, and smaller amounts of Dutch, French, Irish and Welsh ancestry.
Has appeared on Late Show with David Letterman (1993) to advertise for Demi Moore's Striptease (1996) by doing his own undressing act (1996).

I'm much more proud of being a father than being an actor.
You can't undo the past... but you can certainly not repeat it.
I'm staggered by the question of what it's like to be a multimillionaire. I always have to remind myself that I am.
[on how he stays in shape, interview in People.com, 10 March 2005] Mostly weight resistance training, almost an hour of cardio at least three times a week. I have a gym in my house in Los Angeles and a gym trailer that I can take on the road with me when I'm on location. At my house there's a very long steep driveway. I do wind sprints that kick my 50-year-old ass. It's part of my job. I have come to associate working out as work. Whenever I don't have to do it for films, I kind of slack off.