- The actor received head injury during the recording the director’s film Antonio Fuqua “The Cry of the Sun” in 2003
- After the ordeal the action hero judges Studies Revolution and director of the special effects cause of “exceptional mental, physical and emotional pain”
At the end of March news shocked the world of cinema: Bruce Willis is seriously ill and retires from the acting profession.
“Our beloved Bruce has a health problem – he has been diagnosed with aphasia which affects his cognitive abilities and is now learning to live with this diagnosis. As a result, he is ending his film career which means a lot to him “, the family announced at the time in an official statement.
The news came like a bolt from the blue: until recently the 67-year-old actor was shooting movies, seemed full of energy and was making 2-3 million in a few days from low-budget action films. Nine months later, his relatives said his condition was worsening and confirmed the cause was a head injury the action star suffered in 2003 while filming director Antoine Fuqua’s Cry of the Sun. .
As elite “Seal” AK Waters (Bruce Willis) rescues a Nigerian jungle missionary from the horrors of civil war on set,
explosive from the special the effects hit him on the forehead
Nearly 20 years after the crash, those in the actor’s inner circle confirmed to German publication Filmstarts that the trauma caused aphasia, damage to a part of the brain linked to speech and language skills. Years ago, Willis showed signs of the disease, but they went unnoticed by the general public.
Aphasia is an impairment of the left, and in lefties like Willis, the right hemisphere of the brain that affects a person’s ability to communicate. The disease prevents the patient not only from speaking, but also from understanding others. It can occur after a stroke, brain tumor, inflammatory processes, or head trauma from an accident or impact. According to relatives of the famed action hero, the bullet that hit his head affected his ability to express himself freely with words.
The brain changes they manifested themselves visibly 5-6 years ago
“At first it was nothing creepy. Everyone who knew him knew something was wrong, but not the diagnosis. We could see that his cognitive abilities were impaired, but the news that he was retiring from filmmaking shocked us” says a friend of his. After the ordeal, Bruce Willis sued Revolution Studios and the film’s special effects director Joe Pancake for causing “extreme mental, physical and emotional pain”. In 2005, the case ended in an out-of-court settlement, but whether the actor was compensated remains a secret. To this day, Joe Pancake considers the allegations nonsense and says even the judge took Willis as a joke. He considers aphasia from a 20-year trauma impossible. But authoritative publications such as the “New York Times” quote doctors, according to whom it often takes many years after the trauma before the disease manifests itself. “Patients may show no change for a long time, but over time their sentences become shorter and shorter and a point is reached where it is difficult for them to express themselves,” Prof. Shazam Hussain, head of the Cleveland Cerebrovascular Clinic, said. told the Ohio newspaper.
Willis is one of the famous faces in Hollywood, he has made over 100 films, many of which are legends. He was born in the former West Germany, in the city of Idar-Oberstein. His mother, Marlene, is German and his father, David, is an American military. In 1957, when Bruce was 2 years old, the family moved to New Jersey, USA. In 2005, when he was already a famous action hero of “Die Hard”, “The Last Boy Scout”, “Crime”, “The Fifth Element”, “Armageddon”, “The Sixth Sense” and
there are a number of Emmy Awards, “Golden Globe”, “Golden camera” (but not “Oscar”),
the actor became an honorary citizen of his native Idar-Oberstein.
Meanwhile, he married star Demi Moore, they had 3 daughters: Rumer, Scout and Tallulah. The marriage, which lasted from 1987 to 2000, ended in divorce, and the actor admitted that he failed as a husband and father. To compensate, he maintains a warm relationship with Moore and her girlfriends. In 2005, he personally delivered her bride Demi to her new husband, Ashton Kutcher, 15 years her junior. And when he himself married 24-year-old model Emma Hemming in 2009, her guests included Moore and her new (now ex) husband. Hemming gave birth to Willis 2 more girls – Mabel and Evelyn, who are now 10 and 8 years old and although the marriage is considered healthy and happy, as he was ill, the action hero is spending more and more time with his old family . A while back, Demi posted pictures of a fun sleepover with the girls and their boyfriends on Instagram.
This Christmas the whole family, including new wife Emma, Mabel and Evelyn got together again for a festive dinner. The actor with the puppy Pilaf in his hands (in the small photo) he seemed fresh and rejuvenated by the news that his eldest daughter Rumer, 34, is expecting a child and he will be a first-time grandfather. But his relatives are not optimistic about Willis’ condition. And his friend Sylvester Stallone has announced that Bruce is going through “a really difficult time”. “Since he was diagnosed, we haven’t talked much.
It’s not communicative. This is killing me
It’s so sad!” Rambo shared on screen. John Travolta also supported his “colleague with a great soul” and wished him well.
But aphasia is a serious affliction that has 4 forms. The mildest is amnesic aphasia, in which the patient has difficulty finding words when he names objects. Patients speak in a telegraphic style, with short, simple sentences. In Broca’s aphasia, which Bruce Willis is believed to suffer from, speech is delayed due to a search for the right words, but others understand what the sufferer wants to say. Much more serious are the “Wernicke” form and global aphasia, in which the patient understands almost nothing. But even with Broca’s aphasia, there’s almost no hope for a full recovery. A family friend told RadarOnline that the family is “praying for a Christmas miracle as the actor’s mental capacity continues to decline.” And he sadly concluded: “They know Bruce won’t be there forever. They want to enjoy every moment they have left together.”
