Bruce Willis’ health described as “a struggle” by best friend Don Johnson
Don Johnson has talked about the health of Bruce Willis amid working with the star’s daughter on his new show.
Die Hard star’s family issued a statement in March 2022, stating that the actor was set to retire from acting as he battled the condition aphasia, a disorder that effects communication. In 2023, his ex-wife Demi Moore delivered a further update on his health. Moore revealed that “a more specific diagnosis” had been made: frontotemporal dementia.
Aside from sporadic updates from his family, Willis has kept away from the public eye since his diagnosis, but Johnson talked briefly in an interview with Entertainment Tonight about his condition. “We’re best of friends and he’s having a little bit of a struggle right now,” he said, before adding: “I take this moment to send him love”.
Aside from Die Hard, Bruce Willis is also known for the films Pulp Fiction, Armageddon, and The Sixth Sense among others. His first screen appearance, however, was on Johnson’s show Miami Vice in 1984.
While appearing on Good Morning America to promote his show Doctor Odyssey, Johnson talked about working with Willis’ daughter Rumer on an episode, and how he gave her father his big break.
“Bruce and I were friends when he was a bartender at Café Central [in New York],” he recalled. “I’d go in there and sit with Bruce, I didn’t drink at the time but Bruce was such a good storyteller. He’d tell me about all the trials and tribulations of dealing with the drunks and the actors”.
He continued: “I got to be friendly with him and I said ‘you know what? You’d be awesome (as an actor)’. So, I called the casting director… and I said ‘this guy is interesting, he’s special. Bring him in and read him’. She did, and cast him in Miami Vice before he was ever in anything else”.
When asked how he knew Willis would be special, he said: “I can just tell… You just pick those things up”.
Recently, Demi Moore talked about her relationship with her ex partner, saying: “We will always be a family, just in a different form”.
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Victoria Luxford
NME
