Bruce Willis

Name at birth: Walter Willison

Bruce Willis hit it big as scrappy action hero John McClane in the 1988 terrorists-in-the-skyscraper film Die Hard. He has since built an unusual film career made up of 2/3 fast-action tough guys and 1/3 quirky character roles. Willis grew up in New Jersey and began acting in college. He partnered with Cybill Shepherd in the offbeat TV detective romance Moonlighting (1985-89), which made him a TV star. During the show's run he made the leap to the big screen, starring in Blind Date with Kim Basinger before his turn as disillusioned cop John McClane in Die Hard. The film was a smashing success and spawned three sequels, Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990), Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995, with Samuel L. Jackson), and Live Free or Die Hard (2007). Willis followed up his Die Hard success with action films good and bad (including the notorious 1991 flop Hudson Hawk), and his 12-year marriage to Demi Moore was constant fodder for the gossip sheets. He has made a habit of taking smaller character parts as well as leading roles, including a much-appreciated appearance in Pulp Fiction (1994, with Ving Rhames) and a turn as a small-town businessman in Nobody's Fool (also 1994, opposite Paul Newman). Willis has a reputation for keeping busy, and his other films include: 12 Monkeys (1995, co-starring Brad Pitt); two M. Night Shyamalan movies, The Sixth Sense (1999) and Unbreakable (2000); Bandits (2001, with Billy Bob Thornton); Hart's War (2002, with Colin Farrell; Hostage (2005); Frank Miller's Sin City (2005, with Jessica Alba); 16 Blocks (2006, with Mos Def); and Over the Hedge (2006, also with the voice of Steve Carell).