Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia

The legendary veteran actor who starred in films like Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, and Unbreakable, Bruce Willis, was diagnosed with Aphashia in 2022. A condition where language and communication become extremely difficult for the patient. Now, Willis’ family has come ahead to announce that the actor has been finally diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, also known as FTD. 

The actor will no longer be taking up any acting projects because of the diagnosis. The actor’s family broke the news on their respective social media handles, and the posts drew attention from a lot of Hollywood stars. There is a lot for the family to process, and they opened up about it in their statement.

Willis and FTD

Bruce Willis is 67 years of age as of now. The actor was born in West Germany to an American father and a German mother. Bruce’s father was a soldier who was eventually able to relocate the entire family back to America. There, Willis found his passion for acting early on in High School. He gained from his role in Moonlighting, and then eventually, the action-hero genre was taken over by his magnificent portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard series.

People working with Burce in the latter stage of his life found issues that had not surfaced before. While the actor would make millions off of very little work thanks to his fame and great talent, the crew working on set would often find a confused and bewildered Willis on set. He didn’t seem to know where to go or why he was there. It was also said that Willis had to be given his lines through an earpiece since he had trouble remembering them.

Willis was all set to appear in the 2021 movie called Out of Death when the film’s director was asked to finish filming all of his scenes in a single day’s time. The screenwriter was asked to reduce his dialogue heavily before filming for his scenes began. Clear signs of dementia were visible to everyone working around him, but no one was able to put the finger on the issue exactly. 

On March 30th, 2022, Willis’ family announced that the actor would be taking a step back from acting because of his aphasia diagnosis. And on the 16th of this month, the dementia news was announced. Willis still had a strong passion for the work as the actor still worked on about 11 films before retiring for good. 

Here’s a part of the statement Bruce Willis’ family gave regarding his situation and diagnosis. They talk about how much of a relief the final diagnosis is and also address the severity of illnesses like FTD.

As a family, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the outpouring of love and compassion for Bruce over the past ten months. Your generosity of spirit has been overwhelming, and we are tremendously grateful for it. For your kindness, and because we know you love Bruce as much as we do, we wanted to give you an update. 

Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in the spring of 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD). Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.  

FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone. For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know.