Willis was a fast-talking lead who became a man-of-few-words star.
It made his mental decline that much harder to notice.
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Bruce Williss stardombegan in a boardroom at ABC in 1984.
Willis got the part and brought a live-wire energy to Addison.The character was a Dagwood sandwich of contradictions.
He was a self-proclaimed sexist who happily worked for a female boss and could be empathetic and chivalrous.
When he wasnt working a case, he lived inside his art-and-culture-and-pop-music-saturated brain.
His transformation was among the most drastic in pop-culture history.
In his place was a vision of American manhood that would have been at home in the 1950s.
On the set of those productions, he couldnt remember lines and seemed confused as to where he was.
The format was so popular that actors who didnt necessarily fit the profile adopted it.
They offered McClane to Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Mel Gibson; all declined.
Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds, Eastwood, and Harrison Ford were reportedly considered.
Director John McTiernan kept the Rambo-esque posing and pouting to a minimum.
Cocky as he could be, Willis kept foregrounding the characters vulnerability, flouting 80s action-cinema norms.
Williss McClane was as innovative a male lead as John Cusacks kickboxing philosopher Lloyd Dobler inSay Anythingthe following year.
Like allQuentin Tarantinopictures, it was anchored by grandiose, logorrheic narcissists who express themselves in banter and monologues.
Butch Coolidge is the most quietly intense ofPulp Fictions major characters.
The next year brought Terry Gilliams time-travel fantasy12 Monkeys,which let Willis continue in a strong-silent vein.
and sticks his head out of the window of a moving car, laughing with joy.
With the one-two punch ofPulp Fictionand12 Monkeys,the bifurcation of Williss screen persona became pronounced.
Over the next decade, he would alternate men who love to talk with men who barely speak.M.
Night Shyamalangave him two more quiet types.
(He would reprise the role in two more films,SplitandGlass.)
You could say Williss career was never the same afterPulp Fiction you could also say it never recovered.
He had built a gilded cage for himself, and it was hard to get out.
He was nuanced in the best and worst way.
While the films gave tasty morsels to bit players, they were cash machines for aging idols.
What a shame it all was.
He was the kind of star who might have enjoyed a late-career renaissance after settling into vanity-free character roles.
He had the stuff.
But he lost it.
Did Williss artistic standards sink and then he began to decline cognitively?
How many authors did this tragedy have?
There will be more stories about it and possibly some kind of legal action.
But the most important account, Williss, wont be reliable because of his condition.
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