Bruce Willis’ family has shared some disheartening news about the actor. Daughter Rumer Willis posted on her Instagram page that Willis is taking a break from acting due to a debilitating medical condition called aphasia.
The Mayo Clinic defines aphasia as the following:
Aphasia is a condition that affects your ability to communicate. It can affect your speech, as well as the way you write and understand both spoken and written language.
Aphasia typically occurs suddenly after a stroke or a head injury. But it can also come on gradually from a slow-growing brain tumor or a disease that causes progressive, permanent damage (degenerative). The severity of aphasia depends on a number of conditions, including the cause and the extent of the brain damage.
Once the cause has been addressed, the main treatment for aphasia is speech and language therapy. The person with aphasia relearns and practices language skills and learns to use other ways to communicate. Family members often participate in the process, helping the person communicate.
Bruce Willis’ career took off during the 1980s. His rise to stardom began when he starred alongside Cybil Shephard in Moonlighting. He then established himself in the action hero genre, as a guy-next-door type of hero in Die Hard. That was unique at the time, as the big screen was dominated by muscly guys, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Chuck Norris. The actor has played hard, gritty characters in many other films, including The Fifth Element in 1997 and additional Die Hard sequels.
Various sources have stated the actor had difficulty remembering his lines, and that production staff had wondered if he had a medical condition. Sadly, that has turned out to be the case.
Source: Entertainment Tonight