Devastating medical diagnoses plague America’s inhabitants daily. By the same token, this past month sources reported that beloved American actor, Bruce Willis, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. This prognosis led many people to the revelation that heartbreaking medical diagnoses – like that of Bruce Willis – are subject to occur to anyone, even those who we hold near and dear to our hearts. 

   Bruce Willis was born in West Germany in 1955 to his mother Marlene, a German native, and his father David Willis, who was previously an American soldier. Roughly two years after Willis was born, his father was discharged from the military, and the family chose to relocate to Carneys Point, a small city in New Jersey. 

   In his schooling years, Willis was victim to a speech stutter, which earned him the nickname “Buck-Buck” throughout his high school career. When Willis discovered the world of acting within his drama club at Penns Grove High School, he came to the understanding that acting on a stage reduced his stutter and allowed his words to flow out freely. With his newfound popularity and confidence, he soon gained the momentum to eventually be elected student council president at his school. 

   Subsequent to his high school graduation, Willis was employed doing odd jobs from place to place, including a security guard and a private investigator. 

   Once his passion for acting became a priority to him, he enrolled into Montclair State University in New Jersey and joined the Drama Program. Soon thereafter, Willis recognized that he had deeper aspirations for himself in the acting department, and he left New Jersey and moved to New York in 1977. Following his move, Willis supported himself by working as a local bartender in Manhattan throughout the early 1980’s before he finally caught his big break as an actor. 

    Many fans of comedy and dramatic action films are no stranger to the name Bruce Willis. Willis’ first major role was in a comedy-drama series titled “Moonlighting” where he played the character of a private investigator at an independent detective agency. Over the course of the show’s five seasons, Willis received numerous accolades including an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his impressive acting portrayed in the “Moonlighting” series.

   Following the success of “Moonlighting,” Willis soonthereafter gained national recognition as an action hero by starring in his first main-hit blockbuster movie “Die Hard” in 1988. 

   “Die Hard became an all-time action classic, turned Willis into a movie star, and was a box office success, making over $140 million worldwide on a $28 million budget,” Matthew Jussim, Men’s Journal contributor reported. 

   Since the release of “Die Hard,” it has since spawned four sequels that have grossed a combined total of over 1.4 billion dollars, and not to mention some of Hollywood’s most memorable movie lines. In the process, Willis amassed an immense amount of recognition for performing most of his own stunts, and he also gained popularity with the audience through his self-deprecating, unprecedented, humorous ad libs. 

   Since the commencement of his stardom, Willis has starred in a number of fan-favorite flicks. Among the many are “The Fifth Element,” “Armageddon,” “The Sixth Sense,” and “Red,” – and the more popular – “Unbreakable” and “Pulp Fiction.”

   With the most recent flick featuring Willis being released in January of this year, it came as a shock to many to hear the devastating news that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. 

   Preceding his dementia diagnosis, Willis and his family released a statement in spring of 2022 regarding his official diagnosis with aphasia, and broke the news that he would be taking a hefty step back from his bustling acting career. 

   “Aphasia is a disorder that results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language,” the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) website defined. “The disorder impairs the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing.”

   The simplest way to describe what life is like for an individual who has aphasia, is best expressed by the age old saying, “It is on the tip of my tongue.” Someone diagnosed with aphasia is able to picture an object or word in their mind, but they have the tendency to forget what the word is and therefore can not verbally communicate it. 

   “When I needed a pillow, I asked for a “head thing.” My caretaker smiled and brought me a hairbrush. My life had morphed into an endless game of charades in which I was always losing,” Today website contributor Meghan Beaudry, who is an aphasia patient, expressed. 

   Due to aphasia being quite common in individuals over the age of 60 – such as 67 year old Bruce Willis – it was a time consuming process to obtain a more in-depth analysis of Willis’ condition. 

   Nearly a year after his aphasia diagnosis, in February of this year Willis and his family finally understood the entirety of his symptoms and circumstances. Willis’ medical personnel team came to the conclusion that he had frontotemporal dementia. 

   “Frontotemporal dementia is an umbrella term for a group of brain disorders that primarily affect the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain,” the Mayo Clinic website clarifies. “These areas of the brain are generally associated with personality, behavior, and language.”

   Frontotemporal dementia is quite different from its most common counterpart Alzheimer’s, which also is a form of dementia. A patient’s symptoms who has frontotemporal dementia would commonly consist of a number of negative behavioral changes, speech and language issues, and in some severe cases, tremors and other motor disorders. These symptoms can get progressively worse over time, usually over the span of years, and in most cases, a patient would most likely have a cluster of one symptom type. 

   In the case of Bruce Willis, he is reportedly no exception to the toll of the numerous symptoms that frontotemporal dementia expresses. Willis’ close family and friends have gathered together to support and be with him at this point in time. Among his close supporters are his wife, Emma Heming along with their two daughters, and his former wife, Demi Moore, and their three daughters.

   Despite bearing the unfortunate news of his condition, they reported through a social media post that it was a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis and they also thanked the public for “all the outpouring of love and compassion for Bruce over the past ten months,” Deseret News website contributor, Lois M. Collins reported. 

   Since his recent diagnosis, the family has since then updated the media in reporting that his condition is worsening, and Willis’ tends to have more problems with communication and cognitive function. 

   This heart-rendering prognosis of Bruce Willis’ has been quite a saddening topic to his family, friends, and fans alike. In the case of frontotemporal dementia, there are treatments to help manage the condition, but alas there is no known cure. 

   For more information about frontotemporal dementia, please visit https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/frontotemporal-dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354737.