The response to Bruce Willis, who recently announced his retirement from acting, was quick and beautiful. Actors who shared screen time and months on stage with the gifted Hollywood megastar took to social media to respond to the news and pay tribute to the Pulp Fiction, Die Hard and The Sixth Sense star. His ex-wife Demi Moore shared the family statement to the press, accompanied by some touching personal photos of a young Willis with their children. And now Emma Heming Willis, Willis’s now wife of thirteen years, has posted a recent picture of the two “in their favorite habitat,” by which she means the great outdoors, far from society and the hustle and bustle of a star’s life. Here is the tender shot:
The film industry still feels reeling from the revelation that Bruce Willis is retiring, thanks in part to the fact that he suffers from aphasia, an injury to the brain that can be caused by a stroke and itself directly affects the ability to produce or understand language, as well as the ability to read or write. Recently, details emerged about the care Bruce Willis received behind the scenes to help overcome the effects of aphasia. Most of it has to do with seeking out the best doctors and making sure he has assistants around at all times to attend to his needs.
However, as you can see from the photo posted to Emma Heming Willis’ Instagram page, the 67-year-old Hollywood star looks as physically fit and happy as ever. Aphasia does not gnaw at his body or cause physical deterioration. This has allowed Willis to continue starring in numerous direct-to-video titles such as A Day to Die, American Seige, Apex, Trauma Center, and Hard Kill (which sounds so much like Die Hard that I have a feeling that someone needs to be sued ).
Neither of these films would ever be mistaken as one of the greatest Bruce Willis films of all time, but they will now have a place in the actor’s legacy, the final chapter in a storied career that has transcended many different genre boundaries and helped create one to create our last great movie stars (capitalized for prominence because that term once meant something).
I hope Bruce Willis manages to stay in our daily lives. He doesn’t appear in some lazy direct-to-video filth where off-camera assistants supposedly feed him his lines. Rather, as an ambassador of cool, living life to the fullest as a husband and father and making an impact on the industry he helped build. Social media doesn’t have many useful uses, but if it helps remind us that Bruce Willis looks happy and physically healthy from time to time and allows those who love him to send very sweet messages his way, then it serves a noble purpose.