Bruce Willis’ Language Skills Are ‘No Longer Available to Him,’ ‘Moonlighting’ Creator Says
Moonlighting is finally available for streaming, and creator Glenn Gordon Caron knows that star Bruce Willis — who starred opposite Cybill Shepherd on the ‘80s-era ABC dramedy — is “really happy” about that.
“When I got to spend time with him, we talked about it, and I know he’s excited,” Caron told the New York Post. “I know it means a lot to him.”
Caron, who said he visits Willis every month or so, offered an update on the actor’s battle with frontotemporal dementia — a neurological condition that can cause unusual behaviors, emotional problems, and difficulty communicating and walking, according to the National Institute on Aging.
“I have tried very hard to stay in his life. He’s an extraordinary person,” Caron said. “The thing that makes [his disease] so mind-blowing is [that] if you’ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre than he. He loved life and … just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest. So the idea that he now sees life through a screen door, if you will, makes very little sense. He’s really an amazing guy.”
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He went on: “My sense is, the first one to three minutes, [Willis] knows who I am. He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader — he didn’t want anyone to know that — and he’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce. When you’re with him, you know that he’s Bruce, and you’re grateful that he’s there, but the joie de vivre is gone.”
Willis’ family announced in March 2022 that he was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, which was affecting his cognitive abilities. Nearly a year later, the Willis family shared an updated diagnosis, saying the Die Hard star had frontotemporal dementia.
In a TODAY interview last month, Emma Heming Willis, the actor’s wife, said that Bruce was “the gift that keeps on giving.”
She added: “Love, patience, resilience, so much — and he’s teaching me and our whole family. … It’s just really important for me to look up from the grief and the sadness so I can see what is happening around us. Bruce would really want us to be in the joy of what is.”
