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roles. He is well known for the role of John McClane in the Die Hard series, which were critical and financial successes. He has also appeared in over sixty films, including Pulp Fiction, Sin City, 12 Monkeys, Armageddon, and The Sixth Sense. Motion pictures featuring Willis have grossed US$ 2.55 to 3.05 billion at North American box offices, making him the seventh highest-grossing actor in a leading role, and ninth highest including supporting roles.[1][2] Willis was married to actress Demi Moore and they had three daughters, before their divorce in 2000 after thirteen years of marriage. He is a two-time Emmy Award-winning, Golden Globe Award-winning, and four-time Saturn Award-nominated actor.
Willis was born in Idar-Oberstein, West Germany, the son of a Kassel-born German, Marlene, who worked in a bank, and David Willis, an American soldier.[3][4] Willis is the eldest of four children: he has a sister Florence and a brother, David. His brother Robert died of pancreatic cancer in 2001, aged 42.[5] After being discharged from the military in 1957, Willis's father took his family back to Penns Grove, New Jersey, where he worked as a welder and factory worker.[6] His parents separated in 1972, while Willis was in his teens.[4] Willis attended Penns Grove High School in his hometown, where he encountered issues with a stutter. He was nicknamed Buck-Buck by his schoolmates.[6][7][8] Finding it easy to express himself on stage and losing his stutter in the process, Willis began performing on stage and his high school activities were marked by such things as the drama club and student council president.[6] After high school, Willis took a job as a security guard at the Salem Nuclear Power Plant[9][10] and also transported work crews at the DuPont Chambers Works factory in Deepwater, New Jersey.[10] He quit after a colleague was killed on the job, and became a regular at several bars.[6] Willis learned to play the harmonica. After a stint as a private investigator (a role he would play in the television series Moonlighting as well as in the 1991 film, The Last Boy Scout), Willis returned to acting. He enrolled in the drama program at Montclair State University, where he was cast in the class production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Willis left school in his junior year and moved to New York City.[4] Willis returned to the bar scene, only this time for a part-time job at the West Bank Cafe in New York City's Manhattan Plaza.[10][11] After multiple auditions, Willis made his theater debut in the off-Broadway production of Heaven and Earth. He gained more experience and exposure in Fool for Love, and in a Levi's commercial.
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