5 Things You Actually Didn’t Know About Bruce Willis
If you’re a Bruce Willis fan and you also happen to have internet access, it’s a safe assumption that you’ve laid eyes on at least one list of facts you supposedly never knew about him. So how about this: in recognition of Bruce’s 70th birthday today, let’s go ahead and dig you up some facts that you actually might not have known about him before now (probably). Like…
1One of his famous Die Hard lines was a W.C. Fields reference
If Die Hard taught us anything, it’s that it’s perfectly normal to be making constant pop culture references when dealing with life-or-death situations. Everyone from Roy Rogers to John Wayne to Stevie Wonder got a shoutout in the midst of all the craziness that went down at Nakatomi Tower during the events of the film, but one obscure reference made by Bruce Willis’s John McClane is sure to go over most viewers’ heads these days.
After McClane has his first face-to-face encounter with terrorist Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), Sergeant Al Powell (played by Reginald VelJohnson) radios his fellow police officer to see if he’s still alive. McClane responds by saying, “Yeah, but all things being equal, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”
This is actually a nod to early film comedian W.C. Fields, whose original quote dates all the way back to 1925. Fields, a Pennsylvania native, jokingly suggested to Vanity Fair at the time that his epitaph read: “Here lies W.C. Fields. I would rather be living in Philadelphia.” Despite rumors to the contrary, Fields’s headstone — located just 25 miles from where Die Hard was filmed — isn’t really inscribed with the now-immortal line.
2He’s responsible for Stone Cold Steve Austin’s look
©UPN/Courtesy Everett Collection
Aside from them both having undeniably bald heads at this stage in their lives, there really aren’t a ton of reasons to compare Bruce Willis and WWE superstar Stone Cold Steve Austin. But there was a point in Austin’s career where he wasn’t undeniably bald, and it was Willis’s appearance in Pulp Fiction that inspired him on his path to hairlessness (who inspired him to wear tiny black underwear is anyone’s guess).
After seeing his future Expendables costar in Quentin Tarantino’s sophomore film, Austin decided it might be a good idea to give himself a buzzcut. According to him, and an abundance of visual evidence, it wasn’t a great look, so he opted for yet another change. He eventually ditched the hair completely and grew a goatee to make up for it, all thanks to Bruce Willis—well, except for the tiny underwear, at least.
3He’s a huge Three Stooges fan
![OF CASH AND HASH, Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, Larry Fine [The Three Stooges], 1955](https://www.remindmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/three-stooges-914x720.jpg)
When you think about which actors Bruce Willis might’ve idolized growing up, there’s likely a very specific type of person that comes to mind. Some kind of action star, right? Well, if three goofy-looking morons slapping and poking each other senseless is what you picture when you envision action stars, then you’d be 100% correct. See, even though Bruce has claimed that he doesn’t have any idols, he’s shown his admiration for the Three Stooges on multiple occasions.
He thanked them for inspiring him to become an actor when he won an Emmy in 1987. And in 2013, he told GQ, “I love the Stooges. I love ‘em all, but Larry is my favorite.” He even expressed interest in playing Larry in a Three Stooges movie with John Candy in the role of Curly. No one can say for sure if it would’ve been any good, but it sounds like a step up from the one we ended up getting with the cast of Jersey Shore.
4He had strong feelings about Maury Povich
While Bruce might hold tthe Three Stooges in pretty high regard, the same cannot be said about former talk show host Maury Povich by any stretch of the imagination. Speaking to Playboy in 1996, Willis, for whatever reason, got extremely candid about his desire to treat Povich just like one of the Stooges — presumably without the cartoonish sound effects.
He specifically shared his disgust with a show in which Maury brought on young children who’d witnessed their parents’ murders and made them relive the trauma by playing the 911 calls. “I wanted to punch Maury Povich in the fucking face. He’s making money off of these children,” Willis said. He went on to call it the downfall of civilization, pointing the finger not just at Maury, but “the people behind the scenes” as well. Worth noting is that Bruce appeared on Maury’s show a few years before this, and if the lack of news articles from the time is any indication, it did not result in any Stooge-like behavior.
5He did Beavis and Butt-Head Do America for fun (and very little money)
Usually, when you have a substantial role in a movie, part of the gig involves promoting the thing in some way, shape or form. But you may have noticed that although Bruce and his then-wife Demi Moore very obviously voiced two of the more prominent characters in Beavis & Butt-Head Do America, they absolutely did not do anything that would be considered promotion for their work at any point. In fact, they don’t seem to have ever spoken of their involvement at all in the nearly 30 years since the movie came out. What gives here? Were they ashamed of being in it or something?
As director Mike Judge tells it, Bruce and Demi “were fans of the show and they wanted to do it for fun.” However, he said elsewhere, “Since we couldn’t pay the stars very much, their agents said we couldn’t use them to publicize the movie.” This would certainly explain why their names aren’t anywhere to be found on the original poster or in the theatrical credits. The jury’s still out on whether or not Bruce and Demi got more than the $500 Robert Stack was paid for his part, though.
Remind