Raised in a working-class family in New Jersey, Willis attended Montclair State College because of its highly regarded theatre department. After numerous auditions, he landed a role in the play Heaven and Earth in 1977, which was incentive enough for him to quit school and move to Hell's Kitchen to pursue an acting career. Soon he was cast in off-Broadway plays and television commercials, while occasionally playing his harmonica and sitting in rhythm and blues bands. His acting breakthrough came in 1984 when he replaced the lead in Sam Shepard's hit play Fool for Love, a run which lasted for 100 performances off-Broadway. Later that year while on a trip to Los Angeles, Willis was selected from 3,000 contenders to star as David Addison in the phenomenally popular television series "Moonlighting," for which he would win an Emmy and Golden Globe Award and ultimately become an international star.

In 1986, his continued pursuit of the love of music resulted in the release of an album for Motown Records entitle Bruce Willis: The Return of Bruce, which eventually went platinum, hanging on the charts for over 29 weeks. His remake of the single "Respect Yourself" landed at an impressive number five on the charts. In 1989, he released his second album, If It Don't Kill You, It Just Makes you Stronger, also for Motown.

Willis made his feature film debut opposite Kim Bassinger in the Blake Edward's comedy Blind Date. He then reunited with the director to play Tom Mix in the murder mystery Sunset before going on to star in the block buster motion picture Die Hard, one of the highest-grossing films of 1988.

The following year, Willis took a dramatic turn by portraying a Vietnam War veteran haunted by combat memories in Norman Jewison's In Country. Returning to comedy, Willis proved the voice of Mikey, the wisecracking baby in the highly successful Look Who's Talking and it's sequel, Look Who's Talking, Too.

In 1990, Willis starred in Die Hard 2: Die Harder, the number two box office hit of the summer, then starred in Brian De Palma's Bonfire of the Vanities opposite Tom Hanks. He went on to star opposite Demi Moore and Glenne Headley in the disturbing psychological drama Mortal Thoughts; as a cat burglar extraordinaire in the action-adventure comedy Hudson Hawk; and as gangster Bo Weinberg in Billy Bathgate, Willis followed these roles with The Last Boy Scout, playing a down-on-his-luck private detective who teams which and ex-football player to solve a murder. He then starred in the number one box-office hit Striking Distance, playing a river patrol cop, and was also featured in the bittersweet tale North for Castle Rock Pictures. He then had the starring role in the erotic thriller Color of Night. Willis then costarred to great acclaim in the Quentin Tarantino drama Pulp Fiction which was the 1994 Grand Prize winner of the Palme d-Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He was also lauded for his turn in Nobody's Fool co-starring Paul Newman, starred in the box office hit Die Hard 3, and was seen in Four Rooms. He starred in the hit motion picture Twelve Monkeys for director Terry Gilliam, in Last Man Standing for director Walter Hill, and in The Fifth Element for director Luc Besson. He also starred in The Jackal and Mercury Rising. Willis starred in the action-adventure blockbuster Armageddon produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. He also made the low-budget film Breakfast of Champions for director Alan Rudolph, based on the best-selling novel by Kurt Vonnegut, and served as executive producer on the film.

Recently, Willis starred in the critically acclaimed feature film drama The Sixth Sense, which grossed close to six hundred million dollars worldwide and was nominated for six Academy Awards. Willis won Best Actor from the People's Choice Awards for the film. He costarred with Michelle Pfeiffer in The Story of Us directed by Rob Reiner; produced and starred in the dark comedy The Whole Nine Yards, and was seen in the hit film The Kid. Willis reunited with Sixth Sense Director M. Night Shyamalan to star with Robin Wright-Penn and Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable. Willis most recently starred opposite Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchette in Barry Levinson's Bandits and opposite Colin Farrell in MGM's thrilling wartime drama Hart's War.

In 1997 Bruce Willis co-founded A Company of Fools, a nonprofit theater company committed to developing and sustain a company of theater artists that stage productions in the Wood River Valley, in greater Idaho and throughout the U.S. During the summer of 2001 he starred in and directed Sam Shepard's True West. The play, about the troubled relationship of two brothers, was taped by Showtime and aired this past year. This special served as a tribute to Robert Willis, the younger brother of Bruce, who passed away of pancreatic cancer.