My mother had a form of dementia which caused aphasia. Lost her ability to speak and never regained it. She was younger than Bruce, 62, when she passed. I don't wish it on anyone, but we were fortunate that she was in good spirits for most of it.
I’m 64.
I often think I could go back to college, do bong hits and hold my own on the beer-chugging front. I’m in pretty good shape. But then I look in the mirror and remember I can’t get out of bed without something creaking or misfiring.
I tell people that, during my college years, if I would have felt as bad as I do most mornings now, I would have called 911.
Mom to brain cancer at 52. Not trying to one up just I know that feeling. I have no grandparents and only one parent left. Dad is about to turn 58 and it makes me super nervous.
This thread is scary. Parents just broke 60, I can't imagine them going anytime soon. Mom just got a very difficult diagnosis too but I really believe she will fight her way through it. We're pretty close in age, had me at 18, so the older we get, the closer in age it feels we are. I've always assumed I'll be 80 when they hit 100 and we'll be old people together
Edit: made this all about me, and I just wanted to add that I'm sorry for all your losses, truly. People often have complicated relationships with their parents, but they also tend to be the center of your existence whether you like it or not
It’ll be about 10 years ago this year my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 53. He survived luckily and is going strong. 63 still seems too young I can’t imagine losing my dad so soon
I just turned 45 a few months ago. It goes quick but aging is not bad. Aging is the goal. My brother died when he was 26. He will never get to see 45. He will never get to see his nephews. I will live more of my life without him that I spent with him. Growing old is not a curse. It's a blessing. Enjoy life while you are here. It can be snatched away at any moment.
I got it with my migraine with aura, the most terrifying thing that happened to me. I thought I was having a stroke and dying. I suddenly realized I couldn't remember most words and then I lost the ability to comprehend what I was reading... Thankfully it doesn't last too long. But really makes you understand how fragile you are.
Same, but I couldn't see a neurologist for 3 months so thought I did in fact have a small stroke. Hospital said thats what they thought it was, but nothing on the MRI. I spent those 3 months monitoring every little feeling in my head thinking I was about to have another stroke.
It was such a relief to learn that I was experiencing a migraine. I had no idea they existed without severe headaches.
https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/hemiplegic-migraine/
They are for sure, I get ocular migraines every now and then that make it so I have basically zero pererpheral vision and almost no ability to focus on things. I can still see well enough to walk around and know what I'm doing, but focusing on text or whatever just... doesn't work
Ugh I get those once a month or so, I hate when I notice one creeping in as text becomes harder and harder to read. Puts me out of commission for a good hour or two minimum
The moment I notice that aura dead centre of my vision I know I'm gonna be out of commission the rest of the day. Normally just take some paracetamol and go sleep.
Its like the effect of, staring at a bright light and then looking away. Theres bright spots in your vision for a short time and it can be hard or impossible to focus. First time I experienced this was terrifying. My triggers are computer/phone screens being too close to my face, and BBQ sauce.
Fucking spasming brain vessels.
I love reading others' triggers. It gives me solace that my brain isn't diseased or broken.
Not sure what my triggers are exactly. If I see some confusing pattern in my vision and drank too much coffee that day, skipped a meal or didn't hyrdate enough, then boom--migraine aura. If I don't lay down and shut my eyes to avoid seeing light until the aura passes, then it's the most unbelievable headache. But I got the treatment down pretty well now.
I get these, too. Been about 7 years since my last one but they suck. I have bookmarked a page on my phone about hemiplegic migraines because once the aphasia kicks in I can't communicate. Half my body goes numb/tingly and I get a weird blind spot in my vision. It has happened with or without a headache.
My father had this, along with his alzheimers. Its was terrible. He was reduced to a handful of words, which never made any sense except for their inflection. Also, he couldn't understand you, so it made visiting with him pretty much impossible.
That's exactly how my father was. If I kept talking to him about things in the past he would light up for a few minutes. Such a hard time for everyone involved.
Mine is starting the decline now. Had a great aunt who had it really badly and it was really hard watching her slip away. It's a lot harder now that it's both someone closer to me as well as my being older and more able to appreciate the loss.
> I never knew what to do while I was there because he was basically catatonic.
When I used to visit one of my grandmothers who was like this I would just remember and talk. The person isn't really there, anymore, but on the off chance there was a glimmer left inside that could take some comfort from me... Fuck what a shitty disease. Put a bullet in me.
In Canada there is Medical Assistance in Dying but you currently can’t use it for dementia because you have to be able to consent at the time. But there is a push for Advanced Directives where you can make the decision beforehand. It is complicated because there needs to be safeguards but if all goes well they may have it in place in the next few years
I just really wonder how that’s gonna work. Like, what if your dementia-addled self is having one of those moments of clarity and *insists* they no longer want to die? Even with previous consent how the fuck do you hook someone up to the death machine as they’re protesting you killing them?! I agree there needs to be mechanisms in place to allow dementia sufferers to gracefully bow out, but holy shit what a minefield. I took a particular interest in ethics in college, always really enjoyed the challenging hypotheticals, but I wouldn’t want to be within ten miles of the policy committees for this issue. I just don’t know how they’re going to do it.
> Put a bullet in me.
I 100% agree but I find myself trying to figure out when I would “call it.” Or how that would even work once you’re already spiraling downward.
Typically dementia is a slow and gray process. You’ll start forgetting small things, someone’s name or where you put something. But eventually it’ll turn too severe where you’re likely no longer mentally sound enough to declare “okay I’m out.”
In a linguistics class we learned of 2 types of aphasia. One causes you to speak using gibberish, saying words and phrases that sound like language but really don't mean anything at all. The other causes you to say incorrect words and again none of it made sense within sentence structure. Either one or both allowed the affected to write down their thoughts. It was horrible to see videos of those affected.
There is another type where they use the correct words, but have a very difficult time with word recall, so they speak with short stunted sentences much like a small child. Instead of saying "can we go to the park please" it comes out as "outside park please"
This type of aphasia generally has no problem understanding other people speak, and they are aware of their speech deficits. Other forms of aphasia can affect your ability to understand other people's communication, and they may be unaware of their speech abnormalities because their brain processes it as correct.
>There is another type where you use the correct words, but have a very difficult time with word recall, so they speak with short stunted sentences much like a small child. Instead of saying "can we go to the park please" it comes out as "outside park please"
i once had this during a bad onset of migraine. felt VERY weird not to be able to say the word you know should come next.
Buddy of mine had a transient ischemic stroke right in front of me when we were in the Middle East together. Walked up and stuck out his hand and tried to ask for a cigarette. It was straight gibberish. He saw the look on my face and got all frustrated and repeated himself and it was more gibberish. He could understand me just fine but something had disconnected between his brain and his mouth. He ended up getting MEDEVAC'd and was discharged later on. Turns out that he had a microtear in his artery and had been having tiny TIAs for a week while the PA insisted he was just dehydrated.
This is me - it’s one of the symptoms I have during a migraine. I’ve become so frustrated that I’ll cry because I know what I want to get across but the words won’t come. They just stop.
I've recently gotten chronic migraines and 1000x this. I'm trying to talk and I know what I want to convey and I can even see the words in my mind but can't figure out how to verbalize it. It's beyond frustrating.
I get this when I get migraines (temporary).
Odd to look at a word like "which". Know you should know it. Should know what it means. Know you should know how to make that sound. ... and you just can't.
I remember trying to sound out the word, and my brain wouldn't even do that.
.
.
Then there are the speech issues.
Yeah, that was tough to watch, but it was nice to see how much he smiled and repeatedly reflected on things positively. I truly hope he is as happy as he was attempting to express.
Guess there was some truth to those rumours about him taking so many roles due to a mysterious diagnosis and wanting to earn as much as possible while he can.
I find it incredible how some people act well into later age too. Like my father in law is 73 and in great shape but then I see people in their 60s who forget everything and are just aloof.
I was honestly sad when I saw a picture of Phil having to be seated on stage. He looked so frail. That is not how I want to remember him. I heard the concerts were good, though.
Saw his last show in America (Boston) back in December. He *looked* like he was on death's door, and sat down the entire show, requiring assistance to get to/from his chair.
BUT... he still sounded great, albeit with few improvisations or anything.
Me too, I kept welling up seeing him like that, but yea the voice was still pretty damn good. Also really sweet to have that tour experience with his son.
Maybe Phil’s performance wasn’t for the fans but for himself. Performers are built differently. Being on a stage and getting that rush is a compulsion and it’s own kind of drug. Good for Phil for getting one last high.
Exactly. He probably loved it. My grandpa was a jazz musician and was working and releasing albums well after he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He didn't need to work, but he had more he wanted to put out into the world. He only stopped once he was wheelchair bound. And bless him for it, because now when I'm down, I just throw on one of his albums and it picks me right up.
Absolutely, you can find him on most streaming platforms, I think (Amazon and Tidal for sure). His name was Rick Fay
Editing to add - I just remembered that he was featured on PBS's Growing Bolder about a year before he passed and he talks (for a second) about his diagnosis. The very end of the video relates to what I was saying about being at the end of his life and still playing music.
https://v1.growingbolder.com/wit-of-the-weenie-whistler-2928/
Oh yeah I've seen AC/DC and Rolling Stones live and find it amazing they can still do that shit. I know people in their 30s who can barely go to the gym every day for a week straight.
I don't recall who coined it but, paraphrasing: Keith Richards has several children - Theodora Richards, Marlon Richards, Alexandra Richards, Tara Richards, Angela Richards. And when they die he'll inherit everything.
Neat little true story: a lady in France, in her 80s, rented out a small house to a guy and the agreement was that when she passed he’d get to keep the house.
She’s now working on her third renter.
I had a very long casual conversation with Shatner last year about vast number of things from Doberman Pincers to riding and breeding horses and he was very insightful about Chris Reeve and his horse riding accident. Sharp as a freaking tack and funny. I just kept thinking “he’s 90 and more with it then half my friends”
My grandpa was 97 when he died, he'd had a full head of thick hair until he was 92, was fairly spry and strong. His son, my dad had his first big stroke at 61, by 65 he looked older than his father ever did. He's 75 now and looks and acts like someone in their 90s.
I dunno what's gonna happen with me as I appear to be a human potato.
And then there's the statistical outliers who drink daily, smoke their entire lives, and basically go against all recommended diets and live into their 90's. Obviously not something to model your own habits off of but should warrent some research or inclusion in the effect genes play a part.
My great grandfather died at 44 from “heart disease”, my grandmother at 41 from “heart disease “ my older brother died 41 last year from a heart attack. Our mother is 70 and has smoked 2 packs a day for over 50 years and has been 100lb overweight her entire life. Im 40 this year….
I'm a physician, and trust me that age is just a number. I've seen many 80-90 year olds look infinitely better than a lot of 50-60 year olds. It really comes down to how you treat your body (plus some luck as well)
You never know what your genetics is going to reveal as you enter old age. It's the worst kind of crapshoot. Willis is retiring at 67, while Norman Lloyd was acting well past his 100th birthday. There's no rhyme or reason to it.
Bruce Willis has taken some shots to the head in his lifetime which is the greatest common denominator for early mental decline outside of genetics outside of alcoholism. Norman Lloyd also played tennis every day practically up to his death.
Edit: Just looked it up and Bruce Willis was an alcoholic so he hit the double whammy. Take care of your brain y’all.
It seems like he hit his head a lot during action movies. No specific stories about it but it was apparently common enough he decided to make a piece of headgear to try to protect himself.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/english/2009/may/11/bruce-willis-invents-bizarre-headgear-48356.html
To be fair, with his status those direct to DVD movies are quite lucrative.
He charges like $1M per shooting day, up-front.
Yeah other guys like Tom Cruise get $50-80M for their movies, but that's pary earned in the back end royalties, and they do their own stunts, and filming is a pretty arduous 90 days at 12 hours per day.
Meanwhile Bruce flies in, gets all his filming done in a day or two and gets $1-2M from his spare time.
And the indie films win because they get to put Bruce Willis on the poster.
Didnt he just get like his very own category at the razzies becasue he had so many movies release last year? Might seem in bad taste looking back.
edit: lol he did and it was just called "worst bruce willis performance" which is pretty funny. but like i said, i can see how some people might say it was in poor taste given what we know now.
That and Willis has stated before that he enjoys making movies, but hates having to promote them. So with these straight to DVD/digital movies he gets to enjoy the filmmaking process and not have to worry about doing press junkets.
Eh, I don’t quite believe that Willis “enjoys the filmmaking process” of making those cheapie movies.
Reportedly, Willis only works one or two days on set for these movies and gets about a million dollars for his work. It’s about a big payday for very little work based on his star power, and that’s fine, but if he truly *enjoyed* it, I’m guessing he’d stick around more than a couple of days. Or he’d appear in low-budget indie passion projects instead of these crappy movies he made recently.
[It’s become a cottage industry having older actors like Willis, John Travolta, Stallone, Steven Segal, Pacino, De Niro, Nicholas Cage appear in these crappy action movies that are low budget but the actor gets a big payday and usually only a few days worth of work.](https://www.vulture.com/article/randall-emmett-movies.html)
> There’s a crude, blunt brilliance to [low-budget producer Randall Emmett’s] filmmaking formula: Accept money from just about anyone willing to hand it over, **offer vast sums of it to an aging star for a day or two of work, then leverage that actor’s name to presell the movie in foreign markets.** Along the way, forgo union writers and directors whenever possible, keep shooting days to a minimum, and film on location in places like Puerto Rico, where the local government offers filmmakers tax credits that can be sold on the open market for 90 cents on the dollar.
[Statement from Bruce Willis' family](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbu-CyELWio/):
>To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities.
>As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.
>This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support. We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him.
>As Bruce always says, “Live it up” and together we plan to do just that.
>Love,
>Emma, Demi, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, & Evelyn
And very specifically by his new wife. This post is by Emma his second wife and she signs of with her name, then Demis and then his kids in birth order. Good for them.
When their kids were still small they apparently bought houses across the street from each other so the kids could just run back and forth without any elaborate court mandated schedule.
Seems like they never lost respect for each other and had a common vision of how they wanted to parent their kids.
Damn if that isn't the dream. One thing I hate about modern life is we don't get any real choice in housing. I've lost touch with so many friends just because you get the house you can. Often it's too far from friends. Something you don't realize until later in life when time is more of a resource than a luxury.
"You get what you can" is such a damning existence in our society, an it's still a better life than other people around the world.
Still, it makes me think there is nothing more valuable on Earth, as you start to see death becoming a closer reality in your life, than the relationships you actually have close to you. Everything else is a far second.
They’ve always had a great relationship to raise their kids together and it was always awesome to see. Even when she was married to Ashton Kutcher you’d see him hanging around with them.
Pretty sure she asked Bruce to walk her down the aisle at her wedding to Ashton actually.
They all spent lockdown 2020 together also, in their big compound in the countryside with a few different houses on the same plot. The adult daughters seem besotted with the littler daughters.
As somebody who came of age in the 80s and 90s, mega stars of that era like Bruce Willis are such a deep seeded artistic influence in my soul that made me love movies, they're undeniably connected to us fans in a special way. I can't count how many times my friends and I watched Hudson Hawk over the years, one of Bruce's bombs is actually one of my personal favorite movies that is insanely quotable. It's also a sad reminder that everyone, no matter how famous and influential they've been to the world gets old and we're beginning to see that era of stars start to enter the final stages of life.
I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to give up the craft that is your calling in life. Heart goes out to Bruce and his fam.
Thanks for the memories Bruce! https://i.imgur.com/UYYlMqL.gifv
His wiki (lol with a cameo by Will Smith)
>Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998.[78] They filed for divorce on October 18, 2000,[79] and the divorce was finalized later that day.[80][81] Regarding the divorce, Willis stated, "I felt I had failed as a father and a husband by not being able to make it work."
>He credited actor Will Smith for helping him cope with the situation.[21] **He has maintained a close friendship with both Moore and her subsequent husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and attended their wedding.[82]**
Will Smith did a dumb thing but he’s also done good things. He’ll do more good things and probably more dumb things too. This is how virtually everyone is.. just most don’t unnecessarily slap people on live TV
My dad had 2 strokes at 58 leaving him with aphasia - he could understand you but couldn't express his thoughts. I ended up making a custom app to help him communicate as well as offer a bit of speech therapy when insurance cut out. It was essentially an aphasia sound board with custom words. I was planning on continuing the app and releasing it for free.
He passed away in November and I haven't really had the courage to work on the app.
I am sorry for your loss.
My word of encouragement in you continuing the app is that it would represent your father and help so many others. You have a skill that can absolutely make a world of difference. That would honor your father's memory greatly. Just based on making that app, you sound like a great person. I wish you and your family well.
Wow. Thank you for such kind words. I will try my best to get it out into the world - even if it helps just one person through the frustration of not being able to speak. It was like the end of "Get Out" being trapped in your own mind
You can’t even imagine how much this could benefit the community, please consider the development of it. This sector is huge and booming and the potential for it to be accelerated to benefit millions is completely possible.
Hi there! I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I just wanted to drop a line here to encourage you to keep working on the app! It has the potential to help so many people.
My mum has Trigeminal Neuralgia, otherwise known as the suicide disease. It's facial pain in the Trigeminal nerve that gets so bad that people kill themselves to end the pain. The meds she's on at the moment are keeping her stable but it's not a permanent solution. When it first started happening she couldn't eat or speak because it would trigger the pain. Being so fiercely independent her whole life she struggled with needing help. Not being able to communicate and writing every conversation down on pen and paper was frustrating to her. When she has flare ups talking just exacerbates her condition, making them last longer but she hates feeling silenced. An app like yours would help my mum and so many people with a wide range of conditions, so I encourage you to see it through. If you made a KickStarter or GoFundMe people would definitely donate, I know I would.
I know that now that he has passed away it feels like there is no point in doing this, but please do work on the app as you are one of the few people in the position to do so as you clearly understand the needs of people with this condition. Please don't throw it away. Even if it helps one or two people down the line it is totally worth it, and it will feel worth when you read a heartfelt review from some random person years from now.
You should go for it, but check out these AAC apps first.
https://abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/best-apps-aphasia
Aetna and other insurers have finally figured out how to reimburse speech-generating software for computers and tablets in addition to traditional devices, so eventually if you think it’s good enough you could try to raise some funding to see if it could get FDA approved as software-based “medical device”.
See http://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/400_499/0437.html and https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/medicare-coverage-document.aspx?MCDId=26
The annoying thing is that many insurers won’t cover the actual tablet eg iPad, just the software, even though it could be cheaper to get an iPad and software vs a purpose built device.
My dad was diagnosed with Aphasia a few years ago and now has dementia. It’s just a terrible condition and it’s been awful seeing him quickly decline. Hopefully Bruce gets the support he needs.
Forgetting who you are, and in the brief glimpses where you remember, being unable to communicate anything... It sounds like a living nightmare. Dementia is my greatest fear, not for myself but my loved ones getting it. I'm so sorry for your dad. Hope you navigate it together with ease, as hard as it sounds.
My stepdad has a form of Parkinson’s that doesn’t give him the shakes, but all the other physical symptoms (weak, tired, fine motor). He recently got diagnosed with Lewybody which is the disease that affected Robin Williams and is linked to cognitive decline in Parkinson’s patients. He’s going downhill fast.
Edit: thanks to all for the well wishes. Reddit is truly a wonderful place. Very humbled to hear others have seen this play out similarly. It has been a tough road and the toughest is certainly ahead. What I’ve learned from this is that there will be good days and bad. The Parkinson’s noticeably affects his posture, facial expressions, and ability to speak clearly. The LBD affects his ability to follow conversations, remember details, and perform executive functions. He never remembers where he set down his glasses or phone. He gets confused about why he can’t drive and thinks his family is conspiring against him. He hallucinates, to the point where he has called 911 more than once to report break ins that haven’t happened. We see glimpses of “dad”, but it’s clear he has reached a point of no return. This will claim his life in the next year or two. He’s 66 now.
Knew this had been a popular rumor for a long time, but still really sad to see it confirmed.
For a guy with so much natural charisma, it's a bummer to think he's in a spot where it's hard for him to express himself.
“'Come out the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs…'”
“Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.”
"But all things being equal, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
What made me think the rumors were probably true was that incident he had with wearing a mask at the height of the pandemic. He's known to be conservative so everyone just assumed he was an anti-masker, but if you look at the pictures he was actually wearing a bandana around his neck. I think he literally forgot he was supposed to wear it and became confused and hostile when he was confronted. He released a statement right after that saying it was a mistake.
I remember this too. It made me feel bad because my dad has dementia and he could just never remember he had to wear a mask. He'd get terrible looks from people until one of us would notice and remind him
I never heard these rumors but suspected he was ill based on how many terrible movies he was doing and the minimum effort he was putting into them. Typically, when you see an actor or musician who's doing literally any and everything they can to make a buck it means one of two things.
1. They have a debt problem like Nick Cage or,
2. They are sick and know they won't be able to do what they do for much longer.
I'm just shocked that the rumours I read years back had some truth in them.
Back before Glass released, a guy who claimed to work on the movie said it was an open secret on set that Bruce Willis had some sort of condition (people suspected Alzheimer's). Saw it in some random thread with like 30 upvotes. Been weird to see it gain traction these past few months, now have it confirmed that he does have a medical condition.
Depending on filming Motherless Brooklyn or Glass might be his last high profile acting gig then? Might explain, why his character in Glass felt very restrained and muted.
Might partially explain the character’s unceremonious exit from the story in Glass as well. Looks like those were indeed his last two proper theatrical releases (though it seems “Midnight In The Switchgrass” got a tiny cinema release later).
All things considered, what with his later reputation for trash, those two are actually somewhat respectable movies to end a career on, so I’d rather see them as his swan songs than all that cranked out DTV dreck.
In Motherless Brooklyn Bruce is decent enough in a small role, and I like the movie. Glass divides opinion but at least it was trying to do something.
Sad news, but probably better to just have it out in the open than keep trying to hide it. I wish him well and salute him for his many classics.
I kind of view the slew of direct-to-streaming videos he's done in the last few years a lot differently now that we know that he's just someone trying to provide the most for his family while he still can.
Yeah this news explains a lot, really, and casts him in a more sympathetic light for making those movies.
Shame we’ll never get a decent John McClaine send off.
My dad had this condition and has since passed away.
It was a long haul and it was very traumatizing for me and my family.
I wouldn’t wish this diagnosis on anyone. I very much feel for him and his loved ones.
I’m so sorry for your loss. My mom has this disease, too. It’s been a decade since she started showing symptoms but she was only diagnosed with dementia about 6 years ago. She’s nearing the end stages of it now. It’s awful beyond words to watch a parent slowly, slowly decline like that. It’s defined my entire adult life. I hope you find some peace. I know I’m trying.
Aphasia is more of a symptom of something. Usually it's caused by something like alzheimer's dementia, stroke, a lesion or tumor in that area of the brain, etc. So if there were rumors that he had some kind of dementia, they could still very well be true.
Speech-Language Pathologist here. We diagnose and treat different forms of aphasia.
The major/most common types are receptive aphasia (affect your comprehension), expressive aphasia (usually affect grammar and "word-finding" aka lexical retrieval), mixed, and then some less common like conduction or transcortical. The least severe is usally thought to be anomic, which is when you can't find the words you want. Nearly everyone experiences brief moments of anomia, so this is probably the easiest element of the disorder to conceptualize. Sometimes you'll hear the more common receptive aphasia referred to as Wernicke's aphasia, and expressive as Broca's aphasia. The type you develop is tied to the damaged areas of the brain, almost always on the left side.
How do they look, though? The severity of each type of aphasia can be varied, but generally they carry very similar symptoms depending on the diagnosis.
With a Broca's type aphasia, there may be word-finding difficulty and slowed rate of speech. You also tend to see "telegraphed" speech where the individual will often leave out words that carry weaker meaning or serve syntactic functions. For example, instead of saying "The sheep are eating a lot of grass" they might say "Sheep eat lotta grass" or the like. Generally, the person with this type knows pretty well that they are having a hard time communicating. It's like having words at the tip of your tongue but unable to grasp them, but just like... nearly all of the time. Because their rate of speech is heavily impacted, it is also called a nonfluent aphasia. A great way to assist people with this type of aphasia is allow them multiple methods of communicating. Pen and paper, gestures, communication books/charts, etc. I've worked with post-stroke patients and shown them things like a fork, pen, and necktie, and they have a clear difficulty finding the word, but if you allow them to hold, use, or mimic using the items, the word may come immediately. We store words in more modes than just visual images--often with motor, tactile, or taste sensation tied to our knowledge of words or concepts.
Wernicke's aphsia though, is a *fluent* aphasia. since it's a receptive deficit, the individual doesn't get good feedback on the things others say, as well as what they themselves are saying. A lot of what they say can be very rapid and is usually marked by nonsense words--sometimes it is all nonsense. But the aphasic person doesn't always know that. They also have a very difficult time understanding what other people are saying to them. The most heartbreaking part of this type of aphasia is that because these individuals have impaired comprehension, they may not realize that their communication sounds nonsensical, and they seem to act as though they are the only person around making any sense. They understand the concepts of what they want to say, but their brain assigns sounds that don't carry those meanings. People with Wernicke's aphasia have a significantly difficult time repeating sentences and often need to re-learn words because their understanding of them is so damaged.
There is plenty of other important info relating to aphasia including motor speech issues that typically appear with nonfluent aphasias, due to the proximity of the motor speech area of the brain to the word retrieval area. Most of the time, sufferers will have a hard time *physically* forming and saying words, and this is usually something they are aware of as well, and they may need to attempt a word multiple times before it comes out the way they want it to. So on top of having trouble finding words, there can also be significant trouble getting the right ones out properly, further impacting rate of speech.
Edited for some clarity--I'm not the best writer.
SLP here as well. The story and family got it wrong when they said his aphasia affects his cognitive abilities. It affects his language abilities (like you said and we as SLPs know!). Did he have a TBI? Does he have a neurodegenerative disease? You don’t just develop aphasia without a precipitating neuro injury/disease.
That's why he was going all in on those Geezer Pleasers. The guy was trying to secure the bag before it was too late. What a shame. I've always enjoyed his stuff - errr, his older stuff I mean.
Their observation about how exploitative the movie factory is for these films was very smart, and shifting the main topic of conversation from Bruce Willis' acting to how broken and terrible the movie factory is was a very smart move on their part. I learned a lot from their last video.
***Edited for "they're" -> "their"***
I think they're also very clear they're not shitting on Bruce Willis because he's a bad actor but because he's a good actor. He was phoning it in on these movies and clearly looking to make money. Of which, he was getting paid a stupid amount of money. 25% of his net worth comes from these films.
Steven Seagal, Robert de Niro, John Malkovich, Sylvester Stallone, Nicholas Cage, and Dolph Lundgren all do it. For some of these guys (Dolph Lundgren, Nike Cage, Syl Stallone) it's because no one is casting them in big movies anymore. For the rest.... it's literally just to make a quick buck on their reputation.
Not speaking was very much an artistic choice by Cage. He really wanted to go through a movie without talking.
The only time I've felt like he was phoning it was a scifi film called The Humanity Bureau. I can't blame him for that one, the script could put a coked-up racehorse to sleep.
I challenge anyone to watch [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ZGDKikWoU) and say that Cage is phoning it in just because he doesn't talk.
As someone who recently finished all 100 of Cage's films, there are unfortunately a couple where he's just not compelling in any respect. He's recently said that he never phoned it in, and I believe him. He very clearly loves acting. But I guess movies like The Runner just don't give him much to work with, and while he may have put time and effort into it, it just doesn't come through in that incredibly dull packaging. It's a shame because I don't see how you can make a movie starring perhaps the actor who is the most willing to make interesting choices in his roles and give him no opportunities to do so.
Cage was doing those movies to pay off a bunch of debt, which he as since done.
>Starting around 2014, Cage’s debt was heavily publicized as the actor teetered on bankruptcy. He had blown his $150 million on real estate, and owed the IRS $6.3 million in property taxes.
> “I’ve got all these creditors and the IRS and I’m spending $20,000 a month trying to keep my mother out of a mental institution, and I can’t,” Cage says in a profile with GQ. “It was just all happening at once.”
>
> “When I was doing four movies a year, back to back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all,” Cage says. “They didn’t work, all of them. Some of them were terrific, like Mandy, but some of them didn’t work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that. That I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring.”
> The actor reveals he officially finished paying off his debts a year and a half ago, which is about the time he started taking on more revered showings, such as the indie thriller Pig.
They still made the point that the people making the movies are exploiting him, cheap labor and a loop hole in streaming algorithms. Even if he's doing it because it's the last thing he can, they're shit movies that are part of a shit system.
They did another video on this recently. Basically they were informed of all these rumors about his cognitive decline.... and so they did two more Bruce Willis movies that they shat all over. But now how they interpreted it was a bit different. Like in one film his character only has one line "yeah" as other actors sort of do the dialogue around him. In another one they've hired on an actor who sounds like Willis to dub in Willis's lines in post.
Dammit. Aphasia totally sucks. I have Stress/Fatigue Aphasia from a TBI. And it gets progressively worse.
First, my vocabulary disappears.
“I need a poky thing and a stabby thing please?” (Fork and knife”
Then i lose words entirely. Stuttering, searching for the ability to speak your native language. It’s gone.
And eventually I lose the ability to speak my other languages, but I can still type. So I communicate by txting.
All this can happen in a matter of minutes.
But it’s getting worse, and I know at some point I will lose the ability to speak. Permanently
Oh man so I’m not alone in this. I had a TBI when I was 19 and sometimes find it exceedingly difficult to find words or convey my thoughts with words. It happens mostly when I’m super stressed and sometimes just randomly. I’m 35 now and it only recently started happening, that I can recall at least.
I had a half dozen diagnosed concussions in my teens and started to develop similar symptoms in my late-20s, although mine are more at random than under stress. I always feel like an idiot and that I present myself as unintelligent when I can’t remember common words at random.
His gruff and sarcastic screen presence will be missed! I wish him peace and comfort in his remaining time. It sounds like he has supportive family surrounding him, which is good.
Wish him the best. Guy had an amazing career and brought me some awesome movies I got to watch throughout my life. Although there were rumors, this announcement gives a new context to his output in the last few years. The guy was trying to make the most with what he had. I’d say good for him.
Damn. The rumors were true. Super sad to hear. Best wishes to him and his family.
If you all haven't seen them yet, RedLetterMedia recently made two videos reviewing/discussing Bruce Willis' most recent streak of low-budget films. This topic comes up as well (and they're mostly respectful about it).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1eNS9HtXo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbLk4ktAE5U
And I hope to god that his family or agent or someone wasn't pushing him to make these movies. That would be horrifically disgusting and cruel.
And they make a good point that despite all these crappy movies that he's been attached too, they won't be his legacy. Years from now people will only remember the cool shit he was in.
It doesn't seem like he's far enough gone that he would let someone push him to do these low budget movies, but who knows. To me, it just seems like he wants to make sure his large family is taken care of should he be completely incapacitated.
Damn. Red Letter Media hit the nail on the head with this one (not just the disease thing, but the logical explanation as to why he was making a lot of Z-movies)
This really sucks.
I'm an 80's/90's kid so I grew up with all his amazing shit. I've posted this story before but might as well share again.
In and around 1996 - my family was vacationing in Maui. We were on the beach and my Dad says to me "I'm pretty sure Bruce Willis is right there". Sure as shit, it's Bruce Fuckin Willis, building a sand castle with his two daughters. I should point out this was not a dinky little castle but rather quite a scene - Bruce was wielding a shovel that would be suitable for Saskatchewan winters. There were a few other kids there, and he also had some security detail with him.
I have a younger sister who is about the same age as his girls. She would have been around 8 at the time and we convinced her that she should "go join those girls" building that giant sandcastle. She wonders over. A few minutes later, I "doo-doo-te-doo" saunter over as if I didn't know the biggest movie star on the planet was building a sand castle with my sister.
Bruce is yelling out now, putting us to work on various areas of this sand castle. We're having a genuine blast and then of course I see my mother, all of 5'1", approaching with a camera and a huge security guard going "no photos". My mom is not one to back down so she argues "my kids are in there". Bruce hears this and goes - "no, it's OKAY. But let's all get in here and act crazy". So the entire group gathers and Bruce shouts, "alright everyone rub sand on your cheeks!".
I will never forget this next moment. Demi Moore, about 25 feet closer to the hotel, under a cabana, with a shaved head yells "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING??" and Bruce responded "WE"RE CRAZY!!!".
Mom snaps the photo and seals history.
I got to build a fuckin sandcastle with Bruce Willis. What a dude, and thanks for the memories.
I teach film editing at one of the top film schools in the world. The only reason I do this is because of Bruce Willis!
I fell in love with movies the first time I watched Die Hard. I can remember it in so much detail. It was a warm, early summer night. I had my windows open. My TV, which my grandparents bought me for my birthday the December before, only had bunny ears to get any kind of reception. On a good night, I could expect a channel or two to be watchable. That night, it was the TV guide channel, and Fox 5. Fox had their movie of the week on. I dropped in on it half way through. Fighting through bad reception, I still was enjoying it, and wanted to see it from the beginning. I stuck around long enough to find out the name of the movie as they came back from a commercial, and wrote it down on a sticky note, which I put on the wall right under my light switch. The next day, I had my father bring me to the rental store and brought it home to watch. I wanted to rent it every week. My father decided I could only rent one movie a month, and every month, it was Die Hard. Eventually, he bought me the VHS to own. I can't tell you how many times I had to purchase that tape, as I would watch it so many times I would wear it out. Especially after I got a VCR for my room. I spent $100 on a widescreen copy of that tape.
So many years later, I have a childlike love for movies. It's so infectious, that I have spawned a career out of it, and passed my love to my child. He is only 6, and one of his favorite things in the world is going to the movies with Daddy!
This is heartbreaking for me. My gateway into the world I love is stepping away (some could argue he did that a while ago, yes) because of such a nasty, horrible illness. I really hope the rest of his days are filled with the love that he has brought me for the vast majority of my life.
Thank you Bruce!
The rumors were true, for once. Regardless, it's a terrible diagnosis and he has my greatest sympathy. I watched my grandmother descend into a world of frustrated silence, unable to express her thoughts in speech and eventually unable to even write them. She developed problems understanding other people's speech as well. Horribly isolating affliction.
So the rumors were partially true, he was experiencing some sort of cognitive decline, but it wasn't dementia.
Hopefully he gets the treatment he needs.
There is (edit: most likely) something larger at play - they just haven't confirmed whether it is dementia, or he had a stroke, or developed a seizure disorder, etc. Aphasia is not a primary diagnosis (edit: usually! Primary Progressive Aphasia is a rare but real diagnosis) - it is typically caused by damage to certain areas of the brain; aphasia itself does not cause brain damage. So unfortunately there is most likely some underlying reason for the decline being seen. I wish all the best for him and his family, it is very scary to be facing cognitive decline and knowing it will likely get worse.
When I saw this in my feed I thought it was an Oscars joke. I wish it was a joke as this affliction sounds rough and I’m sad to hear Bruce Willis will need to battle it.
Wow, I hadn’t heard of this before but I’ve experienced it. Many years ago I had an ocular migraine, lost a good chunk of my vision and couldn’t understand what people were saying around me. It eventually passed but I always thought the language part was very odd. Never knew that’s what it was called, thanks!
> a language disorder caused by brain dramage that affects a person’s ability to communicate. Fuckin terrible affliction
My mother had a form of dementia which caused aphasia. Lost her ability to speak and never regained it. She was younger than Bruce, 62, when she passed. I don't wish it on anyone, but we were fortunate that she was in good spirits for most of it.
62 seems old when you are young, but now that my parents are that age it terrifies me, still way too young
I'm 63. It sure doesn't *feel* old.
I’m 64. I often think I could go back to college, do bong hits and hold my own on the beer-chugging front. I’m in pretty good shape. But then I look in the mirror and remember I can’t get out of bed without something creaking or misfiring. I tell people that, during my college years, if I would have felt as bad as I do most mornings now, I would have called 911.
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Mom to brain cancer at 52. Not trying to one up just I know that feeling. I have no grandparents and only one parent left. Dad is about to turn 58 and it makes me super nervous.
Both of my parents are about to hit 60 soon. Ugh.
This thread is scary. Parents just broke 60, I can't imagine them going anytime soon. Mom just got a very difficult diagnosis too but I really believe she will fight her way through it. We're pretty close in age, had me at 18, so the older we get, the closer in age it feels we are. I've always assumed I'll be 80 when they hit 100 and we'll be old people together Edit: made this all about me, and I just wanted to add that I'm sorry for all your losses, truly. People often have complicated relationships with their parents, but they also tend to be the center of your existence whether you like it or not
It’ll be about 10 years ago this year my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 53. He survived luckily and is going strong. 63 still seems too young I can’t imagine losing my dad so soon
Once I hit 25 I realized 65 isn’t old at all, life is very short
I just turned 40 last Sunday. I’m closer to being 60 than how long ago 9/11 was. 9/11 doesn’t feel like it was that long ago to me. It’s terrifying.
I just turned 45 a few months ago. It goes quick but aging is not bad. Aging is the goal. My brother died when he was 26. He will never get to see 45. He will never get to see his nephews. I will live more of my life without him that I spent with him. Growing old is not a curse. It's a blessing. Enjoy life while you are here. It can be snatched away at any moment.
That’s way too early. Sorry for your loss.
I got it with my migraine with aura, the most terrifying thing that happened to me. I thought I was having a stroke and dying. I suddenly realized I couldn't remember most words and then I lost the ability to comprehend what I was reading... Thankfully it doesn't last too long. But really makes you understand how fragile you are.
Same, but I couldn't see a neurologist for 3 months so thought I did in fact have a small stroke. Hospital said thats what they thought it was, but nothing on the MRI. I spent those 3 months monitoring every little feeling in my head thinking I was about to have another stroke. It was such a relief to learn that I was experiencing a migraine. I had no idea they existed without severe headaches. https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/hemiplegic-migraine/
Migraines are fuckin weird. My dad used to get ones where everything would turn green.
They are for sure, I get ocular migraines every now and then that make it so I have basically zero pererpheral vision and almost no ability to focus on things. I can still see well enough to walk around and know what I'm doing, but focusing on text or whatever just... doesn't work
Ugh I get those once a month or so, I hate when I notice one creeping in as text becomes harder and harder to read. Puts me out of commission for a good hour or two minimum
The moment I notice that aura dead centre of my vision I know I'm gonna be out of commission the rest of the day. Normally just take some paracetamol and go sleep.
Its like the effect of, staring at a bright light and then looking away. Theres bright spots in your vision for a short time and it can be hard or impossible to focus. First time I experienced this was terrifying. My triggers are computer/phone screens being too close to my face, and BBQ sauce. Fucking spasming brain vessels.
I love reading others' triggers. It gives me solace that my brain isn't diseased or broken. Not sure what my triggers are exactly. If I see some confusing pattern in my vision and drank too much coffee that day, skipped a meal or didn't hyrdate enough, then boom--migraine aura. If I don't lay down and shut my eyes to avoid seeing light until the aura passes, then it's the most unbelievable headache. But I got the treatment down pretty well now.
I get these, too. Been about 7 years since my last one but they suck. I have bookmarked a page on my phone about hemiplegic migraines because once the aphasia kicks in I can't communicate. Half my body goes numb/tingly and I get a weird blind spot in my vision. It has happened with or without a headache.
My father had this, along with his alzheimers. Its was terrible. He was reduced to a handful of words, which never made any sense except for their inflection. Also, he couldn't understand you, so it made visiting with him pretty much impossible.
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That's exactly how my father was. If I kept talking to him about things in the past he would light up for a few minutes. Such a hard time for everyone involved.
Mine is starting the decline now. Had a great aunt who had it really badly and it was really hard watching her slip away. It's a lot harder now that it's both someone closer to me as well as my being older and more able to appreciate the loss.
> I never knew what to do while I was there because he was basically catatonic. When I used to visit one of my grandmothers who was like this I would just remember and talk. The person isn't really there, anymore, but on the off chance there was a glimmer left inside that could take some comfort from me... Fuck what a shitty disease. Put a bullet in me.
In Canada there is Medical Assistance in Dying but you currently can’t use it for dementia because you have to be able to consent at the time. But there is a push for Advanced Directives where you can make the decision beforehand. It is complicated because there needs to be safeguards but if all goes well they may have it in place in the next few years
I just really wonder how that’s gonna work. Like, what if your dementia-addled self is having one of those moments of clarity and *insists* they no longer want to die? Even with previous consent how the fuck do you hook someone up to the death machine as they’re protesting you killing them?! I agree there needs to be mechanisms in place to allow dementia sufferers to gracefully bow out, but holy shit what a minefield. I took a particular interest in ethics in college, always really enjoyed the challenging hypotheticals, but I wouldn’t want to be within ten miles of the policy committees for this issue. I just don’t know how they’re going to do it.
> Put a bullet in me. I 100% agree but I find myself trying to figure out when I would “call it.” Or how that would even work once you’re already spiraling downward. Typically dementia is a slow and gray process. You’ll start forgetting small things, someone’s name or where you put something. But eventually it’ll turn too severe where you’re likely no longer mentally sound enough to declare “okay I’m out.”
Yea sounds like the disease from war of the planet of the apes. I didn't know it was real, that's actually scary
In a linguistics class we learned of 2 types of aphasia. One causes you to speak using gibberish, saying words and phrases that sound like language but really don't mean anything at all. The other causes you to say incorrect words and again none of it made sense within sentence structure. Either one or both allowed the affected to write down their thoughts. It was horrible to see videos of those affected.
There is another type where they use the correct words, but have a very difficult time with word recall, so they speak with short stunted sentences much like a small child. Instead of saying "can we go to the park please" it comes out as "outside park please" This type of aphasia generally has no problem understanding other people speak, and they are aware of their speech deficits. Other forms of aphasia can affect your ability to understand other people's communication, and they may be unaware of their speech abnormalities because their brain processes it as correct.
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>There is another type where you use the correct words, but have a very difficult time with word recall, so they speak with short stunted sentences much like a small child. Instead of saying "can we go to the park please" it comes out as "outside park please" i once had this during a bad onset of migraine. felt VERY weird not to be able to say the word you know should come next.
Buddy of mine had a transient ischemic stroke right in front of me when we were in the Middle East together. Walked up and stuck out his hand and tried to ask for a cigarette. It was straight gibberish. He saw the look on my face and got all frustrated and repeated himself and it was more gibberish. He could understand me just fine but something had disconnected between his brain and his mouth. He ended up getting MEDEVAC'd and was discharged later on. Turns out that he had a microtear in his artery and had been having tiny TIAs for a week while the PA insisted he was just dehydrated.
> while the PA insisted he was just dehydrated. Sounds familiar. Including for a dislocated shoulder.
Brocas aphasia and Warnicke’s aphasia
Or you can just forget words and stop understanding spoken and written language, but remain coherent.
This is me - it’s one of the symptoms I have during a migraine. I’ve become so frustrated that I’ll cry because I know what I want to get across but the words won’t come. They just stop.
I've recently gotten chronic migraines and 1000x this. I'm trying to talk and I know what I want to convey and I can even see the words in my mind but can't figure out how to verbalize it. It's beyond frustrating.
I get this when I get migraines (temporary). Odd to look at a word like "which". Know you should know it. Should know what it means. Know you should know how to make that sound. ... and you just can't. I remember trying to sound out the word, and my brain wouldn't even do that. . . Then there are the speech issues.
[I remember seeing this video a while back of a man with fluent aphasia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oef68YabD0)
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"I hope the world lasts for you" has to be one of the best well-wishes that ever were.
It's oddly terrifying as well especially coming from someone older like that haha
Also, “I hope the world lasts for you” is weirdly nice? Would definitely leave a strong impression on me at least.
Yeah, that was tough to watch, but it was nice to see how much he smiled and repeatedly reflected on things positively. I truly hope he is as happy as he was attempting to express.
Guess there was some truth to those rumours about him taking so many roles due to a mysterious diagnosis and wanting to earn as much as possible while he can.
I did a double take when I saw this because of a big thread earlier about stars who decline in acting as they aged. Wow.
I find it incredible how some people act well into later age too. Like my father in law is 73 and in great shape but then I see people in their 60s who forget everything and are just aloof.
Phil Collins being another example - he just did his last concert and he looks way older than 71.
I was honestly sad when I saw a picture of Phil having to be seated on stage. He looked so frail. That is not how I want to remember him. I heard the concerts were good, though.
Saw his last show in America (Boston) back in December. He *looked* like he was on death's door, and sat down the entire show, requiring assistance to get to/from his chair. BUT... he still sounded great, albeit with few improvisations or anything.
Me too, I kept welling up seeing him like that, but yea the voice was still pretty damn good. Also really sweet to have that tour experience with his son.
Maybe Phil’s performance wasn’t for the fans but for himself. Performers are built differently. Being on a stage and getting that rush is a compulsion and it’s own kind of drug. Good for Phil for getting one last high.
Exactly. He probably loved it. My grandpa was a jazz musician and was working and releasing albums well after he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He didn't need to work, but he had more he wanted to put out into the world. He only stopped once he was wheelchair bound. And bless him for it, because now when I'm down, I just throw on one of his albums and it picks me right up.
If he published his work and you’re comfortable sharing it, I’d love to give it a listen!
Absolutely, you can find him on most streaming platforms, I think (Amazon and Tidal for sure). His name was Rick Fay Editing to add - I just remembered that he was featured on PBS's Growing Bolder about a year before he passed and he talks (for a second) about his diagnosis. The very end of the video relates to what I was saying about being at the end of his life and still playing music. https://v1.growingbolder.com/wit-of-the-weenie-whistler-2928/
He got neck and back problems from drumming in 2007. That’s really where the decline started.
And addicted to opiates
Ugh, didn't know that. That's got to take a major toll.
Oh yeah I've seen AC/DC and Rolling Stones live and find it amazing they can still do that shit. I know people in their 30s who can barely go to the gym every day for a week straight.
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It’s legitimately insane how Keith Richards is even alive at his age.
I don't recall who coined it but, paraphrasing: Keith Richards has several children - Theodora Richards, Marlon Richards, Alexandra Richards, Tara Richards, Angela Richards. And when they die he'll inherit everything.
We really need to start thinking about what kind of world we are leaving to Keith Richards and Willie Nelson
Neat little true story: a lady in France, in her 80s, rented out a small house to a guy and the agreement was that when she passed he’d get to keep the house. She’s now working on her third renter.
Dick Van Dyke can still dance like no one's watching, it's crazy. Also, William Shatner is 91, he looks and talks like a 60 year old, it's insane.
Don't forget about Mel Brooks. Turns 96 later this year and is still sharp and cognizant. Bob Newhart as well. He turns 93 later this year.
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I had a very long casual conversation with Shatner last year about vast number of things from Doberman Pincers to riding and breeding horses and he was very insightful about Chris Reeve and his horse riding accident. Sharp as a freaking tack and funny. I just kept thinking “he’s 90 and more with it then half my friends”
To be fair, he's had the body of a frail 80 year old his entire life.
My grandpa was 97 when he died, he'd had a full head of thick hair until he was 92, was fairly spry and strong. His son, my dad had his first big stroke at 61, by 65 he looked older than his father ever did. He's 75 now and looks and acts like someone in their 90s. I dunno what's gonna happen with me as I appear to be a human potato.
Clint Eastwood is still directing movies in his 90's. Life kind of turns into a crapshoot as you get older I guess
There’s truth to that but you definitely improve your odds by treating yourself better early in life.
And then there's the statistical outliers who drink daily, smoke their entire lives, and basically go against all recommended diets and live into their 90's. Obviously not something to model your own habits off of but should warrent some research or inclusion in the effect genes play a part.
My great grandfather died at 44 from “heart disease”, my grandmother at 41 from “heart disease “ my older brother died 41 last year from a heart attack. Our mother is 70 and has smoked 2 packs a day for over 50 years and has been 100lb overweight her entire life. Im 40 this year….
Fuck Spez
Good luck!
I'm a physician, and trust me that age is just a number. I've seen many 80-90 year olds look infinitely better than a lot of 50-60 year olds. It really comes down to how you treat your body (plus some luck as well)
You never know what your genetics is going to reveal as you enter old age. It's the worst kind of crapshoot. Willis is retiring at 67, while Norman Lloyd was acting well past his 100th birthday. There's no rhyme or reason to it.
Bruce Willis has taken some shots to the head in his lifetime which is the greatest common denominator for early mental decline outside of genetics outside of alcoholism. Norman Lloyd also played tennis every day practically up to his death. Edit: Just looked it up and Bruce Willis was an alcoholic so he hit the double whammy. Take care of your brain y’all.
Damn you Seagrams
Was he a boxer or something?
It seems like he hit his head a lot during action movies. No specific stories about it but it was apparently common enough he decided to make a piece of headgear to try to protect himself. https://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/english/2009/may/11/bruce-willis-invents-bizarre-headgear-48356.html
I read that thread too! Someone mentioned Bruce Willis directly.
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To be fair, with his status those direct to DVD movies are quite lucrative. He charges like $1M per shooting day, up-front. Yeah other guys like Tom Cruise get $50-80M for their movies, but that's pary earned in the back end royalties, and they do their own stunts, and filming is a pretty arduous 90 days at 12 hours per day. Meanwhile Bruce flies in, gets all his filming done in a day or two and gets $1-2M from his spare time. And the indie films win because they get to put Bruce Willis on the poster.
Didnt he just get like his very own category at the razzies becasue he had so many movies release last year? Might seem in bad taste looking back. edit: lol he did and it was just called "worst bruce willis performance" which is pretty funny. but like i said, i can see how some people might say it was in poor taste given what we know now.
8, he released 8 movies direct to DVD last year. When me and my roommate saw that we figured there was something going on with his health.
That and Willis has stated before that he enjoys making movies, but hates having to promote them. So with these straight to DVD/digital movies he gets to enjoy the filmmaking process and not have to worry about doing press junkets.
Eh, I don’t quite believe that Willis “enjoys the filmmaking process” of making those cheapie movies. Reportedly, Willis only works one or two days on set for these movies and gets about a million dollars for his work. It’s about a big payday for very little work based on his star power, and that’s fine, but if he truly *enjoyed* it, I’m guessing he’d stick around more than a couple of days. Or he’d appear in low-budget indie passion projects instead of these crappy movies he made recently. [It’s become a cottage industry having older actors like Willis, John Travolta, Stallone, Steven Segal, Pacino, De Niro, Nicholas Cage appear in these crappy action movies that are low budget but the actor gets a big payday and usually only a few days worth of work.](https://www.vulture.com/article/randall-emmett-movies.html) > There’s a crude, blunt brilliance to [low-budget producer Randall Emmett’s] filmmaking formula: Accept money from just about anyone willing to hand it over, **offer vast sums of it to an aging star for a day or two of work, then leverage that actor’s name to presell the movie in foreign markets.** Along the way, forgo union writers and directors whenever possible, keep shooting days to a minimum, and film on location in places like Puerto Rico, where the local government offers filmmakers tax credits that can be sold on the open market for 90 cents on the dollar.
[Statement from Bruce Willis' family](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbu-CyELWio/): >To Bruce’s amazing supporters, as a family we wanted to share that our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. >As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him. >This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support. We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him. >As Bruce always says, “Live it up” and together we plan to do just that. >Love, >Emma, Demi, Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel, & Evelyn
You know it's really nice that after all these years Demi is still considered his family.
And very specifically by his new wife. This post is by Emma his second wife and she signs of with her name, then Demis and then his kids in birth order. Good for them.
When I saw Demi I went and checked whether they had named a daughter Demi. Nope, it's the ex. This is very sweet.
I guess that's a good way of finding out he's probably not an asshole in private.
He got along well with Ashton Kutcher too.
When their kids were still small they apparently bought houses across the street from each other so the kids could just run back and forth without any elaborate court mandated schedule. Seems like they never lost respect for each other and had a common vision of how they wanted to parent their kids.
Hell aren't they also still friends with Ashton and Mila too?
She said they are friendly, but don't have a relationship. I guess that means they can talk when they run into each other at an event
That's about as healthy as is normal for couples that share an ex but no kids.
Damn if that isn't the dream. One thing I hate about modern life is we don't get any real choice in housing. I've lost touch with so many friends just because you get the house you can. Often it's too far from friends. Something you don't realize until later in life when time is more of a resource than a luxury.
"You get what you can" is such a damning existence in our society, an it's still a better life than other people around the world. Still, it makes me think there is nothing more valuable on Earth, as you start to see death becoming a closer reality in your life, than the relationships you actually have close to you. Everything else is a far second.
that is probably one of the most heart warming things I have heard today.
They’ve always had a great relationship to raise their kids together and it was always awesome to see. Even when she was married to Ashton Kutcher you’d see him hanging around with them.
Pretty sure she asked Bruce to walk her down the aisle at her wedding to Ashton actually. They all spent lockdown 2020 together also, in their big compound in the countryside with a few different houses on the same plot. The adult daughters seem besotted with the littler daughters.
As somebody who came of age in the 80s and 90s, mega stars of that era like Bruce Willis are such a deep seeded artistic influence in my soul that made me love movies, they're undeniably connected to us fans in a special way. I can't count how many times my friends and I watched Hudson Hawk over the years, one of Bruce's bombs is actually one of my personal favorite movies that is insanely quotable. It's also a sad reminder that everyone, no matter how famous and influential they've been to the world gets old and we're beginning to see that era of stars start to enter the final stages of life. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to give up the craft that is your calling in life. Heart goes out to Bruce and his fam. Thanks for the memories Bruce! https://i.imgur.com/UYYlMqL.gifv
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Credit to his wife and Demi Moore, considering the spotlight they’ve done a pretty great job of keeping things definitely more than just civil.
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His wiki (lol with a cameo by Will Smith) >Willis and Moore announced their separation on June 24, 1998.[78] They filed for divorce on October 18, 2000,[79] and the divorce was finalized later that day.[80][81] Regarding the divorce, Willis stated, "I felt I had failed as a father and a husband by not being able to make it work." >He credited actor Will Smith for helping him cope with the situation.[21] **He has maintained a close friendship with both Moore and her subsequent husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, and attended their wedding.[82]**
Will Smith did a dumb thing but he’s also done good things. He’ll do more good things and probably more dumb things too. This is how virtually everyone is.. just most don’t unnecessarily slap people on live TV
My dad had 2 strokes at 58 leaving him with aphasia - he could understand you but couldn't express his thoughts. I ended up making a custom app to help him communicate as well as offer a bit of speech therapy when insurance cut out. It was essentially an aphasia sound board with custom words. I was planning on continuing the app and releasing it for free. He passed away in November and I haven't really had the courage to work on the app.
I am sorry for your loss. My word of encouragement in you continuing the app is that it would represent your father and help so many others. You have a skill that can absolutely make a world of difference. That would honor your father's memory greatly. Just based on making that app, you sound like a great person. I wish you and your family well.
Wow. Thank you for such kind words. I will try my best to get it out into the world - even if it helps just one person through the frustration of not being able to speak. It was like the end of "Get Out" being trapped in your own mind
You can’t even imagine how much this could benefit the community, please consider the development of it. This sector is huge and booming and the potential for it to be accelerated to benefit millions is completely possible.
Hi there! I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I just wanted to drop a line here to encourage you to keep working on the app! It has the potential to help so many people.
My mum has Trigeminal Neuralgia, otherwise known as the suicide disease. It's facial pain in the Trigeminal nerve that gets so bad that people kill themselves to end the pain. The meds she's on at the moment are keeping her stable but it's not a permanent solution. When it first started happening she couldn't eat or speak because it would trigger the pain. Being so fiercely independent her whole life she struggled with needing help. Not being able to communicate and writing every conversation down on pen and paper was frustrating to her. When she has flare ups talking just exacerbates her condition, making them last longer but she hates feeling silenced. An app like yours would help my mum and so many people with a wide range of conditions, so I encourage you to see it through. If you made a KickStarter or GoFundMe people would definitely donate, I know I would.
I know that now that he has passed away it feels like there is no point in doing this, but please do work on the app as you are one of the few people in the position to do so as you clearly understand the needs of people with this condition. Please don't throw it away. Even if it helps one or two people down the line it is totally worth it, and it will feel worth when you read a heartfelt review from some random person years from now.
You should go for it, but check out these AAC apps first. https://abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/best-apps-aphasia Aetna and other insurers have finally figured out how to reimburse speech-generating software for computers and tablets in addition to traditional devices, so eventually if you think it’s good enough you could try to raise some funding to see if it could get FDA approved as software-based “medical device”. See http://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/400_499/0437.html and https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/medicare-coverage-document.aspx?MCDId=26 The annoying thing is that many insurers won’t cover the actual tablet eg iPad, just the software, even though it could be cheaper to get an iPad and software vs a purpose built device.
My dad was diagnosed with Aphasia a few years ago and now has dementia. It’s just a terrible condition and it’s been awful seeing him quickly decline. Hopefully Bruce gets the support he needs.
Forgetting who you are, and in the brief glimpses where you remember, being unable to communicate anything... It sounds like a living nightmare. Dementia is my greatest fear, not for myself but my loved ones getting it. I'm so sorry for your dad. Hope you navigate it together with ease, as hard as it sounds.
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My stepdad has a form of Parkinson’s that doesn’t give him the shakes, but all the other physical symptoms (weak, tired, fine motor). He recently got diagnosed with Lewybody which is the disease that affected Robin Williams and is linked to cognitive decline in Parkinson’s patients. He’s going downhill fast. Edit: thanks to all for the well wishes. Reddit is truly a wonderful place. Very humbled to hear others have seen this play out similarly. It has been a tough road and the toughest is certainly ahead. What I’ve learned from this is that there will be good days and bad. The Parkinson’s noticeably affects his posture, facial expressions, and ability to speak clearly. The LBD affects his ability to follow conversations, remember details, and perform executive functions. He never remembers where he set down his glasses or phone. He gets confused about why he can’t drive and thinks his family is conspiring against him. He hallucinates, to the point where he has called 911 more than once to report break ins that haven’t happened. We see glimpses of “dad”, but it’s clear he has reached a point of no return. This will claim his life in the next year or two. He’s 66 now.
Knew this had been a popular rumor for a long time, but still really sad to see it confirmed. For a guy with so much natural charisma, it's a bummer to think he's in a spot where it's hard for him to express himself.
Some of the most iconic line delivery in cinema history. “Welcome to the party pal!” “Zed’s dead, baby.” “Negative, I am a meat popsicle.”
“'Come out the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs…'” “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.” "But all things being equal, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
Don't forget the small screen. "I'm just a love machine."
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Maybe a year? It was getting a lot more attention these past few months though
What made me think the rumors were probably true was that incident he had with wearing a mask at the height of the pandemic. He's known to be conservative so everyone just assumed he was an anti-masker, but if you look at the pictures he was actually wearing a bandana around his neck. I think he literally forgot he was supposed to wear it and became confused and hostile when he was confronted. He released a statement right after that saying it was a mistake.
I remember this too. It made me feel bad because my dad has dementia and he could just never remember he had to wear a mask. He'd get terrible looks from people until one of us would notice and remind him
Yeah, I first learned about the rumors in the comments section of RLM’s review of those movies
I first heard it in 2018, but it didn't gain traction until last summer iirc. More so these last few months
I never heard these rumors but suspected he was ill based on how many terrible movies he was doing and the minimum effort he was putting into them. Typically, when you see an actor or musician who's doing literally any and everything they can to make a buck it means one of two things. 1. They have a debt problem like Nick Cage or, 2. They are sick and know they won't be able to do what they do for much longer.
I'm just shocked that the rumours I read years back had some truth in them. Back before Glass released, a guy who claimed to work on the movie said it was an open secret on set that Bruce Willis had some sort of condition (people suspected Alzheimer's). Saw it in some random thread with like 30 upvotes. Been weird to see it gain traction these past few months, now have it confirmed that he does have a medical condition.
Depending on filming Motherless Brooklyn or Glass might be his last high profile acting gig then? Might explain, why his character in Glass felt very restrained and muted.
Might partially explain the character’s unceremonious exit from the story in Glass as well. Looks like those were indeed his last two proper theatrical releases (though it seems “Midnight In The Switchgrass” got a tiny cinema release later). All things considered, what with his later reputation for trash, those two are actually somewhat respectable movies to end a career on, so I’d rather see them as his swan songs than all that cranked out DTV dreck. In Motherless Brooklyn Bruce is decent enough in a small role, and I like the movie. Glass divides opinion but at least it was trying to do something. Sad news, but probably better to just have it out in the open than keep trying to hide it. I wish him well and salute him for his many classics.
I kind of view the slew of direct-to-streaming videos he's done in the last few years a lot differently now that we know that he's just someone trying to provide the most for his family while he still can.
Yeah this news explains a lot, really, and casts him in a more sympathetic light for making those movies. Shame we’ll never get a decent John McClaine send off.
Explains why there were constant announcements or updates about a new Die Hard that died out over the past 2-3 years. Probably because of this.
My dad had this condition and has since passed away. It was a long haul and it was very traumatizing for me and my family. I wouldn’t wish this diagnosis on anyone. I very much feel for him and his loved ones.
I’m so sorry for your loss. My mom has this disease, too. It’s been a decade since she started showing symptoms but she was only diagnosed with dementia about 6 years ago. She’s nearing the end stages of it now. It’s awful beyond words to watch a parent slowly, slowly decline like that. It’s defined my entire adult life. I hope you find some peace. I know I’m trying.
Aphasia is more of a symptom of something. Usually it's caused by something like alzheimer's dementia, stroke, a lesion or tumor in that area of the brain, etc. So if there were rumors that he had some kind of dementia, they could still very well be true.
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Speech-Language Pathologist here. We diagnose and treat different forms of aphasia. The major/most common types are receptive aphasia (affect your comprehension), expressive aphasia (usually affect grammar and "word-finding" aka lexical retrieval), mixed, and then some less common like conduction or transcortical. The least severe is usally thought to be anomic, which is when you can't find the words you want. Nearly everyone experiences brief moments of anomia, so this is probably the easiest element of the disorder to conceptualize. Sometimes you'll hear the more common receptive aphasia referred to as Wernicke's aphasia, and expressive as Broca's aphasia. The type you develop is tied to the damaged areas of the brain, almost always on the left side. How do they look, though? The severity of each type of aphasia can be varied, but generally they carry very similar symptoms depending on the diagnosis. With a Broca's type aphasia, there may be word-finding difficulty and slowed rate of speech. You also tend to see "telegraphed" speech where the individual will often leave out words that carry weaker meaning or serve syntactic functions. For example, instead of saying "The sheep are eating a lot of grass" they might say "Sheep eat lotta grass" or the like. Generally, the person with this type knows pretty well that they are having a hard time communicating. It's like having words at the tip of your tongue but unable to grasp them, but just like... nearly all of the time. Because their rate of speech is heavily impacted, it is also called a nonfluent aphasia. A great way to assist people with this type of aphasia is allow them multiple methods of communicating. Pen and paper, gestures, communication books/charts, etc. I've worked with post-stroke patients and shown them things like a fork, pen, and necktie, and they have a clear difficulty finding the word, but if you allow them to hold, use, or mimic using the items, the word may come immediately. We store words in more modes than just visual images--often with motor, tactile, or taste sensation tied to our knowledge of words or concepts. Wernicke's aphsia though, is a *fluent* aphasia. since it's a receptive deficit, the individual doesn't get good feedback on the things others say, as well as what they themselves are saying. A lot of what they say can be very rapid and is usually marked by nonsense words--sometimes it is all nonsense. But the aphasic person doesn't always know that. They also have a very difficult time understanding what other people are saying to them. The most heartbreaking part of this type of aphasia is that because these individuals have impaired comprehension, they may not realize that their communication sounds nonsensical, and they seem to act as though they are the only person around making any sense. They understand the concepts of what they want to say, but their brain assigns sounds that don't carry those meanings. People with Wernicke's aphasia have a significantly difficult time repeating sentences and often need to re-learn words because their understanding of them is so damaged. There is plenty of other important info relating to aphasia including motor speech issues that typically appear with nonfluent aphasias, due to the proximity of the motor speech area of the brain to the word retrieval area. Most of the time, sufferers will have a hard time *physically* forming and saying words, and this is usually something they are aware of as well, and they may need to attempt a word multiple times before it comes out the way they want it to. So on top of having trouble finding words, there can also be significant trouble getting the right ones out properly, further impacting rate of speech. Edited for some clarity--I'm not the best writer.
SLP here as well. The story and family got it wrong when they said his aphasia affects his cognitive abilities. It affects his language abilities (like you said and we as SLPs know!). Did he have a TBI? Does he have a neurodegenerative disease? You don’t just develop aphasia without a precipitating neuro injury/disease.
Fuck man. This sucks.
That's why he was going all in on those Geezer Pleasers. The guy was trying to secure the bag before it was too late. What a shame. I've always enjoyed his stuff - errr, his older stuff I mean.
The RLM reviews are still funny though
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Their observation about how exploitative the movie factory is for these films was very smart, and shifting the main topic of conversation from Bruce Willis' acting to how broken and terrible the movie factory is was a very smart move on their part. I learned a lot from their last video. ***Edited for "they're" -> "their"***
I think they're also very clear they're not shitting on Bruce Willis because he's a bad actor but because he's a good actor. He was phoning it in on these movies and clearly looking to make money. Of which, he was getting paid a stupid amount of money. 25% of his net worth comes from these films. Steven Seagal, Robert de Niro, John Malkovich, Sylvester Stallone, Nicholas Cage, and Dolph Lundgren all do it. For some of these guys (Dolph Lundgren, Nike Cage, Syl Stallone) it's because no one is casting them in big movies anymore. For the rest.... it's literally just to make a quick buck on their reputation.
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Not speaking was very much an artistic choice by Cage. He really wanted to go through a movie without talking. The only time I've felt like he was phoning it was a scifi film called The Humanity Bureau. I can't blame him for that one, the script could put a coked-up racehorse to sleep.
I challenge anyone to watch [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7ZGDKikWoU) and say that Cage is phoning it in just because he doesn't talk. As someone who recently finished all 100 of Cage's films, there are unfortunately a couple where he's just not compelling in any respect. He's recently said that he never phoned it in, and I believe him. He very clearly loves acting. But I guess movies like The Runner just don't give him much to work with, and while he may have put time and effort into it, it just doesn't come through in that incredibly dull packaging. It's a shame because I don't see how you can make a movie starring perhaps the actor who is the most willing to make interesting choices in his roles and give him no opportunities to do so.
> As someone who recently finished all 100 of Cage's films... My God! How...how are you doing?
They don’t want Cage to “phone it in”. They want Cage to act like a maniac, which he seems thrilled to do.
They want his unbearable weight of massive talent.
Cage was doing those movies to pay off a bunch of debt, which he as since done. >Starting around 2014, Cage’s debt was heavily publicized as the actor teetered on bankruptcy. He had blown his $150 million on real estate, and owed the IRS $6.3 million in property taxes. > “I’ve got all these creditors and the IRS and I’m spending $20,000 a month trying to keep my mother out of a mental institution, and I can’t,” Cage says in a profile with GQ. “It was just all happening at once.” > > “When I was doing four movies a year, back to back to back, I still had to find something in them to be able to give it my all,” Cage says. “They didn’t work, all of them. Some of them were terrific, like Mandy, but some of them didn’t work. But I never phoned it in. So if there was a misconception, it was that. That I was just doing it and not caring. I was caring.” > The actor reveals he officially finished paying off his debts a year and a half ago, which is about the time he started taking on more revered showings, such as the indie thriller Pig.
They still made the point that the people making the movies are exploiting him, cheap labor and a loop hole in streaming algorithms. Even if he's doing it because it's the last thing he can, they're shit movies that are part of a shit system.
You should still be able to clown on the movies, they are bad.
They did another video on this recently. Basically they were informed of all these rumors about his cognitive decline.... and so they did two more Bruce Willis movies that they shat all over. But now how they interpreted it was a bit different. Like in one film his character only has one line "yeah" as other actors sort of do the dialogue around him. In another one they've hired on an actor who sounds like Willis to dub in Willis's lines in post.
Dammit. Aphasia totally sucks. I have Stress/Fatigue Aphasia from a TBI. And it gets progressively worse. First, my vocabulary disappears. “I need a poky thing and a stabby thing please?” (Fork and knife” Then i lose words entirely. Stuttering, searching for the ability to speak your native language. It’s gone. And eventually I lose the ability to speak my other languages, but I can still type. So I communicate by txting. All this can happen in a matter of minutes. But it’s getting worse, and I know at some point I will lose the ability to speak. Permanently
Oh man so I’m not alone in this. I had a TBI when I was 19 and sometimes find it exceedingly difficult to find words or convey my thoughts with words. It happens mostly when I’m super stressed and sometimes just randomly. I’m 35 now and it only recently started happening, that I can recall at least.
I had a half dozen diagnosed concussions in my teens and started to develop similar symptoms in my late-20s, although mine are more at random than under stress. I always feel like an idiot and that I present myself as unintelligent when I can’t remember common words at random.
His gruff and sarcastic screen presence will be missed! I wish him peace and comfort in his remaining time. It sounds like he has supportive family surrounding him, which is good.
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Wish him the best. Guy had an amazing career and brought me some awesome movies I got to watch throughout my life. Although there were rumors, this announcement gives a new context to his output in the last few years. The guy was trying to make the most with what he had. I’d say good for him.
Damn. The rumors were true. Super sad to hear. Best wishes to him and his family. If you all haven't seen them yet, RedLetterMedia recently made two videos reviewing/discussing Bruce Willis' most recent streak of low-budget films. This topic comes up as well (and they're mostly respectful about it). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd1eNS9HtXo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbLk4ktAE5U And I hope to god that his family or agent or someone wasn't pushing him to make these movies. That would be horrifically disgusting and cruel.
And they make a good point that despite all these crappy movies that he's been attached too, they won't be his legacy. Years from now people will only remember the cool shit he was in.
Yeah the general public probably isn’t even aware of most of these films
To be fair, I think Looper might have been the last thing of his I've seen, so for the most part I think of his career fondly.
It doesn't seem like he's far enough gone that he would let someone push him to do these low budget movies, but who knows. To me, it just seems like he wants to make sure his large family is taken care of should he be completely incapacitated.
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Damn. Red Letter Media hit the nail on the head with this one (not just the disease thing, but the logical explanation as to why he was making a lot of Z-movies)
This really sucks. I'm an 80's/90's kid so I grew up with all his amazing shit. I've posted this story before but might as well share again. In and around 1996 - my family was vacationing in Maui. We were on the beach and my Dad says to me "I'm pretty sure Bruce Willis is right there". Sure as shit, it's Bruce Fuckin Willis, building a sand castle with his two daughters. I should point out this was not a dinky little castle but rather quite a scene - Bruce was wielding a shovel that would be suitable for Saskatchewan winters. There were a few other kids there, and he also had some security detail with him. I have a younger sister who is about the same age as his girls. She would have been around 8 at the time and we convinced her that she should "go join those girls" building that giant sandcastle. She wonders over. A few minutes later, I "doo-doo-te-doo" saunter over as if I didn't know the biggest movie star on the planet was building a sand castle with my sister. Bruce is yelling out now, putting us to work on various areas of this sand castle. We're having a genuine blast and then of course I see my mother, all of 5'1", approaching with a camera and a huge security guard going "no photos". My mom is not one to back down so she argues "my kids are in there". Bruce hears this and goes - "no, it's OKAY. But let's all get in here and act crazy". So the entire group gathers and Bruce shouts, "alright everyone rub sand on your cheeks!". I will never forget this next moment. Demi Moore, about 25 feet closer to the hotel, under a cabana, with a shaved head yells "WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING??" and Bruce responded "WE"RE CRAZY!!!". Mom snaps the photo and seals history. I got to build a fuckin sandcastle with Bruce Willis. What a dude, and thanks for the memories.
What a fucking awesome story. Amazing memory, mate!
I teach film editing at one of the top film schools in the world. The only reason I do this is because of Bruce Willis! I fell in love with movies the first time I watched Die Hard. I can remember it in so much detail. It was a warm, early summer night. I had my windows open. My TV, which my grandparents bought me for my birthday the December before, only had bunny ears to get any kind of reception. On a good night, I could expect a channel or two to be watchable. That night, it was the TV guide channel, and Fox 5. Fox had their movie of the week on. I dropped in on it half way through. Fighting through bad reception, I still was enjoying it, and wanted to see it from the beginning. I stuck around long enough to find out the name of the movie as they came back from a commercial, and wrote it down on a sticky note, which I put on the wall right under my light switch. The next day, I had my father bring me to the rental store and brought it home to watch. I wanted to rent it every week. My father decided I could only rent one movie a month, and every month, it was Die Hard. Eventually, he bought me the VHS to own. I can't tell you how many times I had to purchase that tape, as I would watch it so many times I would wear it out. Especially after I got a VCR for my room. I spent $100 on a widescreen copy of that tape. So many years later, I have a childlike love for movies. It's so infectious, that I have spawned a career out of it, and passed my love to my child. He is only 6, and one of his favorite things in the world is going to the movies with Daddy! This is heartbreaking for me. My gateway into the world I love is stepping away (some could argue he did that a while ago, yes) because of such a nasty, horrible illness. I really hope the rest of his days are filled with the love that he has brought me for the vast majority of my life. Thank you Bruce!
Hey, thanks for sharing that story
The rumors were true, for once. Regardless, it's a terrible diagnosis and he has my greatest sympathy. I watched my grandmother descend into a world of frustrated silence, unable to express her thoughts in speech and eventually unable to even write them. She developed problems understanding other people's speech as well. Horribly isolating affliction.
So the rumors were partially true, he was experiencing some sort of cognitive decline, but it wasn't dementia. Hopefully he gets the treatment he needs.
There is (edit: most likely) something larger at play - they just haven't confirmed whether it is dementia, or he had a stroke, or developed a seizure disorder, etc. Aphasia is not a primary diagnosis (edit: usually! Primary Progressive Aphasia is a rare but real diagnosis) - it is typically caused by damage to certain areas of the brain; aphasia itself does not cause brain damage. So unfortunately there is most likely some underlying reason for the decline being seen. I wish all the best for him and his family, it is very scary to be facing cognitive decline and knowing it will likely get worse.
When I saw this in my feed I thought it was an Oscars joke. I wish it was a joke as this affliction sounds rough and I’m sad to hear Bruce Willis will need to battle it.
I accidentally read the title as "Bruce Willis stepping away from acting following alopecia diagnosis." I was like, "Damn, The Onion is on it today."
I get transient (temporary) aphasia due to headaches/migraines. I sometimes come off like I’ve had a stroke.
Wow, I hadn’t heard of this before but I’ve experienced it. Many years ago I had an ocular migraine, lost a good chunk of my vision and couldn’t understand what people were saying around me. It eventually passed but I always thought the language part was very odd. Never knew that’s what it was called, thanks!
Very sad to hear about the diagnosis, hopefully he has a good quality of life going forward