"Bruce Willis Stepping Away From Acting Following Aphasia Diagnosis"

God speed Bruno.

18 Likes

They mention cognitive issues, so this is likely not just an expressive disorder. :cry:

14 Likes

sad, unfortunate news. i have always liked Bruce Willis movies and that 80s tv show Moonlighting.
his last few attempts* were atrocious straight-to-streaming affairs with his parts “phoned in”. saddening to know the reason why.
yippee ki yay, motherfucker

edit to add: *movies i watched because he was in them

12 Likes
7 Likes

When I was in college I had a friend who worked in an aphasia clinic. On one visit I played chess with a patient who had lost a significant part of his brain to infection. He completely demolished me, repeatedly. To put this in context, I had regularly competed in chess competitions up until a couple of years before, and was a pretty good player.

11 Likes

The public often thinks intelligence is a global characteristic. It’s not. There are intelligences.

6 Likes

For further reading on what “intelligence” means: The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould.

For further reading on organic brain deficits and their effects: the collected works of Oliver Sacks.

6 Likes

Actually a pretty good quick summary of aphasia; thanks for posting. Often one of my first go-to sources when I need to review something I learned before but had misplaced in my brain is StatPearls; it’s a commercial source but is offered gratis through the National Library of Medicine. Their review of aphasia is here (it’s a little technical, but probably more than 90% of it can be understood by folks with a solid science foundation):

Possibly, but not absolutely guaranteed. It sometimes can go along with various degenerative brain disorders (e.g. some forms of Parkinson disease, other dementias); but it also can just give an impression of cognitive issues, because the patient has a communication deficit. But for an actor, communication is the core of their profession, so it definitely makes it nearly impossible to act.

6 Likes

Not to make you feel bad about your playing, but I wonder if the patient’s aphasia may have affected his chess skills and he’d actually lost a step or two. Again, not to make you feel bad…

:wink:

1 Like

Between his family announcing this and the fact that Willis had been doing every single movie project he could get his hands on for the past two years… I’m guessing this is sadly the more pervasive and degenerative version of aphasia. :frowning: I hope if it is his quality of life holds as long as he wants it to. Sucks.

3 Likes

No, I don’t feel bad, it is completely possible that that was the case. (I played a lot at one point in my life, but was never invested in it the way so many young players are; in fact the reason I stopped playing was I thought the atmosphere of tournaments was toxic AF.)

The guy never said very much (an occasional "dead soldiers!’ and a frequent “checkmate!”), but had I ever had any doubts about his fundamental intelligence those were disabused rather quickly. And it was an excellent introduction to my young self of the reality of what @KathyPartdeux was saying.

2 Likes

I’m unfortunately just quoting the statement by the family who state that he’s experiencing cognitive issues.

1 Like

My dad’s a B player and often tried to corner me for lessons. I can count on my hand the number of times I’ve played; zero interest. Too much other stuff to do. As I used to tell him, “I care about rockets — not rooks.”

1 Like

I never encouraged my son (incidentally, a rocket scientist), but at some point he discovered my stash of decades-old chess books, and spent some time with them. Fortunately for him, he never turned it into the kind of time sink that I had done.

1 Like

Some sad info about a decline over the last few years.

1 Like
6 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.