THIS DAY IN HISTORY – “Die Hard” debuts, makes Bruce Willis a movie star – 1988

Via History.com

Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie or Not?

On July 15, 1988, Die Hard, an action film starring Bruce Willis as wisecracking New York City cop John McClane, opens in theaters across the United States. A huge box-office hit, the film established Willis as a movie star and spawned three sequels. Die Hard also became Hollywood shorthand for describing the plot of other actions films, as in “Speed is Die Hard on a bus.”

Based on Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, Die Hard follows McClane as he goes to meet his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) at her company’s holiday party in a Los Angeles office building. When the building is taken over by a band of terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), McClane must single-handedly fight off the bad guys. As played by Willis, McClane was notable as a new type of action hero–funny and flawed. The film, which was directed by John McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October, Last Action Hero), received four Oscar nominations, for Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects Editing.

Willis, who was born March 19, 1955, and grew up in New Jersey, first rose to fame with the romantic comedy/detective drama TV series Moonlighting (1985-1989), in which he played smart-aleck private eye David Addison, who ran a detective agency with ex-model Maddie Hayes, played by Cybill Shepherd. After the success of Die Hard, Willis emerged as one of Hollywood’s top leading men. In addition to starring in three Die Hard sequels: Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) and Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Willis racked up a long list of movie credits, including roles in Pulp Fiction (1994), Twelve Monkeys (1995) and Armageddon (1998). In 1999, he co-starred in The Sixth Sense (1999), an Oscar-nominated horror film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film was a huge commercial and critical success and became famous for the line “I see dead people.” Willis also starred in Shyamalan’s 2000 film Unbreakable.

From 1987 to 2000, Willis was married to Demi Moore, who also emerged as an A-list star in the 1980s and 1990s, appearing in high-profile films such as St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), Striptease (1996) and G.I. Jane (1997).

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6 Comments
Anonymous
Anonymous
July 15, 2023 6:34 am

Of course the hero is chain smoking the whole time while running, jumping, climbing, engaging and eliminating terrorists without so much as a cough or wheeze . Smoke up fools.

TCS
TCS
July 15, 2023 7:23 am

Yippie kai ay and Merry Christmas!

MrLiberty
MrLiberty
July 15, 2023 8:56 am

Of course it’s a Christmas movie.

Anonymous
Anonymous
July 15, 2023 10:22 am

Vaxxed ? Now out of commission

Anonymous
Anonymous
July 15, 2023 12:30 pm

Two movies I watch every Christmas Eve, Its a Wonderful Life and Die Hard.

Rise Up
Rise Up
July 15, 2023 1:43 pm

When he signed to do the movie, Bruce Willis became the highest paid movie star.

How much did Bruce Willis get paid for Die Hard? For the first Die Hard movie, Willis reportedly took home $5 million—which sounds like chump change for a leading man in today’s moviemaking market, but was reportedly the largest amount an actor had ever been paid for one project at that time.

https://parade.com/1360942/rose-maura-lorre/bruce-willis-net-worth/