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Willis in 2010, vipflash / Shutterstock.com
Birth Name: Walter Bruce Willis
Place of Birth: Idar-Oberstein, West Germany (now Germany)
Date of Birth: March 19, 1955
Ethnicity: * father – English, as well as Dutch, French, Welsh, and Irish * mother – German
Bruce Willis is an American actor, producer, and singer. His many roles include the films Blind Date (1987), Sunset (1988), Die Hard , and its sequels; In Country , the Look Who’s Talking franchise, The Bonfire of the Vanities , Mortal Thoughts , Hudson Hawk , Billy Bathgate , The Last Boy Scout , The Player , Death Becomes Her , Striking Distance , Pulp Fiction , North (1994), Color of Night , Nobody’s Fool , Four Rooms , 12 Monkeys (1995), Last Man Standing , Beavis and Butt-Head Do America , The Fifth Element , The Jackal (1997), Mercury Rising , Armageddon , The Siege (1998), Breakfast of Champions , The Sixth Sense , The Story of Us , The Whole Nine Yards , The Kid (2000), Unbreakable , Bandits , Hart’s War , Tears of the Sun , Rugrats Go Wild , Ocean’s Twelve , Hostage (2005), Frank Miller’s Sin City , and its sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For ; Alpha Dog , Lucky Number Slevin , 16 Blocks , Over the Hedge , Fast Food Nation , Perfect Stranger , Grindhouse: Planet Terror , Nancy Drew (2007), Assassination of a High School President , Surrogates , Cop Out , The Expendables franchise, Red , and its sequel; Catch .44 , Lay the Favorite , The Cold Light of Day , Moonrise Kingdom , Looper , G.I. Joe: Retaliation , Rock the Kasbah , Death Wish (2018), Glass (2019), Motherless Brooklyn , Survive the Night , Cosmic Sin , Midnight in the Switchgrass , and Assassin (2023); and the series Moonlighting .
He was born in Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, West Germany, now Germany, to an American soldier, David Andrew Willis, and a German mother, Marlene K. (Henze). Bruce’s father’s ancestry was English, with some Dutch, French, Welsh, and Irish. Bruce moved to the U.S. at the age of two, settling in Carneys Point, New Jersey, where his father was from. His father was a welder, master mechanic, and factory worker. His mother worked in a bank.
Bruce has five children, two with his wife, British model and actress Emma Heming , and three, including actress Rumer Willis , with his former wife, actress, model, and filmmaker Demi Moore .
Bruce’s paternal grandfather was Edgar George Willis (the son of Edgar Prettyman Willis and Cora Augusta Tarburton). Bruce’s grandfather Edgar was born in Dover, Kent County, Delaware. Bruce’s great-grandfather Edgar was born in Milford, Sussex County, Delaware, the son of William F. Willis and Wilhelmina/Mina Prettyman. Cora was born in Kent County, the daughter of George Noble/Nobel Taburton/Tarburton and Elizabeth Ann Jacobs.
Bruce’s paternal grandmother was Martha Florence Tingle (the daughter of David Henry Tingle and Julia Martha Parsons). Bruce’s grandmother Martha was born in Salisbury, Wicomico Co, Maryland. David was born in Sussex County, Delaware, the son of Manaan/Manain Tingle and Mary Truitt. Julia was born in Maryland, the daughter of William Parsons.
Bruce’s maternal grandfather was Konrad Kurt Henze (the son of Konrad Henze and Elisian Marie Rumpf). Bruce’s grandfather Konrad was born in Kassel, Germany.
Bruce’s maternal grandmother was Clara Ann Brüssler (the daughter of Konrad Brüssler and Katharina Engelhardt). Clara was born in Kassel, Germany. Konrad was the son of Balthasar Brüssler and Elisabeth Seeger. Katharina was the daughter of Christoph Engelhardt and Katharina Elisabeth.
Sources: Genealogies of Bruce Willis – https://gw.geneanet.org https://www.geni.com
Bruce’s father on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Marriage record of Bruce’s maternal great-grandparents, Konrad Brüssler and Katharina Engelhardt – https://www.familysearch.org