67Kviews
30 Reactions Celebrities Had When They Found Out Bruce Willis Had To Retire Due To Developing Aphasia
It is weird to see your favorite celebrities grow up or grow old because you have this image of them that doesn’t change from their iconic movies. And growing old means that their health might suffer and it doesn’t matter if they have the best doctors, some illnesses are just incurable and too unpredictable at the moment.
On Wednesday, the world found out the sad news that Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia, so because it affects his cognitive abilities, the actor has to end his career at age 67. It was announced on his Instagram by his family and the internet was saddened by this news. Bruce Willis’ colleagues and other famous people expressed their support and respect to the actor, sending him kind words.
This post may include affiliate links.
"The sixth sense" is best Shyamalan's and one of greatest Willis' movies
Bruce Willis, who celebrated his 67th birthday on March 19, gained recognition with the role of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise. He appeared in over a hundred movies and the most recent one, the heist action film A Day To Die, came out just at the beginning of March.
People watching the movie didn’t expect that a couple of weeks later, they would find out that their beloved star was diagnosed with such a scary disease.
It was announced on March 30 by Bruce Willis’ family on the actor’s Instagram. They said that 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.”
The family promised to go through this tough period together and “Live it up,” as Bruce always says and wanted to let his fans know what is going on because they are aware of how much Bruce means to the people who follow him.
If you have never heard of aphasia, it is a language disorder. As Johns Hopkins Medicine explains, the disorder can be “caused by damage in a specific area of the brain that controls language expression and comprehension. Aphasia leaves a person unable to communicate effectively with others.”
The damage in the brain can be caused by a stroke or a head trauma, but it can also come from slowly growing brain tumors or other diseases that cause permanent damage to the brain.
The symptoms of aphasia listed by Mayo Clinic include speaking in short sentences which don’t always make sense, substituting words or sounds with others, saying words that don’t exist and not being able to follow a conversation. It affects not only spoken language but also written language and people may have difficulty comprehending written text and writing sensible sentences.
I bought a vinyl album many years ago, The Return of Bruno. His rendition of Under the Boardwalk is still one of my best. I wish him all the very best, will keep him and his family in my thoughts. Thank you Bruce Willis for some of all the all time great movies you were featured in.
Aphasia is more common than Parkinson’s Disease, cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy. According to the data of the Nation Aphasia Association (NAA), about 180k Americans acquire the disorder every year and about 25-40 percent of stroke survivors acquire aphasia.
Bored Panda contacted NAA and talked with its president Darlene S. Williamson. We were curious why aphasia is less talked about than other diseases even though it is more common. She shared her opinion, "there are a couple of reasons why aphasia is not well known or understood. The first is that it is a communication disorder. When someone has difficulty communicating, they are either hesitant or unable to talk about it, and/or they tend to hide it due to embarrassment. Also, the primary cause of aphasia is a stroke. People relate stroke to physical impairment, and tend to focus on that because it is visible and more easily understood. It is, for this reason, that the NAA is grateful to the Willis family for using the word aphasia which is bringing attention to the disorder."
Love Rachel Dratch. What a sweet memory she shared. He's a really good guy.
I agree with Seth Green. For me, Bruce´s movies are great because he can be a wonderful comedian, a great action hero and good in drama movies (The Sixth Sense).
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders says that there are two categories of aphasia: fluent and nonfluent. The most common type of fluent aphasia is Wernicke's aphasia and people who have it may “may speak in long, complete sentences that have no meaning, adding unnecessary words and even creating made-up words.”
The most common type of nonfluent aphasia is Broca's aphasia, which can cause “right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg because the frontal lobe is also important for motor movements. People with Broca's aphasia may understand speech and know what they want to say, but they frequently speak in short phrases that are produced with great effort. They often omit small words, such as ‘is,’ ‘and’ and ‘the.’”
That was a fine movie. Great performances, one of many by Mr. Willis.
Another problem besides not enough people knowing about it is that a person can have it but not be diagnosed with it. Darlene explains that because aphasia is caused by strokes, brain injuries and tumors, the bigger concern is to recover the person's physical health and keep them alive that is why "there can be a delay in diagnosing the aphasia, and possibly a delay in thoroughly assessing all of the components of the aphasia, which is done by a speech language pathologist. If the aphasia has a sudden onset, like in the case of a stroke. it can be confused with being drunk or use of drugs. If the aphasia comes on gradually, as is the case with the specific type of aphasia termed Primary Progressive Aphasia, it co-exists with a decline in cognitive abilities. In this case, the cognitive loss often becomes the focus while the communication component is overlooked."
That's when we first saw him in Moonlighting. He was awesome in that show.
Even though it seems that aphasia makes a person stupid, NAA claims that “It affects the person’s ability to process language but does not affect intelligence.” They put it this way: “for people with aphasia it is the ability to access ideas and thoughts through language – not the ideas and thoughts themselves – that is disrupted.” However, it can be isolating because people who have it can’t understand people who don't, and vice versa.
The president of NAA admits that mental health of people who have aphasia suffers, "statistically, at least 35% of people with aphasia suffer from depression. Why? Because they are living with a little known and poorly understood disorder, and, just imagine having your communication ability taken away from you. For most of us, our communication is at the heart of who we are; losing it robs our identity. It is imperative for quality of life to address these issues to be sure the person with aphasia stays connected with their family, their friends, their entire circle of influence."
But there are ways to help people with aphasia and it helps even if you let them know that you are trying to keep them a part of a conversation. NAA sums up the communication process as an anagram for the name of the disease: A: ask simple, direct questions, P: provide multiple communication options, H: help communicate if asked, A: acknowledge frustration, S: speak slowly and clearly, I: if you don’t understand, say so, A: allow extra time.
If he’s been ill for some time it makes you wonder how many people took advantage of his condition to be in their crappy movies because he’s, unfortunately, been in a few stinkers in the last two years. It’s really sad.
Aphasia doesn’t have a specific cure. It can go away after a couple of months or the process of getting better can last years or even decades. There are strategies to help with getting better and it depends on both the person with aphasia and the people who surround them.
Also, Darlene thinks that "the goal for people with aphasia is to live successfully with the aphasia. It is not to 'cure' the aphasia. People can live full and productive lives with aphasia. Particularly if they have expert treatment and a solid support system. I cannot overstate the value of this."
So the future of a person with the disorder is full of uncertainty at first, but there is a possibility they could get better and better. So hopefully all the good wishes to Bruce Willis to get better and recover coming from celebrities and fans will come true with the help of the family and friends he is surrounded by.
I love 12 Monkeys. Who would've thought that just decades later we would actually have a deadly virus spreading and a bunch of monkeys led by a supreme carrot-monkey running the US at the time?!
Not only that, this case brings the needed attention to the disease and Darlene is grateful that the Willis family is talking about it loud and clear. She says, "One significant wish of people living with aphasia is that the word was generally known, such that they could say to a stranger "I have aphasia" and that person would understand and communicate effectively with them with patience and respect, allowing extra time to process and respond."
The NAA is also trying to bring more awareness about this condition and support families which have a family member that has been diagnosed with aphasia, "We know that aphasia happens to the entire family and long term support is needed to live with this diagnosis successfully. And the NAA has resources and experts to educate families and the public. We are focused solely on aphasia, and deeply committed to this population."
And if any of those scientist are Bruce Willis fans, a new fire just got lit under their a$$.
Jack Posobiec is real Republican "prankster" scum. Once he brought a sign reading "RAPE MELANIA" to a left-wing protest to make Democrats look bad. Nowhere in the world is he considered a "celebrity," or even a human being.
Just read up on the man, he is an utter twatbasket.
Load More Replies...It’s not just you. Bruce Willis is ill and this guy is acting like he’s dead already. 😡
Load More Replies...I hope that someone writes a movie about someone with aphasia just so Bruce can take a final bow. Maybe a murder mystery of some sort where Bruce's character is struggling to help find the killer. It would not only give Bruce one last movie, but it would also raise awareness of his condition.
Note: this post originally had 32 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
He has a big fight in his future, but if anyone can tough it out it's Bruce Willis. He has so much love directed his way from family, friends and all of us who have sat in darkened theaters or brightly lit dens and watched breathlessly as he gives his loveable smirk that tells us its going to be okay.
I had aphasia after a stroke: the most terrifying thing was that I didn't realise that I was either making no sounds (at the beginning) or incomprehensible sounds that didn't correspond to words (24 hours later). I couldn't understand why family and medical staff were ignoring me, and it was awful. Thankfully, I have almost completely recovered. I search for words sometimes, and find a hole in my memory where everyday words should be, but I can cope. I have even returned to public speaking!
I have a form of it caused by seizures. It shows up sometimes before but most commonly after a certain type of seizure. It's a terrible thing to experience, and I can't imagine how difficult it would be to carry this all the time.
Wow. All the support to Bruce and his family. He is easily one of my favorite actors of all time and hearing this hit me pretty hard. Not gonna lie.
I'm definitely not a fan of his work, but he seems to be a nice dude, and it's a hard condition to live it, must be so frustrating not to be able to communicate properly. Best wishes to Mr Willis and his family
It's so sad to hear that someone who's job involved communication with a movie audience is now being robbed of the ability to do just that. Communicate. I'm glad he has so much support from a great family because I imagine that someone can feel so lonely not having the ability to communicate with others. My neighbor had a severe stroke and now he understands what you're saying to him, he can process what he wants to say, but what comes out makes no sense at all to the person he's communicating with. He doesn't realize that what he is saying doesn't make any sense. He thinks it does. Conversation is yes or no answers, questions requiring very short answers. Include him in group conversations. Don't leave him out. Just because he can't communicate doesn't mean he's not "there".
Now I read where people with this condition have a hard time understanding verbal language of any kind, but that they sometimes can still read and type in that language. So I wonder if Bruce might be able to write some memoirs. As long as he's been around, you gotta think he has some great stories to tell.
I also wonder if anyone has tried sign language to help people with communication barriers.
Load More Replies...That would explain his recent activity with (lets agree) B-rate movies. Probably wanted to earn as much money as possible while he still could.
I was thinking the exact same thing when I first heard about this. Used to make fun of him for that, but I wonder now if he knew something was looming on the horizon.
Load More Replies...First Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters dying, and now this. What a shitty week. I'm glad Mr. Willis has access to the best of doctors, therapists, and lots of supportive family and friends. I hope his path forward has some peace and happiness.
He has a big fight in his future, but if anyone can tough it out it's Bruce Willis. He has so much love directed his way from family, friends and all of us who have sat in darkened theaters or brightly lit dens and watched breathlessly as he gives his loveable smirk that tells us its going to be okay.
I had aphasia after a stroke: the most terrifying thing was that I didn't realise that I was either making no sounds (at the beginning) or incomprehensible sounds that didn't correspond to words (24 hours later). I couldn't understand why family and medical staff were ignoring me, and it was awful. Thankfully, I have almost completely recovered. I search for words sometimes, and find a hole in my memory where everyday words should be, but I can cope. I have even returned to public speaking!
I have a form of it caused by seizures. It shows up sometimes before but most commonly after a certain type of seizure. It's a terrible thing to experience, and I can't imagine how difficult it would be to carry this all the time.
Wow. All the support to Bruce and his family. He is easily one of my favorite actors of all time and hearing this hit me pretty hard. Not gonna lie.
I'm definitely not a fan of his work, but he seems to be a nice dude, and it's a hard condition to live it, must be so frustrating not to be able to communicate properly. Best wishes to Mr Willis and his family
It's so sad to hear that someone who's job involved communication with a movie audience is now being robbed of the ability to do just that. Communicate. I'm glad he has so much support from a great family because I imagine that someone can feel so lonely not having the ability to communicate with others. My neighbor had a severe stroke and now he understands what you're saying to him, he can process what he wants to say, but what comes out makes no sense at all to the person he's communicating with. He doesn't realize that what he is saying doesn't make any sense. He thinks it does. Conversation is yes or no answers, questions requiring very short answers. Include him in group conversations. Don't leave him out. Just because he can't communicate doesn't mean he's not "there".
Now I read where people with this condition have a hard time understanding verbal language of any kind, but that they sometimes can still read and type in that language. So I wonder if Bruce might be able to write some memoirs. As long as he's been around, you gotta think he has some great stories to tell.
I also wonder if anyone has tried sign language to help people with communication barriers.
Load More Replies...That would explain his recent activity with (lets agree) B-rate movies. Probably wanted to earn as much money as possible while he still could.
I was thinking the exact same thing when I first heard about this. Used to make fun of him for that, but I wonder now if he knew something was looming on the horizon.
Load More Replies...First Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters dying, and now this. What a shitty week. I'm glad Mr. Willis has access to the best of doctors, therapists, and lots of supportive family and friends. I hope his path forward has some peace and happiness.