American actor Bruce Willis, who for years played the tough-skinned hero of the Die Hard saga, is having to end his career due to health issues, including language impairment, his family announced on Wednesday. “Our beloved Bruce has experienced some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities. Therefore, and after careful consideration, Bruce is stepping down from this career that meant so much to him,” writes his family on Instagram. Bruce Willis has just celebrated his 67th birthday. The message is signed by the actor’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, as well as his ex-wife Demi Moore and his daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn. In question, aphasia. What is aphasia? According to American specialists, aphasia often occurs after a stroke or traumatic brain injury and prevents the patient from communicating normally. “It can affect your ability to speak, write, and understand language, both spoken and written,” they explain. Aphasia is a language disorder caused by brain damage. They most often result from a sudden event, such as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), or head trauma. But “there are other possibilities, such as a degenerative disease”, for example Alzheimer’s, then causing progressive damage, explained to AFP Brenda Rapp, of Johns Hopkins University. “Aphasia simply means that someone one has a language problem that he was not born with,” said Hugo Botha, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The ability to speak, understand others, read and write is then affected. About two million Americans suffer from aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association, more than Parkinson’s disease. Scientists distinguish several forms of aphasia, depending on the part of the brain affected. In expressive aphasia, “people usually understand quite well but have trouble finding the words,” says Brooke Hatfield of the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA). A person will then use very short sentences — like “wants food” — to make themselves understood. In receptive aphasia, “the words come easily, but they are not necessarily the right ones. people to hear what they say” and therefore to be aware of their mistakes, explains Ms Hatfield. Finally, global aphasia causes very great difficulties both in speech and in understanding. After a stroke, some of the ability to communicate can return quickly during the first months. But often, difficulties remain beyond that. Language re-education therapies can allow further recovery. Some learn how to work around a missing word, for example. Those around them are also encouraged to be patient, to use simple sentences, to minimize ambient noise, to stimulate the person by including them in conversations, and above all not to not stigmatize it. Aphasia is not a problem of intelligence or mental retardation, experts point out. People with aphasia are always in possession of their knowledge and ideas. It is thus counter-productive to address them as children. The family of Bruce Willis did not give details of the one from which he suffers. Shaved head and smirk His star had faded lately but Bruce Willis was one of the hottest action movie actors of the 1990s and 2000s. in revenue worldwide. In early 2019, Bruce Willis remained at the top of the North American box office for several weeks in a row with Glass, the last installment of the superhero trilogy directed by M. Night Shyamalan where he held the ‘one of the main roles.Bruce Willis had first distinguished himself in the 1980s with a recurring role in the “Moonlight” series alongside Cybill Shepherd, but it was the action film Die Hard (Piège de Cristal) in 1988 which made him an international star in the role of the invincible John McClane. 1990s (58 Minutes to Live and A Dayin hell), confirming his notoriety and becoming one of the references of the genre. Highly sought after in Hollywood, he chained the big productions, whether classic action films (The Last Samaritan, The Jackal) or crossbred of science fiction like The Army of the twelve monkeys, which had seduced the critics, or The Fifth Element of Luc Besson. He will also tour with directors as famous as Brian De Palma, Robert Zemeckis but especially Quentin Tarantino, who makes him play a boxer returning to Pulp Fiction in 1994, when he was at the height of his glory. “Sixième Sens” and Incassable. ).He signs for two new installments of the Die Hard saga (in 2007 and 2013) which did not convince either critics or the public. skin, as in Top Cops or the second part of The Expendables. His career had nevertheless continued to decline, to the point that the organizers of the Razzies, these anti-Oscars who parody the Hollywood awards by pinning down the worst films of the year, had dedicated a category to him all to himself. They thus intended to make fun of the many low-budget films, generally broadcast only in streaming, where the star of “Die Hard” takes on roles as brief as caricatural, like disillusioned sheriff, former policeman , retired general or ex-CIA agent.
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