Bruce Willis Health Update: “The Joie De Vivre Is Gone,” Says ‘Moonlighting’ Creator

Bruce Haring
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Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron has spoken to Bruce Willis about the ’80s hit dramedy, which is making its streaming debut on Hulu.

He shared a health update on Willis, who played detective David Addison opposite Cybill Shepherd’s Maddie Hayes, who owned the Blue Moon Detective Agency.

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Willis, 68, has frontotemporal dementia and retired from acting in 2022.

“The process [to get Moonlighting on streaming] has taken quite a while and Bruce’s disease is a progressive disease, so I was able to communicate with him, before the disease rendered him as incommunicative as he is now, about hoping to get the show back in front of people,” Caron told the New York Post. “I know he’s really happy that the show is going to be available for people, even though he can’t tell me that. When I got to spend time with him, we talked about it and I know he’s excited.”

Caron visits Willis about once a month and keeps in contact with the star’s wife, Emma Heming Willis. Thus, he has a solid perspective on the effects the disease is having on his former star.

“The joie de vivre” Willis was known for “is gone.”

“I have tried very hard to stay in his life,” Caron said. “The thing that makes [his disease] so mind-blowing is [that] if you’ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre than he. He loved life and … just adored waking up every morning and trying to live life to its fullest. So the idea that he now sees life through a screen door, if you will, makes very little sense.”

When they are together, he thinks Willis knows who he is within “the first one to three minutes” of their visit. However, “He’s not totally verbal. He used to be a voracious reader … and he’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce. When you’re with him you know that he’s Bruce and you’re grateful that he’s there, but the joie de vivre is gone.”

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