Sad news broke today as action film icon Bruce Willis was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, according to an Instagram post from his ex-wife, Demi Moore. While the 67-year-old actor retired last year due to aphasia, what many feared to be true, that he was in the early stages of dementia, appears to be true.
But what is frontotemporal dementia? It’s actually one of the rarer forms of dementia, accounting for 10 to 20 percent of all cases. The disease is sometimes called Pick’s disease or frontal lobe dementia, and it causes the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain to shrink.
The disease is progressive, meaning it will get worse over time, and has early symptoms that show a change in personality and behavior, and difficulties with language. Reports were that on set, Willis was struggling to remember lines, which would be in line with this diagnosis.
There’s still a lot unknown about the disease, as it’s not always known why it develops.
What are the symptoms of Frontotemporal Dementia?
According to the Mayo Clinic, these are the symptoms of the affliction:
- Increasingly inappropriate social behavior
- Loss of empathy and other interpersonal skills, such as having sensitivity to another’s feelings
- Lack of judgment
- Loss of inhibition
- Lack of interest (apathy), which can be mistaken for depression
- Repetitive compulsive behavior, such as tapping, clapping or smacking lips
- A decline in personal hygiene
- Changes in eating habits, usually overeating or developing a preference for sweets and carbohydrates
- Eating inedible objects
- Compulsively wanting to put things in the mouth
- Increasing difficulty in using and understanding written and spoken language, such as having trouble finding the right word to use in speech or naming objects
- Trouble naming things, possibly replacing a specific word with a more general word such as “it” for pen
- No longer knowing word meanings
- Having hesitant speech that may sound telegraphic
- Making mistakes in sentence construction
The legacy of Bruce Willis
After rocketing to fame in the classic 80s sitcom Moonlighting, Bruce Willis defined the modern action film with Die Hard, and with it, became one of the cornerstone talents of his generation.
Willis became an irreplaceable piece across numerous classic films for some of the best directors in history, including Quentin Tarantino, Terry Gilliam, and Robert Altman, and turned in iconic performances in dozens of films.
We wish all the best to his friends and family, and to Willis himself, during this difficult time.
Here are a few of our favourites of his amazing career: