The 74th Best Actor of All-Time: Bruce Willis

best film: Pulp Fiction is Willis’ best film though Die Hard is exceptional and I have Moonrise Kingdom as a masterpiece as well. His fourth best film is probably 12 Monkeys so the top is strong here for Willis. But, like for Samuel L., it’s QT’s masterpiece that is his best film and it’s hard to think of many other you’d rather have as your best film- it’s clearly one of the best 5 films of the last 30 years. And to boot Willis is excellent in Pulp Fiction. I can’t picture anyone else in that role. His face is just sitting there for the entire Ving Rhames monologue. That’s not easy. It’s great acting and a great scene.

best performance:  Die Hard gave us an matched pure action movie with an actor who could, yes, truly act. With all due respect to Stallone, Arnold and Mel Gibson (I like all of them) none of them give a performance like Willis does here in the genre.

stylistic innovations/traits: Four words here: Die, Hard, Pulp, Fiction. For many they are THE films of their respective decade. I think it’s an overstatement on Die Hard but it’s a hell of a 1-2 punch. He needs to be extremely top-heavy because Willis only has 9 total movies in the archives over 30 years when you subtract the cameo in Split. 12 Monkeys is a hell of a #3 performance to help Wills’ case. He’s had a frustrating late career to many as he does a ton of paycheck movies but every once in a while he does a Looper or a Moonrise Kingdom to remind us all how good of an actor he can be when he wants.

directors worked with:   Shyamalan (2) and that’s including a cameo in Split and then once with Tarantino, Gilliam and Wes Anderson

Top 5 Performances:

1. Die Hard
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Twelve Monkeys
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. Looper

Archiveable films