Bruce Willis makes very rare public appearance as he flashes smile after dementia diagnosis

Die Hard actor Bruce Willis was seen flashing a smile while in his car in Los Angeles as he made a very rare public appearance following his frontotemporal dementia diagnosis

Hollywood icon Bruce Willis smiled as he enjoyed a drive around Los Angeles in a rare public appearance.

The Die Hard actor, 69, rolled down his car window as he placed his forearm on the ledge while in the Studio City district. He could be seen flashing a smile as he wore a black LA cap paired with a black jacket and white T-shirt. Bruce, who has frontotemporal dementia, appeared in high spirits during the drive as he kept his hands together on the passenger door.

The actor took a step back from the spotlight to focus on his health and his family. He announced his retirement following his aphasia diagnosis in 2022. A year later, Bruce's family confirmed he had also been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia. At the start of last month, Bruce was seen running errands.

He sat in the passenger's seat of a car looking into the wing mirror while taking a trip with his security teams in southern California. The iconic actor shares three daughters - Rumer, 36, Scout, 33, and Tallulah, 30 - with his ex-wife Demi Moore, and two daughters - Mabel, 12, and Evelyn, nine - with his wife, Emma.

Before the outing, Bruce was photographed by his daughter Tallulah in snaps shared on Instagram in July. Bruce was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (also known as FTD) at the start of 2023. The year before, Bruce's family revealed that he was suffering from a language disorder called aphasia.

In October 2023, filmmaker Glenn Gordon Caron told Page Six that the star was "not totally verbal" anymore. The film creator ,who worked with Bruce in the 80s, spoke to Page Six last year and said: "My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am. He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader - he didn’t want anyone to know that - and he’s not reading now."

Bruce's wife Emma Heming Willis previously opened up about caring for Bruce. She said: "There is grief and sadness, there’s all of that. But you start a new chapter, and that chapter is filled with love, it’s filled with connection, it’s filled with joy and happiness. That’s where we are."

Tallulah also opened up about her father's condition on the Today Show. "He's doing stable, which in this situation is good, and is hard. There's painful days, but there's so much love," Tallulah said. She added: "It's really shown me to not take any moment for granted, and I really do think that we'd be best friends. I think he's very proud of me. You have to be in the moment. You have to be present."

Bruce's ex-wife Demi More shared: "I think he's doing, you know, given the givens, he is in a stable place. You know, it's what I say to my kids is you meet them where they're at. You don't hold on to who they were or what you want them to be, but who they are in this moment."

"And from that, there is such beauty and joy and loving and sweetness. When I'm in LA, I go over every week, and I really treasure the time that we all share," she said on The Drew Barrymore Show.

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