'Moonlighting' creator shares update on Emmy-winning actor's dementia decline

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Amid his deteriorating health and battle with dementia, Bruce Willis is still the same guy, but he's "seeing life through a screen door," according to a friend.

Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of "Moonlighting" who's also one of the "Die Hard" actor's close friends, told the New York Post in an October 2023 interview that Bruce is in decline and that his zest for life is no longer there. 

Glenn further shared that Bruce's exuberance for life isn't the only thing impacted by dementia.

Keep clicking for more details on the screen legend's health battle…

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Back in March 2022, Bruce Willis's family revealed he'd been diagnosed with aphasia and was stepping away from acting. A year later, the two-time Emmy winner was diagnosed with dementia. 

"I'm not always quite that good but I try and I do talk to him and his wife [Emma Heming Willis] and I have a casual relationship with his three older children," Glenn Gordon Caron told the New York Post. "I have tried very hard to stay in his life."

He added, "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."

MORE: Stars with dementia or Alzheimer's disease

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Although it's hard to know exactly what Bruce Willis comprehends these days, "Moonlighting" creator Glenn Gordon Caron doesn't think the actor has a complete understanding of his situation, as he is "seeing life through a screen door." 

"My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am," Glenn told the New York Post. "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. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he's still Bruce."

The TV creator added, "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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Bruce Willis broke into the entertainment business in 1985 with his role in "Moonlighting," a show that can now be streamed on Hulu. The series' creator, Glenn Gordon Caron, was able to tell Bruce about the streaming deal before he became "non verbal."

"The process [to get 'Moonlighting' onto Hulu] 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," Glenn told the New York Post. "I know it means a lot to him."

He added, "I know [Bruce] is 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."

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Emma Heming Willis recently spoke about her husband's condition with "Today" co-anchor Hoda Kotb, saying "it's hard to know" if Bruce Willis knows what's going on.

"Dementia is hard," Emma said in September 2023. "It's hard on the person diagnosed, it's also hard on the family. And that is no different for Bruce, or myself, or our [two] girls. When they say this is a family disease, it really is."

In fact, when the family received Bruce's dementia diagnosis, Emma called it a "blessing and a curse."

"To finally understand what was happening, so that I could be into the acceptance of what is. It doesn't make it any less painful, but just being … in the know of what is happening to Bruce makes it a little easier," she explained.