Die Hard turned Bruce Willis into a movie star, but Frank Sinatra was originally offered the lead role due to contractual obligations. Willis was not the first choice, but ultimately landed the role. Willis lost two-thirds of his hearing in his left ear due to the loud guns used in the film.
The 1988 Hollywood action film Die Hard turned its lead actor, Bruce Willis, into a famous movie star practically overnight. Before Die Hard, Bruce Willis was a newcomer to the film industry, having only starred in a few films that weren’t successful. Die Hard was a huge success and Bruce Willis went on to star in four Die Hard sequels (as of 2013). But was Bruce Willis the first choice for the lead role in Die Hard? As it turns out, Willis wasn’t the first to be offered the lead role of John McClane. Due to contractual obligations, Frank Sinatra, who was 73 at the time, was originally offered the lead role in the film. Die Hard is an adaptation of a book by Roderick Thorp called Nothing Lasts Forever. The book was Thorp’s follow-up to his previous title, The Detective, which was made into a film in 1968 starring none other than Frank Sinatra. The contract for The Detective stipulated that when the sequel was made, the lead role would once again be offered to Frank Sinatra. But Thorp released Nothing Lasts Forever a full decade later. The role was offered to Frank Sinatra, but he naturally declined. It took another decade before the Die Hard script, which was slightly modified, was offered to Bruce Willis. Popular action heroes of the time are believed to have been offered the role of John McClane and turned it down before Willis was considered by the directors. Ultimately it was Bruce Willis who landed the role and the rest is history.
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Bruce Willis, who was working on the TV series Moonlighting at the time, was able to accept Die Hard thanks to the pregnancy of his co-star.
Due to the extremely loud guns used in Die Hard, Bruce Willis permanently lost two-thirds of his hearing in his left ear.
In order to get the most natural reaction in the scene where Alan Rickman’s character dies in the film, they dropped it on the count of two instead of three.
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