John McTiernan's Die Hard blew up in theaters on July 15, 1988, establishing a new template for Hollywood action movies — one that still exists to this day
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But the movie's most immediate impact was Willis's quick ascension to Hollywood's A-list.
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Already a television star courtesy of the ABC hit Moonlighting, the New Jersey-born actor nabbed a then-unheard of $5 million payday for Die Hard
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Funnily enough, though, Willis didn't spend a lot of time reflecting on the film that made him a global superstar.
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While the actor was front and center during Die Hard's pre-release promotional campaign — not to mention for each of the four sequels that followed
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Last year, the actor retired from acting after his family disclosed that he had been diagnosed with aphasia — which affects a person's ability to speak, write and understand language.
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Since then, Willis has largely stayed out of the public eye, although he has appeared in social media posts shared by his wife, Emma Heming Willis
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To celebrate 35 years of Die Hard, we dived into the internet archives to assemble an oral history of the movie in Willis's own words.
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