Bruce Willis first came to prominence as David Addison in the mid-1980s television show Moonlighting. With its appealingly eccentric mix of throwaway detective plots and screwball romantic comedy, the show was an ideal showcase for Willis's often bemused and often in control, wise-cracking action man. It seemed with his first two films, Blind Date (1987) and Sunset (1988), both directed by Blake Edwards, that Willis was going to follow the comedy route, but after Die Hard (1988) Willis became instead one of the leading action stars of the 1990s. Early attempts to break free of the John McClane character and action man image met with failure and it is only since Pulp Fiction (1994), perhaps, that Willis has been able to extend his range, now alternating action with the occasional touch of character. It is, however, easy to see why the Die Hard films succeeded, and how...