Following World War II, tension intensified between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies, the Western Bloc (U.S.) and the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union) in what has become known as the Cold War. It is called the Cold War because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the superpowers. The superpowers sent soldiers and spies all over the world. David was among the many uniformed soldiers sent to West Germany in the early 1950s. While there, David met and fell in love with a German girl named Marlene Henze. On March 19, 1955, Walter, their first son, was born in Idar-Oberstein in West Germany. In 1957, when David was discharged from the military, he returned home to Penns Grove, New Jersey with his new family. Together, David and Marlene had three more children. The family struggled to survive. David worked as a welder and factory worker and Marlene worked in a bank.

From an early age, Walter struggled to speak and had a severe stutter. His parents hoped his stuttering would disappear as he got older, but it continued. “I thought I was handicapped,” Walter once said. “I couldn’t talk at all.” When he went to school, the other kids picked on him because of his stuttering. The heckling only worsened when Walter entered Penn Grove High School. His classmates called him “Buck Buck” because of his stutter. As any teenager who has ever been bullied can imagine, high school was especially rough for Walter because of his stuttering. “There was a lot of bullying in my life, and I had to fight my way out.” Walter said. “Kids get mean.” Then, Walter agreed to do “some theatre” in high school. People who cared for Watler tried to dissuade him while people who liked to pick on him encouraged him to take the stage. Walter read his lines over and over until he had memorized them. He knew he would eventually have to recite his lines verbally, but he was hesitant. Finally, Walter took a deep breath and began to speak. To his astonishment, the words flowed from his lips flawlessly. He later said, “when I memorized words, I didn’t stutter, which was just miraculous.” Everyone was shocked at how well he spoke his memorized lines. His stuttering disappeared when he sang lyrics he had memorized.

Walter struggled to get a handle on his stuttering. He was elated when he took the stage in high school and spoke his memorized lines perfectly. He considered trying to become an actor, but he had no show business connections. Walter moved to New York and became a bartender at the trendy Kamikaze Club. One night, a casting director visited the Kamikaze Club. Rather than being thirsty, the casting director was visiting bars in New York looking to cast someone to play a bartender in an upcoming film. Who better to play a bartender in a film than a real bartender? The casting director had quickly dismissed other bartenders for one reason or another, but he liked what he saw in Walter. After watching Walter for a short time, the casting director decided to offer the part to Walter. In as few words as possible, Walter agreed.

From that first minuscule part, Walter got other uncredited film parts, work on stage productions, and got cast in television shows including Miami Vice. In 1980, the year he was cast in his first film, Walter was a nobody in the show business industry. Five years later, his became a household name due to another detective television show. In the last four decades, Walter has appeared in over 100 films, many of which have been box office hits. In 2022, he abruptly retired from acting.

In a cruel twist of fate, Walter’s family recently released the news that Walter has completely lost the ability to comprehend or formulate language. The actor whom you’ve just learned struggled to speak without stuttering as a child, who is now unable to speak due to a condition known as aphasia, is Walter Bruce Willis.