Don Johnson is standing by his longtime friend Bruce Willis during the actor’s ongoing struggle with dementia.
The 75-year-old Miami Vice star opened up about their close bond and Willis’ health challenges in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight while promoting his new ABC series, Doctor Odyssey.
“We’re best of friends, and he’s having a little bit of a struggle right now,” Johnson shared. “I take this moment to send him love.” Willis, who will turn 70 on March 19, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in February 2023, following an earlier aphasia diagnosis in 2022.
Johnson also reflected on their decades-long friendship, recalling how he helped Willis land his first TV role on Miami Vice before Willis rose to fame on Moonlighting alongside Cybill Shepherd. “It was his first episodic TV role, before Moonlighting,” Johnson said. “I knew him from New York he was funny, and we’d hang out.”
Johnson revealed that he personally recommended Willis to the casting director of Miami Vice. “I said, ‘There’s a guy over here who’s a struggling actor.
You should bring him in he’s really funny, and I think he’d be good,’” Johnson recalled. Willis was cast in the role, and Johnson joked, “I didn’t have to stick my neck out that far because he was obviously talented. My instincts were pretty good.”
In a touching full-circle moment, Willis’ daughter, Rumer Willis, recently appeared on Johnson’s new show, Doctor Odyssey. Rumer, 36, provided an update on her father’s health during a February 3 appearance on the UK talk show Loose Women, saying, “He’s doing really well.”
She also spoke about how her family—including mom Demi Moore and sisters Scout and Tallulah—has come together to support Willis.
“The way we rally around each other is so beautiful,” Rumer shared. “We really are a unit.” Moore, who has remained close to Willis since their 2000 divorce, echoed this sentiment in a recent Variety interview, saying, “We will always be a family, just in a different form.” She added, “For me, there was never a question. I show up because that’s what you do for the people you love.”
The support from his family and friends, like Don Johnson, highlights the strength of their enduring bonds.
