Bruce Willis Did an Insanely Generous Act When 2007 Movie Stunt Double Fractured His Face and Wrists after Falling 25 Feet to the Pavement

by Laxmi Rajput June 10, 2023, 12:20 pm

Hollywood actor Bruce Willis got his career-changing role in the TV drama, Moonlighting and has given multiple hits for the past four decades as well. One of the most memorable roles also includes his character in the 1988 film Die Hard, in which he plays detective John McClane. And the film series still has a huge fan following. However, the immense success and the increase in fan count was not the only thing he achieved while starring in the series.

The Unbreakable star also earned people and his co-workers’ respect as he continued to support his stunt double after he sustained severe injuries while filming the fourth installment in the series, Live Free or Die Hard.

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The action franchise following John McClane features several action sequences. Bruce Willis has even opened up about how hard it was to perform those stunts for him, and his ex-wife, Demi Moore, has shared that she was terrified every time she visited him on the film's set.

While Willis himself did some of his stunts, there were stunt doubles used for some specific action sequences. Actor and stuntman Larry Rippenkroeger joined Willis as his stunt double for the 2007 film Live Free or Die Hard. And while filming one of the action sequences, he suffered an accident.

While doing the sequence, he fell from 24 feet. Talking about the accident to Los Angeles Times newspaper, he said, "I fell from three storeys high, head first right to the street." The stuntman claimed that he did not remember much about the incident in which he suffered severe injuries.

"I had compound fractures of both wrists, smashed the right side of my face, fractured my skull on the back of my head, couple of broken ribs, and a punctured lung," Rippenkroeger shared. And The Sixth Sense star made sure to be there for his stunt double after his horrific accident.

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After Larry Rippenkroeger's accident, production for Len Wiseman's 2007 film was put on hold. During this time, Bruce Willis made living arrangements for Rippenkroeger's parents. He looked up the hotels in the area for his parents and also visited them in the hospital multiple times.

Larry Rippenkroeger also played the stunt double for The Godfather actor James Caan, who also visited him in the hospital. He also shared that the Pulp Fiction actor gave him the name "$6 million man" after he recovered from the injury.

"I have lots of titanium in my face and within my wrists and plates and hardware. Bruce referred to me as the ‘$6 million man," he said. Larry Rippenkroeger would return to work with Willis in the fifth and final film of the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard.

The Die Hard franchise is available on Prime Video.

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Source: IMDb

Bruce WillisLen Wiseman

Laxmi Rajput is a writer at Fandomwire. She finished her Post Graduation in Broadcast Journalism and worked as a Business News writer for a year. But her interest in entertainment and pop culture compelled her to find a way towards Entertainment Journalism. She has worked across various fields and has 2 years of experience in content writing. She likes reading, music, movies, and traveling. She aspires to become a fiction writer in the future.