His family has announced that Bruce is stepping back from acting, etc., due to a recent diagnosis of Aphasia. Aphasia is a brain disorder in which you lose your ability to speak and write and also cannot understand others' speech or writing. It is usually caused by a stroke or a blow to the head or something like that (there may be more causes.) I am really sorry to hear this. His many action movies, including the Die Hard series, brought me a lot of enjoyment over the years. Imagine being a world famous actor whose main job is to communicate skillfully and then completely losing that very capability. Trapped in his own mind, unable to communicate with the world, it must be horrible.
How come we never heard of aphasia before? Is it because a stroke or concussion are less significant? I tend to believe it was a mini stroke. And if it is, he's going to recover from it.
I had never heard of it and will have to do a little reading on it. But if you know what you want to say or write and cannot do so and, if all of a sudden you cannot understand anyone speaking or any writing and you are still "with it" enough mentally otherwise, I cannot think of a worse torture.
Completely saddened by the news yesterday, he is my childhood hero, have grown up with him and all his onscreen antics. Bar maybe one or two films (I don't know of) have seen every one of his films many times. Moonlighting series is when I first saw him with Cybil Shepherd, they made a great team, and we used to laugh so much watching it. Did read somewhere that it can be contained somewhat if caught/diagnosed early. Sincerely hope he can make a recovery from it, in whatever shape or form possible. Great actor. All the best to him and his family, I say.
Not sure it's as hard for an individual as Alzheimer's. Both are devastating. At least with the Aphasia he'll still know his loved ones even though he won't be able to communicate with them.