The pair used to hang out at the bar in New York where Willis worked back in the late 1970s and 1980s
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NEED TO KNOW
- John Goodman is speaking out about his longtime friendship with Bruce Willis
- “He took care of me … I love him so much,” the Roseanne alum exclusively tells PEOPLE of Willis
- The pair used to hang out at the bar in New York where Willis worked back in the late ‘70s and ‘80s
John Goodman is reflecting on his decades-long friendship with Bruce Willis.
Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the Los Angeles Digger premiere, held at the Directors Village theater, on Monday, Sept. 28, Goodman, 74, says he would often see Willis, 71, around the time he got the role on the ‘80s drama Moonlighting.
Goodman recalls, “I remember when he got the Moonlighting job, and we were at the bar where he used to work at, and we all hung out at, and he jumped over a railing. I think he broke my shoulder, but he was so happy.”
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“That’s all we did was talk about acting when we were at work, when we were out goofing around. I could tell how serious he was. I started working out here [in LA] about a year or two later after he did,” the Roseanne alum tells PEOPLE.
Goodman recalls, “He took care of me…I love him so much.”
The Argo actor — who previously guest-starred in an episode of Moonlighting — tells PEOPLE he hasn’t seen Willis in a while, mainly because he doesn’t live in Los Angeles.
Credit: E. Charbonneau/WireImage for American Cinematheque
Willis’ family announced that he was stepping away from acting in March 2022, after he was diagnosed with the cognitive condition aphasia, which progressed to the more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
The neurodegenerative condition can cause speech impairment, personality changes and motor skill loss, all of which Willis has experienced in the years following his diagnosis, according to health updates shared by his family.
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Goodman has spoken about his friendship with Willis regularly through the years, and the pair previously starred in the 2017 action-comedy film Once Upon a Time in Venice together.
During an interview with The Guardian in 2012, he explained that he and Willis had been among a group of young actors chasing the dream in ‘80s New York.
“Bruce Willis was a bartender at a place I used to go,” he told the outlet.
Goodman, who quit drinking in 2007, continued at the time, “He was a great bartender; it was a performance every night. He just had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Ah, Bruce, he was great. He got me the drinks and I drank ‘em down.”
Goodman also previously told the New York Post that he’d known Willis since 1979, adding that he’d been working at tending bar at Chelsea Central on the Upper West Side, which has since closed.
“Bruce was the best bartender in New York … He kept an entire joint entertained all night. He just kept the show going. He was amazing,” Goodman told the outlet in 2017.
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