All-American Hollywood star visits hometown—Idar Oberstein

By JCK Online Staff

Posted on August 11, 2005

Hollywood movie star Bruce Willis recently paid a private visit to the town of his birth—gemstone city Idar-Oberstein in southwest Germany, say reports in German media.

The 50-year-old star—who was named the city’s “special ambassador” on his birthday in March—paid a surprise visit Aug.6 to the house where he was born and lived until he was two years old with his father, an American GI stationed there, and his mother, a native of Kassel, Germany.

The unannounced visit, said the German paper “Bild,” was “a great surprise” to the house’s current residents, when Willis, accompanied by his father and younger brother, rang the doorbell and asked if he could come in to briefly visit his old home. “We were sitting in the garden and at first didn’t even hear anyone there,” said property owner Doris Busch, who knew him as child. “My mother still had her curlers in her hair! But he was very polite and spoke good German.”

After about 20 minutes, Willis left, promising to make “an official visit” soon to Idar-Oberstein. He subsequently visited a gem store in the city and “bought several stones,” said reports, and stopped in at the U.S. barracks where his father had been stationed 50 years ago to say hello to the soldiers.