'Die Hard' star Bruce Willis nearly died during first day of filming: book

The "Die Hard" crew made sure Bruce Willis was "alive" after filming the first scene of the 1988 action movie. Willis portrayed NYPD detective John McClane.

"All the possible action people turned it down," producer Larry Gordon said, per author Nick de Semlyen's book. "We had a good script, but we could not get anybody to play John McClane." Janelle Ash is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital.

Rifkin was aware of the trouble the "Die Hard" team was going through and told Gordon, "Take it or leave it. If you don’t close the deal by Friday, he’s gonna go to Japan and do some commercials."