Chris Ellison, who played DCI Frank Burnside in The Bill, has lost the ability to speak since he suffered a stroke 18 months ago, his wife has revealed.

The actor, 75, was diagnosed with aphasia – the same degenerative brain disorder which movie legend Bruce Willis was revealed to suffer from this week – after having a stroke in 2020.

Aphasia is a potentially devastating condition which affects one’s ability to understand language.

The TV star’s wife Anita, 69, told The Sun on Sunday: ‘It’s awful, we’ve been so lonely. Chris is trapped in his body. He can understand everything going on around him but can’t speak, read or write.

‘He has not uttered any sense in 18 months. Sometimes I feel as if I have lost my charismatic, very funny and caring husband.

Chris Ellison, who played DCI Frank Burnside in The Bill, has lost the ability to speak since he suffered a stroke 18 months ago, his wife, Anita, has revealed. (The couple are pictured in 2018)

Chris played the volatile Burnside for 15 years on The Bill (above) and proved so popular that he got a spin-off in 2000

‘It’s frustrating for us both but when he looks into my eyes, I see he’s still in there. I have cried buckets.’ 

Chris played the volatile Burnside for 15 years on The Bill and proved so popular that he got a spin-off in 2000.

Titled Burnside, it saw him work for the National Crime Squad. It only ran for one season, and aired six episodes.

He later appeared in EastEnders, an audio play for Doctor Who, as a contestant on Pointless Celebrities and found himself on Celebrity Big Brother in 2015 alongside Janice Dickinson, Jenna Jameson and Daniel Baldwin.

Chris suffered the stroke at his home in Brighton and was found by Anita on the bedroom floor.

His aphasia was known only to a few friends and family but he was inspired to share it with the wider world following the 67-year-old Die Hard actor’s diagnosis.

Willis, who starred in dozens of action movies, will now retire from acting after being diagnosed with the disease that has hampered his ‘cognitive abilities,’ his family said on Wednesday.

The actor (above in The Bill), 75, was diagnosed with aphasia – the same degenerative brain disorder which movie legend Bruce Willis was revealed to suffer from this week – after having a stroke in 2020

He rose to fame in the 1980s’ comedy-drama TV series Moonlighting and has appeared in about 100 films across his four-decade career, garnering acclaim for his roles in Pulp Fiction and The Sixth Sense, and winning a Golden Globe Award and two Emmys.

But Willis is perhaps best known for playing the tough-as-nails New York cop who pursued bad guys in the five Die Hard movies, released from 1988 to 2013.

‘This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,’ his family said in a statement.

Willis and actress Demi Moore were one of Hollywood’s most high-profile celebrity couples in the 1990s until their divorce in 2000, but they remained close after the break-up. 

He is currently married to model and actress Emma Heming and is father to a total of five children with both women.

‘We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him,’ said the statement, which was signed by the actor’s family and shared on Instagram by Demi Moore and their daughter Rumer.

Aphasia is a disorder most commonly caused by a stroke that can also stem from head trauma or, in rare cases, from neurological disease, said Brenda Rapp, a professor of cognitive science at Johns Hopkins University. 

Symptoms vary widely and can affect speech, comprehension and reading ability, Rapp said in a telephone interview. In some instances, aphasia can be treated with speech therapy.

Aphasia: The brain condition that can leave a person unable to communicate

Aphasia can manifest itself in multiple ways, and is often either the result of a head injury, a stroke, a tumour or other brain deterioration.

It can be devastating as well, with experts saying it causes depression in over a third of cases, can lead to personality shifts and can even alienate friends and family from the affected person.

The cause of the condition, which is often some sort of traumatic brain injury or a stroke, can lead to massive personality shifts.

‘[Aphasia is] difficulty with language that comes about from some kind of injury to the brain. The most common source is stroke… but it could come from any other type of damage,’ Dr Brenda Rapp, a cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins University, told DailyMail.com.

The condition can make it very hard for an actor – such as Bruce Willis (above, in 2019) or Chris Ellison – to continue in their career, as just the process of speaking out lines can become a challenge

Certain infections that impact the brain’s language centres can cause aphasia to form as well, along with cognitive decline and deterioration associated with dementia.

The condition can make it very hard for an actor – such as Bruce Willis or Chris Ellison – to continue in his career, as just the process of speaking out lines can become a challenge.

There are four common types of aphasia that make up a vast majority of cases: fluent – often called Wernicke’s; non-fluent – known as Broca’s; anomic; and Primary Progressive Aphasia.

Rapp explained that there are different forms of the condition because each represents a different type of breakdown in the process of communication.

Whether it is the ability to translate thoughts into proper words, the ability to physically say words, or the ability to interpret and understand speech from others, each part of communication is a complex process, and even slight brain damage can cause issue.

While the condition does cause communication failures, Rapp notes that the person themselves is still the same.

Their thoughts, beliefs and feeling towards their loved ones remain, even if it can be frustrating and alienating for both the aphasia patient and those around them to deal with this condition.

According to the Stroke Association, a UK-based group, those who suffer Wernicke’s aphasia have the ability to string together long sentences of words, but will often say things in a way that they do not make sense, or even use made up words.

They will also suffer from impaired reading and writing ability, and may have trouble understanding clear verbal communication towards them.