Bruce Campbell

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Bruce Campbell

Bruce Campbell, 2005
Birth name Bruce Lorne Campbell
Born June 22, 1958 (age 48)
Royal Oak, Michigan, USA
Spouse(s) Ida Gearon (1991 - present)

Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958, Royal Oak, Michigan) is an American actor. He is best-known for his starring role as Ash in the Evil Dead trilogy of horror/slapstick movies. He is a B-movie icon.

Campbell currently lives in Jacksonville, Oregon, with his wife, costume designer Ida Gearon.

Contents

[edit] Film career

[edit] Early career

Campbell began acting as a teenager and soon began making small Super 8 movies with friends. After meeting Sam Raimi in high school the two became very good friends and started making movies together. Campbell would go on to attend Western Michigan University while he continued to work on his acting career.

A few years and at least fifty movies later, they got together with other family and friends and began work on The Evil Dead. Campbell starred and worked behind the camera, receiving a "co-executive producer" credit; Raimi wrote, directed and edited. Four years later the movie became a cult hit in England, leading to American success and two sequels: Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.

[edit] Major roles

Campbell's best-known roles are as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films, and he has appeared in many of Raimi's films outside of the Evil Dead series. Campbell often takes on quirky roles, such as Elvis Presley in the film Bubba Ho-Tep, and appears in films that go straight to video or cable TV. Along with Bubba Ho-Tep, Campbell played a supporting role in the 2005 film Sky High, and is starring in the upcoming My Name is Bruce. He also is the narrator in both of the Spiderman movie games.

Campbell was supposed to star in Darkman, but the studio reportedly insisted on Liam Neeson, unsure of Campbell's ability to play the role. [1] Campbell stayed on behind the scenes, credited as "additional voice recording", and appears as the "Final Shemp" in the film's last shot.

He was also one of the final contenders for the role of The Phantom in Paramount Pictures' big budget film version of the popular comic book, but it ultimately went to Billy Zane instead [2], who had lobbied to get the part for years. His fellow Hercules: The Legendary Journeys cast member, the late Kevin Smith was interestingly also one of the final three contenders for the role of Lee Falk's legendary superhero.

[edit] Cameos

Campbell undertakes numerous cameo appearances in films, and is known to pop up in all genres of film, often to serve as a comic relief. He has made cameo appearances in both Spider-Man films (and is also set to make a cameo in the third movie). In the first he played the wrestling announcer who dubbed Peter Parker as "The Amazing Spider-Man".

In the sequel, he played a snooty usher, Dylan Reid, who criticized Peter Parker's appearance at length before refusing to let him into the theater, thereby causing a rift with Mary-Jane. He appears as a deranged plastic surgeon in John Carpenter's Escape from L.A.. Campbell has also had several small parts in the movies of Joel and Ethan Coen, appearing as an actor in a TV soap opera in Fargo, as well as bit parts in Intolerable Cruelty, The Hudsucker Proxy and The Ladykillers.

[edit] Acting style and personality

Many people consider Campbell to be the greatest "B-movie" star of all time. His acting style is an "over-the-top" machismo that lends itself well to roles such as that of Ash Williams, whom Campbell himself has dubbed "an idiot and a jerk like the rest of us". [3] This style is parodied in the film The Majestic where Campbell appears as Roland the Intrepid Explorer in the B- movie Pirates of the Sahara, written by Jim Carrey's screenwriter character. Campbell also excels at "reverse acting", a frequent filming technique of Raimi's where action sequences are filmed in the reverse sequence of how they will appear in the film.

Over the years, Bruce has developed a huge fanbase and he is a favorite at film conventions. Campbell has a reputation as being one of the nicest people in the business, and offers advice about getting into the film industry on his Web site.

[edit] Television and video games

Outside of film, Campbell has appeared in a number of television series. He starred in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. a boisterous Sci-fi comedy western created by Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse (who went on to write and produce ABC's Lost) that ran for one season and Jack of All Trades, a similarly themed series set in the early days of American Independence.

He is also known for his supporting role as the recurring character Autolycus ("the King of Thieves") on the fantasy series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. Campbell also played Hercules/Xena series producer Rob Tapert in two present day-set episodes of Hercules. He directed a number of episodes of Hercules and Xena., including the "Hercules" Series Finale. In addition to these more light-hearted parts, he also had a critically acclaimed dramatic guest role as a grief-stricken detective seeking revenge for his father's murder in a two-part episode of Homicide: Life on the Street.

Ironically, even though at the time he had decided to pursue more purely dramatic roles, Campbell did not audition for this part. Homicide producer Tom Fontana was a fan of Campbell's and phoned him one day asking if Bruce had any ideas for appearing on the show. Campbell later played the part of a polygamous demon in the X-Files-episode "Terms of Endearment", a performance that was well-received by his fanbase for its 'serious' dramatism and teased by Campbell as an ad for his new haircut (which, he said was "very, very short.")

Campbell is featured as a voice actor in several video game titles. He provides the voice of Ash in the three latest Evil Dead-themed games, as well as titles such as Pitfall 3-D: Beyond the Jungle, Spider-Man: The Movie, and Spiderman 2. He also provides the voice of main character Jake Logan in the PC title, Tachyon: The Fringe and the voice of Magnanimous in Megas XLR. He has had many appearances in other television shows, including Robot Chicken as himself, endorsing Morning Wood.

[edit] Writing

In addition to acting and occasionally directing, Campbell has become a somewhat active writer, including authoring an autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, which traces his career as an actor in low-budget movies and television. The paperback version of the book adds a chapter about the reaction of fans at book signings.

Campbell has also written a book entitled Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way, a comical novel featuring himself as the main character struggling to make it into the world of A-list movies. He later recorded an audio play adaptation of Make Love with fellow Michigan actors including long time collaborator Ted Raimi. This radio drama styled interpretation of the novel was released through independent label Rykodisc and spans 6 discs with a 6 hour running time.

In addition to his novels Campbell also wrote a column for X-Ray Magazine in 2001, an issue of the popular comic series "The Hire", comic book adaptations of his "Man With The Screaming Brain" and most recently he wrote the introduction to Josh Becker's "The Complete Guide To Low Budget Feature Film Making".

[edit] Advice

In a Starbucks campaign known as "The Way I See It", Campbell offered the following advice which adorned certain coffee cups:

   
“
 The Way I See It #65: If you're worried about getting a job--or keeping one--start a company of your own. By doing so, you'll reap the rewards of your hard work and you'll only get fired if you fail. This is the land of opportunity. Live in it.
   
”

[edit] Selected filmography

Year Title Role Other notes
1979 Within the Woods Bruce
1981 The Evil Dead Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams Co-producer
1983 Going Back Brice Chapman
1987 Evil Dead II Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams Co-producer
1989 Moontrap Ray Tanner
1990 Mindwarp Stover
1991 Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat Robert Van Helsing
1992 Waxwork II: Lost in Time John Loftmore
1993 Army of Darkness Ashley 'Ash' J. Williams Co-producer
1994 The Hudsucker Proxy Smitty, Argus Reporter
1995 Congo Charles Travis
1996 Menno's Mind Mick Dourif, Rebel Leader
Escape from L.A. Surgeon General of Beverly Hills
1997 Running Time Carl
McHale's Navy Virgil
1998 The Ice Rink Actor
1999 Icebreaker Carl Greig
2001 The Majestic Roland the Intrepid Explorer
2002 Timequest William Roberts
Bubba Ho-tep Elvis Presley/Sebastian Haff
Spider-Man Ring Announcer
Serving Sara Gordon Moore
2004 Spider-Man 2 Snooty Usher
2005 Alien Apocalypse Dr. Ivan
Man with the Screaming Brain William Cole Also Directed and Co-wrote
Sky High Coach Boomer
2006 The Woods Joe Fasulo
The Ant Bully Fugax
My Name is Bruce Bruce Campbell Post-production
2007 Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie Chicken Bittle Post-production
Spider-Man 3  ? Filming re-shoots

[edit] References

[edit] External links

 Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series
Films: The Evil Dead | Evil Dead II | Army of Darkness
Video games: The Evil Dead | Evil Dead: Hail to the King | Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick | Evil Dead: Regeneration
Comic books: Army of Darkness: Ashes to Ashes | Army of Darkness: Shop Till You Drop Dead
Other topics: Ash Williams | Within the Woods | Bruce Campbell | Robert Tapert
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