| Bruce Campbell | |
|---|---|
Campbell in November 2009 |
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| Born | Bruce Lorne Campbell June 22, 1958 Royal Oak, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, author, producer, writer, director |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Spouse |
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| Website | |
| bruce-campbell.com | |
Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958 in Royal Oak, Michigan) is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. He would later spoof his B-movie career in My Name Is Bruce, in which he starred and directed.
Since 2007 Campbell has portrayed Sam Axe on the USA Network cable TV series Burn Notice. He has since made appearances in films including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Cars 2.
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Campbell was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, the son of Joanne Louise (née Pickens), a homemaker, and Charles Newton Campbell, an amateur actor and traveling billboard inspector. Bruce Campbell is of Scottish descent. He has an older brother, Don, and an older half-brother, Michael Rendine.[1]
Campbell's first wife was Christine Deveau, whom he married in 1983. They had two children, Rebecca and Andy, before their divorce in 1989. Campbell currently lives in Jacksonville, Oregon, with his second wife, costume designer Ida Gearon, whom he met on the set of the movie Mindwarp.
Bruce Campbell began acting as a teenager and soon began making short Super 8 movies with friends. After meeting Sam Raimi in Wylie E. Groves 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. Campbell and Raimi collaborated on a 30-minute Super 8 version of the first Evil Dead film, titled Within the Woods, which was initially used to attract investors.
A few years later, Campbell and Raimi got together with 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, while fellow Michigander Rob Tapert was producer. Following an endorsement by horror writer Stephen King, the film slowly began to receive distribution. Four years following its original release, it became the number one movie in the UK. It then received distribution in the U.S., spawning two sequels: Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. Campbell's role as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams has since become iconic. The first two films in the series are considered horror classics and are credited with spawning the "horror comedy" genre.
He has appeared in many of Raimi's films outside of the Evil Dead series, notably cameo roles in the Spider-Man film series. Bruce Campbell also joined the cast in Raimi's Darkman and The Quick and the Dead, though having no actual screen time in the latter film's theatrical cut.
Campbell often takes on quirky roles, such as Elvis Presley in the film Bubba Ho-tep, and appears in B-Movies and starred in My Name Is Bruce. Along with Bubba Ho-tep, he also played a supporting role in Sky High, He also was featured in the Jim Carrey drama The Majestic. Campbell also had a key supporting role in the Coen Brothers film The Hudsucker Proxy.
Other roles for Campbell included the Michael Crichton adaptation Congo, the film version of McHale's Navy, and Escape From L.A., the sequel to John Carpenter's Escape From New York. Campbell was also the star of the Maniac Cop B-movie series.
Campbell had a starring voice role in the hit films 2009 animated adaptation of the children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Cars 2.
In January 2010, he stated in an interview that his new film project is called Bruce vs. Frankenstein.[2] The film is directed and produced by his friend Mike Richardson.[3]
On July 13, 2011, Campbell announced that he would be producing the remake of The Evil Dead along with Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. Campbell will not act in the movie as Ash, but may still make some sort of appearance in the film.
Outside of film, Campbell has appeared in a number of television series. He starred in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. a boisterous science fiction comedy western created by Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse that ran for one season. He played a lawyer turned bounty hunter who was trying to hunt down John Bly, the man who killed his father. He starred in the television series Jack of All Trades, set on a fictional island, occupied by the French in 1801. Campbell was also credited as co-executive producer, among others. The show was directed by Eric Gruendemann, and was produced by various people, including Sam Raimi. The show aired for two seasons, from 2000 to 2001. He had a recurring role as "Bill Church Jr." on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
In 1996–1997, Campbell was a recurring guest star on the show Ellen as Ed Billik, who becomes Ellen's boss when she sells her bookstore in season four. He is also known for his supporting role as the recurring character Autolycus ("the King of Thieves") on both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, which reunited him with producer Rob Tapert. Campbell played Hercules/Xena series producer Tapert in two episodes of Hercules set in the present. He directed a number of episodes of Hercules and Xena, including the Hercules series finale. Campbell also landed the lead role of race car driver Hank Cooper in the Disney made-for-television remake of The Love Bug.
Campbell made a critically acclaimed dramatic guest role as a grief-stricken detective seeking revenge for his father's murder in a two-part episode of the fourth season of Homicide: Life on the Street. Campbell later played the part of a bigamous demon in The X-Files episode, "Terms of Endearment". He also starred as Agent Jackman in the episode "Witch Way Now?" of the WB series Charmed, as well as playing an FBI agent in an episode of the short-lived series American Gothic titled "Meet the Beetles".
Campbell co-stars on the television series Burn Notice, which has aired since 2007 on USA Network. He portrays Sam Axe, a beer-chugging, womanizing former Navy SEAL now working as an unlicensed private investigator and occasional mercenary with his old friend Michael Westen, the show's main character. When working under cover, he frequently goes by the alias Chuck Finley. During Comic-Con 2010, it was revealed that Campbell would be the star of a Burn Notice made-for-television prequel focusing on Sam's Navy SEAL career, titled Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe. The movie was first aired on April 17, 2011.[4]
Campbell is featured as a voice actor in several video game titles. He provides the voice of Ash in the three games based on the Evil Dead film series: Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick and Evil Dead: Regeneration. As well as titles such as Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle, Spider-Man: The Movie, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3.
He provided the voice of main character Jake Logan in the PC title, Tachyon: The Fringe, the voice of main character Jake Burton in the PlayStation game Broken Helix and the voice of Magnanimous in Megas XLR. Campbell voiced the pulp adventurer Lobster Johnson in Hellboy: The Science of Evil and has done voice-over work for the Codemaster's game Hei$t, a game which was announced on the 28 January 2010 to have been "terminated". He also provided the voice of The Mayor in the 2009 film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and the voice of Rod "Torque" Redline in Cars 2.
In addition to acting and occasionally directing, Campbell has become a writer, including authoring an autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor. The autobiography was a successful New York Times Best Seller.[5] The paperback version of the book adds a chapter about the reaction of fans at book signings.
"Whenever I do mainstream stuff, I think they're pseudo-interested, but they're still interested in seeing weirdo, offbeat stuff. And that's what I'm attracted to."
If Chins Could Kill... was published in 2002 and follows Campbell's career to date as an actor in low-budget films and television, providing his insight into "Blue-Collar Hollywood".
Campbell has also written a book titled 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.
He was also drawn in the Marvel Zombie comics as his character, Ash from the Evil Dead. He is featured in 5 comics, all in the series Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness. In the comics he fights along side the Marvel heroes against the heroes and people who have turned into zombies (deadites) while in search of the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead).
Campbell maintained a blog on his official website, where he posts mainly about politics and the film industry.[6]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Knots Landing | Joel Benson | 9.07 "Say Uncle" |
| 1989 | Generations | Alan Stuart | |
| 1993 | The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. | Brisco County Jr. | Series Lead (1993–1994) |
| 1995 | Hercules: The Legendary Journeys | Autolycus | 1995–1999 |
| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | Bill Church Jr. | 2.20 "Individual Responsibility"; 2.21 "Whine, Whine, Whine"; 3.01 "We Have a Lot to Talk About" | |
| American Gothic | Lt. Drey | 1.07 "Meet the Beetles" | |
| 1996 | Ellen | Ed Billik | 7 episodes (1996–1997) |
| Xena: Warrior Princess | Autolycus | 1996–1999 | |
| Homicide: Life on the Street | Jake Rodzinsky | 4.13, 4.14 "Justice Parts 1 & 2" | |
| 1997 | Weird Science | Gene the Genie | 5.11 "I Dream of Gene" |
| 1998 | Hercules: The Legendary Journeys | Rob Tapert | 4.15 "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hercules" |
| Timecop | Agent Tommy Maddox | 1.09 "The Future, Jack, the Future" | |
| 1999 | The X Files | Wayne Weinsider | 6.07 "Terms of Endearment" |
| Hercules: The Legendary Journeys | Rob Tapert | 5.09 "For Those of You Just Joining Us.." | |
| 2000 | Jack of All Trades | Jack Stiles / Daring Dragoon | Series Lead (2000–2001) |
| 2001 | Beggars and Choosers | Jack | 2.20 "The Long Goodbye" |
| The Legend of Tarzan | Max Liebling | 1.28 "Tarzan and One Punch Mullargan" | |
| 2002 | Charmed | FBI Agent Jackman | 4.22 "Witch Way Now?" |
| 2003 | Duck Dodgers | Pork Piggler | 1.06 "K-9 Kaddy/Pig of Action" |
| My Life as a Teenage Robot | Himcules | 1.11 "Daydream Believer/This Time with Feeling" | |
| 2004 | Megas XLR | Magnanimous | 1.03 "Battle Royale"; 2.02 "The Return" |
| 2006 | Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! | Captain Shuggazoom | 4.49 "Golden Age" |
| The Replacements | Phil Mygrave | 5 episodes (2006–2009) | |
| 2007 | Burn Notice | Sam Axe | A Main Character (2007–Present) |