Bruce Campbell (book Designer)

Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known best for his role as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's ''Evil Dead'' horror series, beginning with the short movie '' Within the Woods'' (1978). He has also featured in many low-budget cult movies, such as ''Crimewave'' (1985), '' Maniac Cop'' (1988), '' Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat'' (1989), and '' Bubba Ho-Tep'' (2002).

Campbell had the main roles of the television series ''The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'' (1993–1994) and ''Jack of All Trades'' (2000), and a recurring role as Autolycus, King of Thieves in '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' (1995–1999) and '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' (1995–1999). He played Sam Axe on the USA Network series ''Burn Notice'' (2007–2013) and reprised his role as Ash for the Starz series ''Ash vs. Evil Dead'' (2015–2018). He also appeared in '' The Escort'' (2015).

Campbell directed, produced, and featured in the documentaries '' Fanalysis'' (2002) and '' A Community Speaks'' (2004); co-wrote, directed, produced, and featured in the movie '' Man with the Screaming Brain'' (2005); and directed, produced, and featured in a parody of his career ''My Name Is Bruce'' (2007).

Campbell is known for frequent collaborations with the aforementioned Raimi, his brother Ted, Josh Becker, and Scott Spiegel.

Early life

Bruce Lorne Campbell was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, on June 22, 1958, the son of advertising executive and college professor Charles Newton Campbell and homemaker Joanne Louise (née Pickens).CHARLES CAMPBELL – Obituary
Legacy.com (November 7, 2004). Retrieved on August 9, 2017. He is of English and Scottish ancestry, and has an older brother named Don and an older half-brother named Michael. His father was also an actor and director for local theater. Campbell began acting and making short Super 8 movies with friends as a teenager. After meeting future moviemaker Sam Raimi while the two attended Wylie E. Groves High School, they became good friends and collaborators. Campbell attended Western Michigan University and continued to pursue an acting career.

Career

Film

Campbell and Raimi collaborated with a 30-minute Super 8 version of the first ''Evil Dead'' movie, titled '' Within the Woods'' (1978), which was initially used to attract investors. He and Raimi got together with family and friends to begin working on ''The Evil Dead'' (1981). While featuring as the protagonist, Campbell also had participation with the production of the movie, receiving a co-executive producer credit. Raimi wrote, directed, and edited the movie, while Rob Tapert produced. After an endorsement by horror author Stephen King, the movie slowly began to receive attention and offers for distribution. Four years after its original release, it became the most popular movie in the UK. It was then distributed in the United States, resulting in the sequels ''Evil Dead II'' (1987) and ''Army of Darkness'' (1992).

Campbell was also drawn in the Marvel Zombie comics as his character, Ash Williams. He is featured in five comics, all in the series ''Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness''. In them, he fights alongside the Marvel heroes against the heroes and people who have become zombies (deadites) while in search of the Necronomicon (Book of the Names of the Dead). Campbell also played as Coach Boomer in the movie “Sky High”.

He has appeared in several of Raimi's movies other than the ''Evil Dead'' series, notably having cameo appearances in the director's ''Spider-Man'' film series. Campbell also joined the cast of Raimi's movie ''Darkman'' and '' The Quick and the Dead'', though having no actual screen time in the latter movie's theatrical version. In March 2022, Campbell was announced to have a cameo in Raimi's Marvel Cinematic Universe film ''Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness''.

Campbell often performs quirky roles, such as Elvis Presley for the movie '' Bubba Ho-Tep''. Along with ''Bubba Ho-Tep'', he played a supporting role in '' Maniac Cop'' and '' Maniac Cop 2'', and spoofed his career in the self-directed ''My Name is Bruce.''

Other mainstream movies for Campbell include supporting or featured roles in the Coen Brothers movie ''The Hudsucker Proxy'', the Michael Crichton adaptation '' Congo'', the movie version of ''McHale's Navy'', '' Escape from L.A.'' (the sequel to John Carpenter's ''Escape from New York''), the Jim Carrey drama '' The Majestic'' and the 2005 Disney movie '' Sky High''.

Campbell had a major voice role for the 2009 animated adaptation of the children's book ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'', and a supporting voice role for Pixar's ''Cars 2''.

Campbell produced the 2013 remake of ''The Evil Dead'', along with Raimi and Rob Tapert, appearing in the movie's post-credits scene in a cameo role with the expectation he would reprise that role in ''Army of Darkness 2''. The next year, the comedy metal band Psychostick released a song titled "Bruce Campbell" on their album '' IV: Revenge of the Vengeance'' that pays a comedic tribute to his past roles.

Campbell worked as an executive producer for the 2023 movie '' Evil Dead Rise''.

Television

Other than cinema, Campbell has appeared in a number of television series. He featured in ''The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'' a boisterous science fiction comedy western created by Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse that played 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 featured 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 was broadcast for two seasons, from 2000 to 2001. He had a recurring role as "Bill Church Jr." based upon the character of Morgan Edge from the Superman comics on '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''.

From 1996 to 1997, Campbell was a recurring guest actor of the television series ''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 ("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 obtained the main role of race car driver Hank Cooper for the Disney made-for-television remake of ''The Love Bug''.

Campbell 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 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 featured as Agent Jackman in the episode " Witch Way Now?" of the WB series ''Charmed'', as well as playing a state police officer in an episode of the short-lived series ''American Gothic'' titled "Meet The Beetles".

Campbell co-featured in the television series ''Burn Notice'', which was broadcast from 2007 to 2013 by USA Network. He portrayed Sam Axe, a beer-chugging, 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 undercover, his character frequently used the alias Chuck Finley, which Bruce later revealed was the name of one of his father's old co-workers. Campbell was the star of a 2011 ''Burn Notice'' made-for-television prequel focusing on Sam's Navy SEAL career, titled '' Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe''.

In 2014, Campbell played Santa Claus for an episode of '' The Librarians''. Campbell played Ronald Reagan in season 2 of the FX original series '' Fargo''. More recently Campbell reprised his role as Ashley "Ash" Williams in ''Ash vs Evil Dead'', a series based upon the ''Evil Dead'' series that began his career. ''Ash vs Evil Dead'' began airing on Starz on October 31, 2015, and was renewed by the cable channel for second and third seasons, before being cancelled.

In January 2019, Travel Channel announced a new version of the ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' reality series, with Campbell serving as host and executive producer. The 10-episode season debuted on June 9, 2019.

Voice acting

Campbell is featured as a voice actor for several video games. He provides the voice of Ash in the four games based on the ''Evil Dead'' movies series: '' Evil Dead: Hail to the King'', '' Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick'', '' Evil Dead: Regeneration'' and '' Evil Dead: The Game''. He has expressed his intent to return to the role in an upcoming ''Evil Dead'' animated series. He also provided the voice of Ash in ''Dead by Daylight''. Despite the inclusion of his character "Ash Williams" in Telltale Games' '' Poker Night 2'', Danny Webber voices the character in the game, instead of Bruce Campbell.

Campbell also provided voice talent in other titles such as '' Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle'', ''Spider-Man'', ''Spider-Man 2'', ''Spider-Man 3'', and ''The Amazing Spider-Man''.

He provided the voice of main character Jake Logan for the PC game, '' Tachyon: The Fringe'', the voice of main character Jake Burton for the PlayStation game '' Broken Helix'' and the voice of Magnanimous for ''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 January 28, 2010, to have been "terminated". He also provided the voice of The Mayor for the 2009 movie ''Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs'', the voice of Rod "Torque" Redline in ''Cars 2'', the voice of Himcules in the 2003 Nickelodeon TV series ''My Life as a Teenage Robot'', and the voice of Fugax in the 2006 movie ''The Ant Bully''.

He has a voice in the online MOBA game, ''Tome: Immortal Arena'' in 2014. Campbell also provided voice-over and motion capture for Sgt. Lennox in the Exo Zombies mode of '' Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare''.

Writing

In addition to acting and occasionally directing, Campbell has become a writer, starting with an autobiography, ''If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor'', published in June 2001. The autobiography was a successful ''New York Times'' Best Seller. It describes Campbell's career to date as an actor in low-budget movies and television, providing his insight into " Blue-Collar Hollywood". The paperback version of the book adds details about the reactions of fans during 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".

Campbell's next book '' Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way'' was published on May 26, 2005. The book's plot involves him (depicted in a comical way) 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 longtime collaborator Ted Raimi. This radio drama was released by the independent label Rykodisc and spans six discs with a six-hour running time.

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

In late 2016, Campbell announced that he would be releasing a third book, ''Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor,'' which will detail his life from where ''If Chins Could Kill'' ended. ''Hail to the Chin'' was released in August 2017, and accompanied by a book tour across the United States and Europe.

Campbell maintained a weblog on his official website, where he posted mainly about politics and the movie industry. However, the website has since been deleted.

Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival

Since 2014, the Bruce Campbell Horror Film Festival, narrated and organized by Campbell, was held in the Muvico Theater in Rosemont, Illinois. The first festival was originally from August 21 to 25, 2014, presented by Wizard World, as part of the Chicago Comicon. The second festival was from August 20 to 23, 2015, with guests Tom Holland and Eli Roth. The third festival took place over four days in August 2016. Guests of the event were Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert and Doug Benson.

Personal life

Campbell married Christine Deveau in 1983; they had two children before divorcing in 1989. He met costume designer Ida Gearon while working on ''Mindwarp.'' They married in 1991. They reside in Jacksonville, Oregon.

Campbell is also an ordained minister, and has performed marriage ceremonies.

Campbell is a Kentucky Colonel.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

2024- Spooky Pinball's-Evil Dead Callouts

Accolades

See also

* '' Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way'' ()

References

External links

*
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"Not My Job"
Bruce Campbell appears on '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Bruce
1958 births
Living people
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male video game actors
American male voice actors
American people of English descent
American people of Scottish descent
Male actors from Michigan
People from Jacksonville, Oregon
People from Royal Oak, Michigan
Western Michigan University alumni
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors