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, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Ida Gearon (1991 - present)

Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958 in 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 and recently the new Old Spice Spokesman. As a joke, he sometimes signs his name as Bruce "Don't call me Ash" Campbell.

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

Contents 1 Film career 1.1 Early career 1.2 Major roles 1.3 Cameos 1.4 Acting style and personality 2 Television and video games 3 Writing 4 Advice 5 Selected filmography 6 References 7 External links

[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 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 the United Kingdom, 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 Spider-Man 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 strip, 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 "The Amazing Spider-Man".

In the sequel, he played a snooty usher named Dylan Reid, referred to in the novelization by Peter David, who criticizes Peter Parker's appearance at length before refusing to let him into the theater, thereby causing a rift with Mary Jane. Campbell is extremely proud of this particular cameo, stating that he is the only villain to have thwarted Spider-Man and gotten away with it. Campbell is set to make a cameo in the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. He also 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 soap opera actor in the film Intolerable Cruelty, as well as bit parts in The Hudsucker Proxy and The Ladykillers. In Fargo he can be seen on the television at the kidnappers hideout, in stock footage from TV soap opera Generations which is worth noting as the show on which he met his first wife.

[edit] Acting style and personality

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 reverse of how they will appear in the film.

Bruce 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. He also starred in the television series Jack of All Trades, set on a fictional island, occupied by the French in 1801. He played the role of an American spy, and a masked crusader known as The Daring Dragoon. Campbell was also credited as co-executive producer, among others. The show was directed by Eric Gruendemann, and was produced by various individuals, including Sam Raimi. The show aired for two seasons, from 2000 to 2001. He had a recurring role as bad guy "Bill Church, Jr" in "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" in the mid-90's.

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.") He also starred in the episode Witch Way Now? of Charmed, as well as playing an FBI agent in an episode the short-lived series American Gothic titled "Meet the Beetles."

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 Spider-Man 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.

Campbell has also appeared in a television commercial for Old Spice. The ad began airing in January of 2007 and features him discussing experience and those who do or do not have it. The end of the ad features the words "Experience is Everything". There is a chainsaw and Necronomicon visible in the background of this commercial, undoubtedly a sly reference to the Evil Dead films.

[edit] Writing

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, 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
1988	Maniac Cop	Jack Forrest
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	Tornado!	Jake Thorne
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
	Terminal Invasion	Jack
	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
2007	Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters	Chicken Bittle	Post-production
	My Name is Bruce	Bruce Campbell	Post-production
	Spider-Man 3	Cameo	Filming re-shoots

[edit] References

• If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor (ISBN 0-312-24264-6),
• Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way (ISBN 0-312-31260-1)

[edit] External links

• The Official Bruce Campbell Website
• Bruce Campbell at the Internet Movie Database
• Bruce Campbell at the Notable Names Database
• Bruce Campbell at All Movie Guide
• Bruce Campbell News Central
• Salon Interviews Bruce Campbell
• Kittenpants.org interview
• Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way - Book Signing Photo Gallery @ TheGATE.ca
• Bruce Campbell Interview (fan interview)
• Pixelsurgeon Interview
• Interview: Bruce Campbell (Badmouth.net)
• Interview with Bruce Campbell on Slice of SciFi