Bruce Campbell

Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. A legendary B-Movie actor, Campbell is most famous for his starring roles in cult films like The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Crimewave, Army of Darkness, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-Tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. He stars in a spoof of his B-movie cult status in the 2007 film My Name Is Bruce. He has starred in mainstream cinema as well, most notably Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Congo and McHale's Navy. Campbell has had an extensive working relationship with director Sam Raimi, starring as Ash in Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy of horror-slapstick as well as cameos in Raimi's Spider-Man series and Darkman. He is currently starring as Sam Axe in Burn Notice on the USA Network.

Background
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. He has an older brother, Don, and an older half-brother, Michael Rendine.

Family
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 in the set of the movie Mindwarp.

Early years
Bruce Campbell began acting as a teenager and soon began making small 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.

Major film roles
A few years later, Campbell and Raimi 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, 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. 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 including all 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. Along with Bubba Ho-tep, Campbell played a supporting role in the 2005 film Sky High, and stars in My Name Is Bruce. He also was in the Jim Carrey drama The Majestic.

Campbell also had a key supporting role in the Coen Brothers film The Hudsucker Proxy. He appeared in the Coen Brothers film Fargo as well.

He also starred in the Michael Crichton adaptation Congo. He starred in the much anticipated McHale's Navy remake as well as John Carpenter's sequel to his classic film Escape From New York, Escape From L.A.

Campbell was also the star of the Maniac Cop B-Movie franchise.

Campbell had a starring voice role in the hit film 2009 animated adaptation of the children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

In January 2010 told in a Interview that his new film project called Bruce vs. Frankenstein. The film is directed and produced by his friend Mike Richardson.

Television roles
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 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 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 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 currently stars on the TV 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.

Voice acting
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". Most recently he provided the voice of The Mayor in the 2009 film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Autobiography
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. 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".

Comedy
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 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.)

Blog
Campbell maintains a blog on his official website, where he posted mainly about politics and the film industry.

Cameo roles

 * A deranged plastic surgeon (Named "The Surgeon General of Beverly Hills") in John Carpenter's Escape from L.A..
 * The final incarnation of Darkman as he disappears into the crowd on the street.
 * Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters as Chicken Bittle.
 * "Roland" in the film within a film, The Majestic.
 * Timecop (1997) as a character who went by the pseudonym Bernie Williams (using the same last name as his Ash character)
 * Once seen opposite Bertram van Munster in a spaghetti western remake of Cape Fear.
 * Several small parts in movies by Joel and Ethan Coen - appearing as a soap opera actor in the film Fargo, as well as bit parts in The Hudsucker Proxy, Intolerable Cruelty, and The Ladykillers.
 * The wrestling announcer in Spider-Man that coins the name "Spider-Man", which Peter Parker chose as his superhero name.
 * A stubborn usher in Spider-Man 2 who refuses to give Peter Parker access to Mary Jane's play on account of being late, thus causing a rift in their relationship.
 * A Maître d’ in Spider-Man 3 who tries to help Peter propose to MJ.
 * A small role in Congo, where he played a scientist who was torn to shreds by savage gorillas in the first ten minutes.
 * Was in a clip from the show Robot Chicken titled "morning wood" and as a car chase narrator for the Ohma #1 news team.
 * An actor on television in the beginning of From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money.
 * A villain named Himcules in the cartoon show My Life as a Teenage Robot.
 * He is seen in a clip from The Evil Dead on a television in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street. This was part of an ongoing banter between Wes Craven and Evil Dead director, Sam Raimi.