Bruce Campbell

Background

Bruce was born on June 22, 1958 in Royal Oak, Mi. (a suburb to Detroit). He has been married for 6 years (Damn!) to Ida Gearon, and has two kids and three cats named Carpenter, Edison, and Lucy. He attended Western Michigan University (for 6 months...) and each weekend he would go to MSU (Michigan State University) where Sam Raimi attended and shot a bunch of Super 8 films with him, which you can still find bootlegged here and there. In 1979, with his Detroit friends, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, Bruce raised $350,000 for a low-budget film, Evil Dead, in which he starred and Executive Produced. Completed slowly over four years, the film first gained notoriety in England where it became the best-selling video of 1983, beating out The Shining. After its appearance at Cannes, where Stephen King dubbed it "the most ferociously original horror film of the year," New Line Cinema decided to release Evil Dead in the U.S. After filming Crime Wave, a cross-genre picture, co-produced by Bruce and written by Sam Raimi with his newfound partners Ethan and Joel Coen, Dino DeLaurentiis agreed to take on the sequel to Evil Dead. Blessed with a budget ten times the original, Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn was released in 1987 with Campbell again starring in and co-producing this "less gory, more funny" sequel. Bruce then moved to Los Angeles and quickly gained a foothold in a series of independent genre films such as Maniac Cop, Moontrap, and Sundown. He then met his wife, costume designer Ida Gearon, on the set of Mindwarp, a "post-apocalyptic Jeremiah Johnson." Bruce then jumped back into producing as co-executive producer of the biker yarn Easy Wheels and also produced Lunatics: A Love Story, for RCA/Columbia. In 1992, Bruce rejoined his old Detroit colleagues and made the third of the popular Evil Dead trilogy, Army of Darkness, which Bruce starred in and co-produced for Universal Studios (the crew members were reportedly paid so little that they also received for their efforts a t-shirt saying "I Worked On Army of Darkness and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt"). Immediately following that, Bruce's Coen Brothers friends invited him to join them for a featured role in their "big business comedy" The Hudsucker Proxy for Warner Bros. Bruce then made his foray into television, first starring in the highly touted, but unfortuneately short-lived Fox series "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," then as a recurring Guest-Star on the hit show "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." With these under his belt, Bruce easily made the transition to director, helming several episodes and guest-starring in the number one syndicated series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys." Bruce has since reprised his "King of Thieves" character in the new "Hercules" companion series "Xena: Warrior Princess." Since then, Bruce expanded his range on television, with appearances on Sam Raimi's cryptic "American Gothic," Disney's TV movie update of "The Love Bug," and a more dramatic turn on the acclaimed show "Homicide." But Bruce hasn't abandoned movies, though. During this time, he's had featured roles in the poorly received "Congo," and John Carpenter's bizarrely fabulous "Escape From L.A." as the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills. Recently, he has been in the Fox made for TV movie "Tornado! which was Fox's highest rated TV movie. More recently, Bruce has made the leap into the multi-media industry by supplying the voice of the hero in an upcoming CD-ROM adventure game called "Cold-Blooded" for 7th Level. Bruce also remains interested in television development. He has recently signed on to play the lead in a sitcom Pilot called "Missing Links" for ABC, where he will play a suspended pro-golfer named "Ray" ("basically a sitcom version of the movie 'Tin Cup'", per Bruce). If it is picked up, it will show next fall. Also, he will soon be filming another episode of Hercules, reprising the role of Autolycus. And of course, Bruce has become quite a regular on Ellen. We all look forward to seeing (lots!) more of him!

Films

In the Line of Duty: Blaze of Glory (1997) (TV) .... Jeff Erickson

McHale's Navy (1997) .... Virgil

Chase Moran (1996) .... Alex Windham
... aka Assault on Dome 4 (1996)
... aka Chase Morran (1996)

Escape from L.A. (1996) .... Surgeon General of Beverly Hills
... aka John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (1996)

Fargo (1996) (uncredited)

Menno's Mind (1996) .... Mick Dourif

Tornado! (1996) (TV) .... Jake Thorne

Congo (1995) .... Charles Travis

Quick and the Dead, The (1995) (scenes deleted) .... Wedding Shemp

Hudsucker Proxy, The (1994) .... Smitty

"Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The" (1993) TV Series .... Brisco County Jr

Army of Darkness (1993) .... Ash (Ashley J. Williams)
... aka Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3 (1993)
... aka Captain Supermarket (1993)
... aka Evil Dead 3 (1993)
... aka Medieval Dead, The (1993)

Mind Warp (1992) .... Stover

Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992) .... John Loftmore

Lunatics: A Love Story (1991) .... Ray

Darkman (1990) .... Final Shemp

Maniac Cop 2 (1990) .... Jack Forrest

"Generations" (1989) TV Series

Moontrap (1989) .... Ray Tanner

Sundown, the Vampire in Retreat (1989) .... Van Heusen

Dead Next Door, The (1988) (voice)

Intruder (1988) .... Officer Howard

Maniac Cop (1988) .... Jack Forrest

Evil Dead II (1987) .... Ash (Ashley J. Williams)
... aka Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (1987)
... aka Evil Dead II, the Sequel to the Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror (1987) (end title)

Crimewave (1985/I) .... Renaldo "The Heel"
... aka Broken Hearts and Noses (1985)
... aka XYZ Murders, The (1985)

Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except (1985) (uncredited) .... Video Newscaster

Going Back (1983)

Evil Dead, The (1982) .... Ashley J. "Ash" Williams

Producer filmography

Army of Darkness (1993) (co-producer)
... aka Army of Darkness: Evil Dead 3 (1993)
... aka Captain Supermarket (1993)
... aka Evil Dead 3 (1993)
... aka Medieval Dead, The (1993)
Lunatics: A Love Story (1991) (co-producer)
Evil Dead II (1987) (co-producer)
... aka Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (1987)
... aka Evil Dead II, the Sequel to the Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror (1987) (end title)
Crimewave (1985/I) (co-producer)
... aka Broken Hearts and Noses (1985)
... aka XYZ Murders, The (1985)
Evil Dead, The (1982) (executive)

Writer filmography

Nutt House, The (1992) (as Roc Sandstorm)
... aka Nutty Nut, The (1992) (working title)

Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except (1985) (story)

Miscellaneous crew filmography

Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except (1985) (supervising sound editor)

Notable TV Guest Appearances

"Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995), as Autolycus (ep. 'Quest, The (2/3/97)')
"Homicide: Life on the Street" (1993), as Jake Rodzinsky (2/23/96)
"Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995), as Autolycus (ep. 'Royal Couple of Thieves, The (2/19/96)')
"Ellen" (1994), as Ed Billick (1996)
"Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995), as Autolycus (1996)
TV Commercial for Virginia State Lottery (1996)
"Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" (1993), as Bill ChurchJr. (1995)
"American Gothic" (1995), as Lt. Drey (1995)
"Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (1995), as Autolycus (1995), (1997)
"Weird Science" (1994), as Gene the Genie

*Note* Background Information taken from It's Bruuuuuuuce Web Page