Heroic posing – Army of Darkness
“Hail to the King, baby”.
Yes! Happy Birthday wishes go to Evil Dead‘s Bruce Campbell who turns 54 today.
Lantern-jawed, proud chinned Campbell started acting as a teenager and moved into making super 8 movies before meeting with Sam Raimi at High School. The pair became friends and began getting serious about making films together. Campbell and Raimi worked together on a short film entitled Within the Woods, made with a view towards attracting potential investors who may have been interested in a similar project with a larger budget. This film would later become The Evil Dead.
The Evil Dead and its sequels (Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness) are undoubtedly the films that have made Campbell famous. His character Ashley J. Williams, or just “Ash” as he is famously known, is one of horror’s greatest heroes. His sarcastic wit, one-liners and having a chainsaw for a hand have made Campbell a true horror icon. He has also voiced the character in several video games.
Bruce Campbell has appeared in many other movies including William Lustig’s Maniac Cop and Maniac Cop 2, played an exaggerated version of himself in 2007′s My Name is Bruce (which he also directed) and starred as an aging Elvis Presley, living out his remaining days in a Texan nursing home in Phantasm director Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep.
He has also had cameos in all 3 Spider-man movies directed by Sam Raimi as well as Darkman and Congo.
Campbell has also appeared in many television shows including a recurring role as Autolycus in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. He can currently be seen on screens as Sam Axe in Burn Notice.
He has also written books including his autobiography entitled If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor and a novel entitled Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way, a comedy featuring himself as the main character and focusing on his struggle to make it into the world of A-list movies.
Bruce Campbell is the definitive horror hero. I hope to see him chainsawing the deadites again one day.
Happy Birthday, sir.
