After working in almost exclusively short films for almost ten years, acting in about 32 of them, the teddy-bear babe Bruce Campbell finally broke into the full-length feature category as Ashley “Ash” J. Williams in The Evil Dead (1981). It’s a role that would stick with him and launch him into a whole different level of Hollywood. Born in Michigan, he and fellow Detroit friends Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert raised $350K to shoot the low-budget horror thriller, with Sam writing and directing. The flick became a cult classic, with the video outselling even The Shining in England. When it appeared at Cannes, Stephen King called it, “the most ferociously original horror film of the year,” and it got big-time distribution in the U.S. Eventually, two sequels followed, Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), as well as the Ash vs Evil Dead TV series from 2015-2018, all of which starred Bruce. (And while there was a naked ass in the TV series, it belonged to a butt-double, and not really Bruce.) Raimi went on to direct multiple Spider-Man movies, and Bruce can be seen in cameo roles in all of them. Beyond The Evil Dead universe, you can see Bruce on TV as Brisco County Jr. in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. from 1993-1994, Ed Billik in Ellen from 1996-1997, Autolycus in Xena: Warrior Princess from 1996-1999 and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys from 1995-1999, Jack Stiles in Jack of All Trades in 2000, Uncle Phil in The Replacements from 2006-2009, Sam Axe in Burn Notice from 2007-2013, and as Gary Green in Lodge 49 in 2018, where he relaxes in a hot tub, his dad bod half submerged and half visible to all. He’s also continued to be a creator behind the scenes, and has had a hand in producing just about anything having to do with The Evil Dead, including projects he hasn’t officially appeared in. He’s written, and directed, too, and his voice can be heard on anything from Disney’s animated series The Legend of Tarzan to the video game Call of Duty.
