Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22 1958) is an American actor, producer, writer and director. He is best known for his starring role as Ash in the Evil Dead trilogy of horror/slapstick movies, and has since become a B-movie icon.
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". This style is parodied in the film The Majestic where Campbell appears as Roland the Intrepid Explorer in the B movie Sand Pirates of the Sahara, written by Jim Carrey's screenwriter character. Campbell also excels at "reverse acting", a frequent filming technique of Sam Raimi's where action sequences are filmed in reverse of how they will appear in the film. Campbell offers advice about getting into the film industry on his website.
Bruce Campbell (October 20, 1909-June 17, 1995) was a professional baseball player from 1930 to 1942. Campbell began his career with the Chicago White Sox, but had very little playing time in the major leagues. In 1932, Campbell was traded from the White Sox to the St. Louis Browns with Bump Hadley for Red Kress. In Saint Louis, Campbell was a starting outfielder, and preformed well, hitting 106 RBI's in 1933. In the 1935 season Campbell played with the Cleveland Indians, after being traded for multiple players and cash. In Cleveland, Campbell had considerably higher batting averages than he did in Saint Louis, although injuries hurt his playing time.
In January 1940, the Indians traded Campbell to the Detroit Tigers for Beau Bell. The trade worked out for Campbell, as the Tigers won the American League pennant, and Campbell played all 7 games of the 1940 World Series. Campbell had 9 hits, 4 walks, scored 4 runs, 5 RBIs and a home run in the World Series, with a batting average of .360, on base percentage of .448 and slugging percentage of .520. Despite Campbell's performance, the Tigers lost the World Series in 7 games to the Chicago Cubs.
Campbell later played for the Washington Senators before ending his career. His career batting average was .290.
"Uncle Sam's favorite son" as the lyrics to the theme of "Jack of All Trades" (2000) go, was born June 22, 1958 (the youngest of 3 brothers) in Royal Oak, Michigan. As a child, Bruce watched "Lost in Space" (1965) on TV, and ran around dressed as Zorro. He got the acting bug at age 8; his dad was performing in local community theater. At 14, Bruce got to play the young prince in "The King and I" and even got to sing. He went on to appear in several community theater productions, including "South Pacific". However, he was also interested in directing, and shot super-8 flicks with a neighborhood pal. Perhaps through fate, he met future director Sam Raimi in a high school drama class in 1975. Soon, along with Sam, and now a bunch of other high school pals, Bruce filmed about 50 super-8 movies. During the summer of 1976, he was an apprentice in northern Michigan at Traverse City's Cherry County Playhouse, a summer-stock company. Bruce worked 18-hour days putting up sets, being assistant stage manager, doing errands, etc. No money, but it was a learning experience (it was show biz). He attended Western Michigan University and took theater courses. Bruce became a production assistant for a company that made commercials in Detroit. In the early part of 1979, with buddy Sam Raimi, he decided to become a pro filmmaker. Armed with a super-8 horror film Within the Woods (1978) which they showed potential investors, they raised $350,000 to make Evil Dead, The (1981) which Bruce co-produced and starred in as "Ash". Four years later, the completed film became the best-selling video of 1983 in England, and New Line Cinema got it a US release. Around this time, he married his first wife, and they had 2 kids. They raised 10 times as much cash for the sequel Evil Dead II (1987) again co-produced by Bruce and starring him as "Ash". He moved to L.A. In 1990, while filming Mindwarp (1990), he met his future second wife (costume designer Ida Gearon) on the set. In 1992, he rejoined Sam, and Bruce co-produced and starred as "Ash" in the 3rd of the Evil Dead trilogy, Army of Darkness (1992) for Universal Studios. On TV, Bruce directed many episodes of "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (1995). Bruce also acted as the recurring character "Autolycus", the King of Thieves; he portrayed this villain with zest in both "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" (1995) and "Xena: Warrior Princess" (1995). Bruce's latest television venture was starring as the title rogue of "Jack of All Trades" (2000). Everybody loves Jack. And everybody's heard of him -- "There ain't a French or pirate rogue who don't know Jack!".
