Bruce Campbell

Bruce Lorne Campbell was born June 22nd, 1958, in Birmingham, Michigan, USA.

Campbell befriended Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert during his teenage years. (He would also babysit Raimi's younger brother, Ted Raimi.) Over time, Campbell would be involved in a number of indie film projects with them, often as an actor. (It's been said this was done because it was felt that Campbell was the best looking of the group.) Campbell would eventually become one of the three founders of Renaissance Pictures. Campbell would go on to appear in a number of projects involving one of the Raimi's and/or Tapert, either playing a major role or just making a cameo.

Campbell is arguably best known for playing Ash in the low-budget horror movie, The Evil Dead, written/directed by Sam Raimi and produced by Tapert. Ultra-violent and gory, the movie became an instant favorite among horror fans and helped launch Campbell's career (as well as Tapert's and Raimi's). Campbell would reprise his role in two sequels and in some video games. He has also expressed interest in returning for a fourth movie if Raimi were to make one. Throughout it all, Campbell himself became a favorite among horror fans, who welcome his appearances in movies or at conventions.

Campbell, of course, is best known to Xenaverse fans for playing Autolycus and directing a number of episodes. His first involvement with the franchise was directing Hercules: The Legendary Journeys's first season episode, "The Vanishing Dead". The following season, he made his first appearance as Autolycus. In total, the King of Thieves would appear in twelve episodes of HTLJ and eight episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess. (He would also play a comedic version of Tapert in "Yes, Virginia, There is a Hercules" and "For Those of You Just Joining Us".) Throughout it all, he continued directing episodes of both series; his last being the HTLJ series finale, "Full Circle".

Following the end of HTLJ, the one hour time-slot was filled with two new thirty minute series produced by Ren Pics under the Action Pack label: Jack of all Trades and Cleopatra 2525. Jack of all Trades was created for Campbell, who starred as Jack Stiles and the Daring Dragoon. The series, however, proved short-lived – lasting twenty-two episodes.

Throughout it all, Campbell continued a healthy film career. He went on to have cameos in all of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. In 2005, he starred alongside Renee O'Connor in the Sci-Fi Channel movie, Alien Apocalypse, which garnered strong ratings upon its debut. Also in 2005, Campbell wrote, directed and starred in the film The Man With the Screaming Brain, a project he had long expressed interest in doing. Ted Raimi and Tamara Gorski also appeared prominently in the movie.

Campbell was also well known for playing the supporting character of Sam Axe on the USA Network show Burn Notice. The series ran for seven seasons beginning in June 2007 and aired it's final episode in September 2011 Campbell was the star of a 2011 Burn Notice made-for-televisionprequel focusing on Sam's Navy SEAL career, titled Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe.

In 2014, Campbell played Santa Claus in an episode of The Librarians. Campbell is set to play Ronald Reagan in season 2 of the FX original series Fargo. Currently Cambell stars with Lucy Lawless in a new series reprising his role as Ashley "Ash" Williams in Ash vs. Evil Dead, a series based upon the Evil Dead franchise that launched his career. Ash vs. Evil Deadbegan airing on Starz on October 31, 2015.

Credits

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys

ActorPorter

1. "The King of Thieves" - Autolycus
2. "The End of the Beginning" - Autolycus
3. "Beanstalks and Bad Eggs" - Autolycus
4. "Men in Pink" - Autolycus
5. "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hercules" - Rob Tapert
6. "Porkules" - Autolycus
7. "One Fowl Day" - Autolycus
8. "My Fair Cupcake" - Autolycus
9. "Genies and Grecians and Geeks, Oh My!" - Autolycus
10. "For Those of You Just Joining Us..." - Rob Tapert
11. "Just Passing Through" - Autolycus
12. "Hercules, Tramps & Thieves" - Autolycus

Director

1. "The Vanishing Dead"
2. "What's in a Name?"
3. "For Those of You Just Joining Us..."
4. "Redemption"
5. "Stranger and Stranger"
6. "Revelations"
7. "Full Circle"

Xena: Warrior Princess

Actor

1. "The Royal Couple of Thieves"
2. "The Quest"
3. "The King of Assassins"
4. "Tsunami"
5. "Vanishing Act"
6. "A Tale of Two Muses"
7. "The Key to the Kingdom"
8. "Takes One to Know One"

Director

1. "The King of Assassins"
2. "The Key to the Kingdom"

Trivia

• Bruce Campbell is one of few actors to have portrayed Xena (a result of a body-possessing incident).

Links

• Bruce Campbell's official site
• [1] at the Evil Dead wiki