First of all, it's Bruce freaking Campbell (not a Hugo).
Shooting to popculture infamy with his role as the chainsaw-handed, shotgun-wielding, one-liner-spouting Ash Williams in the Sam Raimi-directed Evil Dead film series, Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is one of the most sought-after B-movie/character actors in Hollywood. His roles tend to aim towards the comedically awesome badass, and his very manly chin only makes him more famous.
Campbell's other roles were often found in television work, where he held the lead role in the steampunk-inspired action-comedies The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and Jack of All Trades, and a many-times recurring role as Autolycus, the King of Thieves in Raimi's Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules television series. In fact, his most high-profile work usually comes from bit parts in Raimi's various productions, but even outside of that Production Posse he is almost constantly involved with one project or another. One exception was his long-running role in Burn Notice as an over-the-hill (but still wily) Navy SEAL named Sam Axe.
He is Spider-Man's most powerful, implacable foe. His cameos in Sam Raimi's film trilogy are considered some of the funniest moments of those films: the wrestling ring announcer (and bestower of Spidey's official name) in the first film, the obnoxious usher who stops Peter from attending Mary Jane's play in the second (thereby making him the first character to defeat Spider-Man), and as the French maitre d' who helps Peter propose in the third. Campbell also does voice work for that franchise, providing the voice of the Narrator in all three Spider-Man video games; his role in those games appears to be only partly scripted, as Campbell shows his trademark dry delivery and a distinct flair for ad-libbed and off-the-cuff humor. Regardless of the franchise's 2012 reboot, Campbell's voice returns in the The Amazing Spider-Man licensed game, this time as a full-fledged villain.
His autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor, was published in 2002 and despite the name, it is actually a memoir that mostly deals with his early life, the Evil Dead series, and his observations about the unrecognized rank-and-file people who make Hollywood work. Part two of his autobiography, Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B-Movie Actor, was published in 2017 and details his personal life post 2002, and his work on Burn Notice, Bubba Ho-Tep, My Name is Bruce, and other projects, including the first season of Ash vs Evil Dead. Another book, Make Love!: The Bruce Campbell Way is currently in hardcover and paperback. It is a fictional account of how he nearly became an A-list actor, as well as his ruminations on the concept of romantic love.
Not to be confused with the composer of the same name
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Works Include:
AdvertisingFilm - Animation- Rod "Torque" Redline in Cars 2.
- The mayor in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
- Fugax in The Ant Bully.
- Chicken Bittle in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters.
Film - Live-Action
- Dr. Ivan Hood in Alien Apocalypse.
- Jonathan Wexler in Black Friday (2021)
- Elvis Presley/Sebastian Haff in Bubba Ho Tep
- Short appearance in Congo.
- One of the many disguises of Darkman, along with providing several dubbed ADR lines and screams. He was supposed to play the title character but the suits interfered with that.
- He dubbed the voice for the characters Raimi and Comdr. Carpenter in The Dead Next Door.
- Escape from L.A., as the Surgeon General of Beverly Hills.
- The Evil Dead series, as Ash Williams.
- An uncredited role as an unnamed priest in Evil Dead Rise who is also stated to be Ash.
- Smitty in The Hudsucker Proxy (a joint effort by Sam Raimi and The Coen Brothers).
- Short appearance as a cop in Intruder.
- Mechanic Hank Cooper in the 1997 remake of The Love Bug.
- Man with the Screaming Brain, which he co-wrote, directed, and starred in
- Jack Forrest in Maniac Cop and Maniac Cop 2.
- He co-starred in the 1992 film Mindwarp, produced by Fangoria magazine.
- Moontrap
- My Name is Bruce, As Himself. Sort of.
- Coach Boomer in Sky High (2005)
- Virgil in the 1997 movie of McHale's Navy.
- A cameo appearance in all three of Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy films, and sometime Lemony Narrator in the accompanying video games.
- Tornado, as Jake Thorne.
- Oz the Great and Powerful as a guard of the Emerald City.
- A short cameo in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money as a character killed by bats in a movie within the movie.
- Timequest
- Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe: A prequel movie about his Burn Notice character
- Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat as a descendant of the vampire hunter Van Helsing.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as "Pizza Poppa", a vendor of pizza balls on Earth-838.
Live-Action Television
- The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
- American Gothic (1995): "Meet the Beetles" as Lt. Jack Drey.
- Burn Notice, where it is worth noting his character's name is Sam Axe, and often goes by the cover identity of
Chuck Finley. - Charmed as Agent Jackman.
- Ellen as Ed Billik
- Homicide: Life on the Street: "Justice" (two-part episode) as Jake Rodzinsky
- Lois & Clark - three episodes as Bill Church Jr.
- The X-Files: "Terms of Endearment" as Wayne Weinsider
- Jack of All Trades
- The recurring role of Autolycus in Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
- Santa Claus in The Librarians 2014
- Timecop, episode "The Future, Jack, the Future"
- Fargo, as Ronald Reagan
- Ash vs. Evil Dead as Ashley J. Williams
Tabletop Games
- Wrote the foreword for the Deadlands Player's Guide.
Video Games
- Reprised his role of Ash in a trio of licensed Evil Dead games: Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (which came complete with a controller button dedicated to spouting one liners),Evil Dead: Regeneration, which featured a loud-mouthed, undead sidekick played by Ted Raimi, and Evil Dead: The Game, with most of the original actors from the movies and the series reprising their roles. He also reprised his role as Ash in Dead by Daylight. He was going to reprise Ash as a Guest Fighter in Mortal Kombat 11 but this didn't happen for various reasons. He would reprise his role again in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
- Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle, as Harry Pitfall jr.
- Voices the Player Character Jake Logan in Tachyon: The Fringe; listening to him calling you a little bitch when you cheat is one of the funniest parts of the game.
- Also voiced the Player Character Jake Burton in Broken Helix.
- Voiced the Lemony Narrator who gives tutorials in the Spider-Man games based on the Sam Raimi movies, as well as the Xtreme Reporter in the game adaptation of The Amazing Spider-Man.
- Voiced and lent his likeness to Captain Lennox in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's Exo Zombies mode.
Webcomics
- The Hypothetical Casting of Legostar Galactica begins with him as Captain Bob Smith.
Western Animation
- A parody of himself in the form of Magnanimus in Megas XLRCoop: He's just a big head... with tiny arms and legs!
- Voiced Villain of the Week Himcules in My Life as a Teenage Robot.
- Uncle Phil in The Replacements
- Eugene's father King Edmund in Tangled: The Series
- Nerdcore's ode to horror movies (done by MC Lars, YT Cracker, Schaffer the Dark Lord, and Zealous1) is entitled "Do The Bruce Campbell".
- Psychostick wrote a musical love letter to the man, referencing his Evil Dead and other works, simply titled "Bruce Campbell".
Tropes associated with Bruce Campbell's roles:
- Butt-Monkey: Awesome as he might be, it's worth noting how a lot of his characters, especially under Sam Raimi, take a lot of punishment and humiliation.
- Chainsaw Good: The Trope Codifier.
- The Charmer: One of his most notable traits, not only are most of the characters he plays Loveable Rogues, but he himself is quite charming and friendly.
- Deadpan Snarker: Almost every word that comes out of his mouth is laced with good-natured sarcasm.
- Enmity with an Object: As revealed in If Chins Could Kill, Bruce is not fond of "The Classic", the 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that Sam Raimi puts in every film. He notes with distinct relish that he was quite fond of the fact that, to set up an appropriate shot in Spider-Man, he had the car sawed in half, which elicited a funny rant from Raimi regarding this trope (and yes, Raimi had it repaired).
- From the same book, Campbell recalls that, on the set of Crimewave, he had The Classic, one of several cars used for a specific sequence, gutted as a prank when production staff noted it was the only one with the correct interior for a certain shot, prompting Raimi's stubborn insistence to Campbell that "you will never kill the Classic".
- Erudite Stoner: Bruce is a strong advocate for the legalization of marijuana and has had a medical marijuana card in his residence of Portland, Oregon since 2005. He's also a very smart guy and obviously quite funny.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: To the point his autobiography is called If Chins Could Kill.
- Large Ham: A staple of his roles.
- The Pornomancer: Many of his roles have him as quite the ladies' man even as an older man, capable of getting a woman to drop her panties and sleep with him with a wink and some smooth talk. Even when he isn't he tends to find himself around the female form quite often.The Rageaholic: (on his appearance in Escape from L.A.) Let's see: working opposite of Kurt Russell in a John Carpenter film, being paid millions to savage Valeria Golino's cans in her prime? I don't know womb-rending liquid macheesmo is coursing through your veins, Mr. Campbell, but bottle that shit and sell it!
- Production Posse: Aside from his work with his high-school friend Sam Raimi, who co-founded the production company Renaissance Pictures with him and Robert Tapert, he's also worked often with the Coen Brothers.
- This Is My Boomstick: Trope Namer
