Bruce Campbell

Yes, I reshuffled the schedule. When someone announces publicly that they have no more than five years to live, you get to them as quickly as you can. Especially if it’s someone as iconic as Bruce Campbell—and that’s just the chin. I’ve known who he was since high school at the latest and possibly before then. Technically, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was the first victim of The Show Before The X-Files Syndrome despite literally being before The X-Files, inasmuch as it debuted before The X-Files did. What I’m saying is, decades of Bruce Campbell still doesn’t feel like enough, so we’re getting to him now.

Really, how we all lucked out was his attending Wylie E. Groves High School in Beverly Hills. Michigan, that is. (For the curious, that’s the treasurer of the school board when the school was founded.) About a year and a half younger than he is, and therefore probably a grade or two behind him, was some kid named Sam Raimi. (I’ll get to him, I promise.) The two met, became friends, and started making movies together. Though his first movie was a class production of Oedipus Rex when he was fourteen. He played Creon, uncle of Oedipus.

Throughout the ‘70s, Campbell and assorted Raimis and other friends would make a lot of shorts, the plots of which do not always appear on IMDb. Campbell attended Western Michigan University, though I don’t know if he graduated (it’s not on his Wikipedia page). Then in 1978, he and the Raimis and so forth made a half-hour short that they shopped around called “Within the Woods.” This was intended to drive interest so they could make the movie that launched Campbell to cult stardom, The Evil Dead.

Now, I have seen The Evil Dead. A lot. And Evil Dead II. And Army of Darkness. And if you’re thinking, “Wow, that really doesn’t sound like the kind of movies you enjoy,” you would be correct. In the tail end of the ‘90s, I lived with someone for a while who would get obsessed with pop culture properties and watch them obsessively for about a month or so. During that month, we saw one or more of those movies every single night. I didn’t much care for them the first time; I haven’t seen an Evil Dead property since.

I’ve seen a lot of other Bruce Campbell stuff, though. His episode of The X-Files, finally having a success on Fox on a Friday night. (Apparently he considers Brisco County his favourite of his jobs to this day.) Obviously I’ve seen him repeatedly in the theatre, where his childhood friendship crosses with my childhood obsession and he shows up in Raimi superhero movies. (Also he did three episodes of Lois & Clark wherein he introduces red Kryptonite to the show.) My Gods he’s done a lot of turkeys, but I think he enjoys the turkeys. Which answers my partner’s question about why Campbell isn’t a bigger star.