Film & TV
Bruce Campbell
born 1958 · actor, producer, director, writer
Royal Oak-born cult actor, Ash of The Evil Dead, who made his first films with Sam Raimi in Detroit's suburbs and premiered them in Detroit theaters.
- Born
Royal Oak, Michigan
age 68- Birth name
- Bruce Lorne Campbell
- Also known as
- Ash Williams
- Detroit years
- 1958–1984
- Field
- Film & TV
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bruce Campbell was born in Royal Oak on June 22, 1958, the son of an advertising executive and college professor, and grew up in the suburbs north of Detroit. He met Sam Raimi in the local school system and became his close friend at Wylie E. Groves High School in Beverly Hills, where the two began making Super 8 films. As a boy he often went to the Redford Theatre, and that is where the friends chose to hold the first screening of The Evil Dead on October 15, 1981. Two years earlier Campbell had starred in the test short Within the Woods, first shown at the Punch and Judy Theater in Grosse Pointe Farms. He briefly attended Western Michigan University, then co-produced and acted in Raimi's Crimewave, filmed in Detroit in 1983 and 1984. Decades later he recorded an audio-play version of his book Make Love! with fellow Michigan actors.
Highlights
- Ash Williams in The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992)
- Revived Ash in the Starz series Ash vs Evil Dead (2015–2018)
- Title role in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993–1994)
- Sam Axe on Burn Notice (2007–2013)
- Cult favorite Bubba Ho-Tep (2002); memoir If Chins Could Kill
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · mid-1970s
Wylie E. Groves High School
Campbell's high school, where his friendship and filmmaking partnership with Sam Raimi took off.
Favorite haunt · 1960s–1981
Redford Theatre
A childhood movie haunt; he and Raimi picked it for The Evil Dead's first screening on October 15, 1981.
Related place · 1979
Punch and Judy Theater
Closed
First public screening of Within the Woods, the short that sold The Evil Dead; the building has been offices since 1988.
Worked here · 1983–1984
Tuller Hotel
Demolished
Crimewave location, dressed as the 'Cafe Rialto'; Campbell co-produced and acted in the film.