Bruce Campbell, “The Evil Dead” actor who is a staple at fan conventions, says he will be taking his foot off the gas for a while as he gets treatment for an unspecified cancer.
“[T]hese days, when someone is having a health issue, it’s referred to as an ‘opportunity,’ so let’s go with that — I’m having one of those. It’s also called a type of cancer that’s ‘treatable’ not ‘curable.’ I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too,” the 67-year-old said Monday on social media.
“The good news is, I’m not gonna go into any more detail.”
What he did go into a little more detail about was his plan to accommodate treatment, which involves cutting out “appearances and cons and work in general” while he gets the care he needs. Campbell said he has “big regrets” over canceling several con appearances over the summer but noted, “Treatment needs and professional obligations don’t always go hand-in-hand.”
He said his plan is to get “as well as I possibly can” over the summer so he can promote his new movie “Ernie & Emma” this fall. The movie — which he wrote, directed and stars in — follows a widower as he scatters his wife’s ashes in very specific locations and deals with the memories that arise at each of them.
Campbell’s place in the world of fandoms was cemented early on after he and buddy Sam Raimi partnered on the 1981 movie “The Evil Dead,” which saw Campbell playing Ashley “Ash” J. Williams and Raimi directing.
After teaming on two more movies in “The Evil Dead” universe, Campbell, Raimi and brother Ivan Raimi delivered the TV series “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” which aired for three seasons on Starz, from 2015 into 2018.
Campbell also co-starred in the USA Network series “Burn Notice,” playing Sam Axe, a former Navy SEAL and burned spy who hangs out with the series’ lead character Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), a spy who as the series begins gets a “burn notice” of his own. That one ran from 2007 to 2013.
Cutting to the present, Sam Raimi’s daughter Emma appears as the character Tatyana in Campbell’s “Ernie & Emma,” as does another Raimi brother, Ted.
Campbell wrote Monday afternoon, “I’m not trying to enlist sympathy — or advice — I just want to get ahead of this information in case false information gets out (which it will).
“Fear not,” he added, “I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while.”
Then he thanked “the greatest fans in the world” and said he hoped to see them soon.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com ’
