Bruce Campbell, best known as the star of horror film The Evil Dead, revealed he has been diagnosed with cancer.
“These 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,” Campbell wrote in a lengthy post on X. “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 actor did not share the specific type of cancer. “The good news is, I’m not gonna go into any more detail,” he wrote. “I’m posting this, because professionally, a few things will have to change — appearances and cons and work in general need to take a back seat to treatment. My plan is to get as well as I possibly can over the summer so that I can tour with my new movie Ernie & Emma this fall.”
He continued, “There are several cons this summer that I have to cancel. Big regrets on my part. Treatment needs and professional obligations don’t always go hand-in-hand. That’s about it. 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).”
Campbell concluded his posted by sending love to fans and sharing his intention to stay strong “Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while,” he wrote.
Campbell first starred as Ash Williams in 1981 horror movie The Evil Dead. He reprised the role a few times, including in TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which premiered in 2015 and ran for three seasons.
“I’m always surprised by the demand, because the first Evil Dead was financed by dentists and doctors,” Campbell told Rolling Stone in 2015. “It wasn’t even an indie darling. It clawed its way from nowhere to where it is today, which is still a mom-and-pop operation. We’re just glad that, after all this hard work, people want more.”
Over the years, Campbell has also appeared on The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Xena: Warrior Princes, Hercules, and Burn Notice. In 2018, he took a role in AMC series Lodge 49 because he was excited by playing a scumbag.
“I have standard good looks, so I could have done soap operas,” he told Rolling Stone. “But to me that was not appealing because there’s just not enough going on. I like flawed characters. Perfect characters? That’s for superheroes. Gimme a dyslexic plumber any day.”
Campbell wrote, directed, and starred in Ernie & Emma, “a poignant road-trip comedy about grief, love, and rediscovering life after loss.”
