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Not groovy. Not groovy at all.
Celebrated actor Bruce Campbell has revealed that he has about five years to live after being diagnosed with cancer.
Best known for playing the iconic Ash Williams in Sam Raimi’s cult Evil Dead horror series, Campbell, 68, first shared the news of his diagnosis in March. At the time, he wrote that the cancer was “treatable” but not “curable”.
“I am 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, I’m a tough old son-of-a-bitch and I have great support, so I expect to be around a while.”
Now, in a candid interview on The Adam Carolla Show, Campbell called his current prognosis “a five-year deal”.
“With the type of cancer that I have, which I don’t want to get into, the current thing is a five-year deal,” Campbell said.
“It’s a fascinating thing that takes place because [cancer] messes with your head, too. I’ve decided though, pretty specifically, to live with it, not die from it,” he added. “You can go down a massive rabbit hole. The cancer rabbit hole is enormous. You can go into focus groups of 10,000 guys who have exactly what you have. I won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”
Campbell recently wrote, directed and starred in Ernie & Emma, a departure from the horror genre. The comedy-drama follows a widowed pear salesman who sets out on a journey to scatter his late wife Emma’s ashes in locations she specified before her death.
Campbell said he wanted to focus on life and work: “I’m moving on. I got a movie to promote. And when I promote this movie, I have nothing. I’m free and clear when I promote this movie mentally.”
He added: “You have to make this decision of, ‘Well, OK, but do I have to stop everything that I’m doing because of this?’ Well, no. You don’t die from cancer, you die from what cancer does to you. It’s a whack-a-mole life, literally.”
Campbell played Ash in three seasons of the TV series Ash vs Evil Dead, appeared in a voice role in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise, and recently cameoed in Sam Raimi’s Send Help. He executive produced this year’s Evil Dead Burn and will do the same for 2028’s Evil Dead Wrath.