Entertainment
Bruce Campbell Is Battling An Incurable Cancer, Cancels Appearances
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
Horror icon and famous chin Bruce Campbell is famous for playing roles in which he fights monsters. Sometimes they’re Kandarian demons, sometimes they’re enslaving aliens, and sometimes they’re the consequences of Peter Parker’s sulky teenage angst. But his latest fight is against a real-life monster: cancer.
Bruce Campbell: Certified B-Movie Badass
The actor announced his diagnosis to fans on X on March 2, 2026, saying it’s “’treatable’ not ‘curable.’” He added that he had to cancel numerous upcoming appearances this spring and summer because “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 in the fall,” he explained. “There are several cons this year summer that I have to cancel. Big regrets on my part.”
Ernie & Emma was written and directed by Campbell and is a comedy about a widower on a journey to spread his late wife’s ashes in some very specific and memorable locations. Campbell also stars in the film, alongside Cerina Vincent and longtime collaborator and personal friend Ted Raimi.
The Raimi Connection
The Raimi family has been Bruce’s bread and butter his entire career. Friends since junior high school, he and brothers Ted and Sam worked together to make the classic cult horror film The Evil Dead. As director Sam rose to prominence in Hollywood, he brought many of his childhood friends along with him, including Ted and Bruce Campbell.
They later starred together under Sam’s direction in the next two Evil Dead films, Dead by Dawn and Army of Darkness, as well as the series Ash vs the Evil Dead. They also played side by side in episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, where Campbell’s character, Autolycus, Prince of Thieves, became another iconic role of his. Sam Raimi produced both fantasy shows. Raimi also found a place for Campbell in many of his movies, including bit parts in his renditions of Spider-Man, and an appearance in the MCU film Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
However, Bruce has also made a name for himself, as he reported in his autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor. 174 credits also include movies as varied as the campy horror Bubba Ho-Tep and the kid superhero flick Sky High. He earned another iconic role as Sam Axe in Burn Notice, a character who became so popular, a spin-off TV movie chronicled his background. He’s lent his distinctive voice to numerous animated projects, including the Pixar film Cars 2, and the zany Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; he’s also performed in video games, most notably as Evil Dead hero Ash Williams.
Not Going Down Without A Fight
Bruce Campbell is so cool, he even played himself in the meta-horror My Name Is Bruce, about a kid who summons the actor to fight real-life demons after watching him do it in movies.
“Fear not, I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch,” he told his fans in his X post, channeling the energy that brought us Coach Boomer and Jack of All Trades. “I have great support, and I expect to be around for a while.”
He concluded, “As always, you’re the greatest fans in the world and I hope to see you soon!”
We hope to see you soon, too, Bruce. Best wishes for a productive treatment and a speedy recovery.