Ash Wednesday: Top uncharacteristic Bruce Campbell cameos

Bruce Campbell 2 as Robocop – Courtesy of Within the Wood

Bruce Campbell has a long and very diverse career. Before Ash vs Evil Dead, he played in several movies where you may not have recognized him. At 1428 Elm, we are highlighting his top uncharacteristic cameos!

“Every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead.” – Dabbs Greer

There Are No Small Parts

One thing I like about Bruce Campbell is that he is more concerned with working than with his line count. Some actors base their choices on how many lines they have throughout the script. Campbell is more about the quality of the part, no matter the size.

He has a long and very diverse career. Sometimes he has been the lead and at other times a supporting player. Bruce is also not above taking the occasional cameo which is refreshing to see.

The List

At 1428 Elm, we decided to create a list of cameos that Campbell has done and while a couple of our choices are familiar, there are some that are not. Time to delve into our selections in our order of preference.

Lunatics: A Love Story

Ash Wednesday – Bruce Campbell – Lunatics – Courtesy of Renaissance Pictures

This is a dark comedy romance written and directed by long time Campbell friend, Josh Becker. Quirky and at times a little crazy (but in a good way) this film takes you on a journey inside the mind of Hank Stone played by another Bruce associate, Ted Raimi.

Hank is a poet who has become somewhat agoraphobic because he has crazy visions involving spiders in his brain and rappers who appear out of nowhere to rough him up. Through a fluke of a telephone line, he gets connected to Nancy (Deborah Foreman) a woman with a fatalistic view on life.

The two despite their personalities manage to fall in love and help each other overcome their issues. Bruce plays Ray, Nancy’s loser boyfriend who leaves her penniless for a hot blond. This is one of the few times where Bruce plays a real tool.

Ray is rather mean spirited and consistently puts Nancy down. Surprisingly enough, Campbell is quite good in the role and seems to relish it.

Escape from L.A

Ash Wednesday – Bruce Campbell – Escape from LA – Courtesy of Paramount Pictures, Rysher Entertainment

More from Bruce Campbell

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• Bruce Campbell: Impact Wrestling wedding pays homage to Evil Dead 2
• Bruce Campbell: What is his connection to Impractical Jokers on Tru TV?
• Bruce Campbell: Last Fan Standing returns to Wizard World
• 31 Days of Halloween: Revisiting American Gothic with Bruce Campbell

In this John Carpenter film and sequel to the successful Escape from New York, Kurt Russell reprises his role as badass Snake Plissken. Once again, Plissken must save the day by thwarting a doomsday device while fighting a new batch of crazies.

Bruce is almost unrecognizable as the sinister and terrifying looking Surgeon of Beverly Hills. In this role, he carves up people for their body parts. Obviously, his procedures have not gone well judging by his deranged appearance.

Campbell has a wicked good time as he fondles Valeria Golino’s breasts and almost extracts Snake’s only good eye. Ultra-convincing you feel as if he might go crazy at some point and start slaughtering and butchering people to achieve that cosmetic perfection.

Megas XLR

Ash Wednesday – Bruce Campbell – Megas XLR – Courtesy of Cartoon Network

Back in 2004, Bruce did the voice over for a Transformers type robot called “Magnanimous.” Even in cartoon form he imparted gravitas. When he speaks, mere mortals listen. Especially when you are a force to be reckoned with.

The show was extremely similar in tone to Optimus Prime’s world along with a healthy dose of time travel. It even had elements of the Terminator in it because one of the characters, Kiva (Wendee Lee) needed to go back to the future with Megas in order to save the world.