So it’s after midnight, we’re a little late on his birthday, but it’s never too late for someone this groovy.

The person who posted the upcoming featured compilation on You Tube wanted to make it VERY CLEAR that they did not put the compilation together, nor do they own it, they made a copy and posted it because the original was taken down. Or something. I watch enough footage of Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness (for one) and I get kind of cloudy and foggy. I’m not going to rhapsodize about the 20-year long crush on him (which is cooling down now, but he’s still charming as hell) but I will say that the time I spent talking with him (in 1993 and 2001; the first time was just me trying to make words that formed recognizable sentences, but I watched him sign autographs in costume as Brisco County for literally six hours) I got the very clear feeling that he has absolutely no ego at all. I’ve met many celebrities, including actors, comedians, and rock stars. Groovy Bruce was one of the very few that didn’t act, even to the slightest degree, that he was doing you a favor by letting you spend time talking to you*  For instance, when I thanked him for staying hours past closing at a book signing to make sure everyone got their book signed, hand shook, photo took with him ,etc. he responded that he was the one that should be grateful for the support, and was totally genuine**.

Plus, as you may have noticed, he’s really entertaining.

As you may know, he was supposed to star in “Crime Wave” AKA “The XYZ Murders,” but the studio didn’t want him as the lead, they wanted someone more established (even though a watch of the movie will show you he was ten times the charisma of the actor they did pick as the lead). So Raimi, Tappart, and Bruce wrote a part for him as “Renaldo the Heel,” which he’s so perfect in it’s almost worth having him play a smaller role. Yeah, I know it’s not even close to a horror movie, but fuck it, this is Bruce Campbell here, he earned it (I was going to go for his scenes in Waxwork 2, but failed to locate them anywhere but our personal copy on VHS). Check out a pretty young Campbell in all his scenes below.

Happy Birthday again to Bruce–you’ve made a lot of horror fans, especially female ones, very, VERY happy!

*If I name the other ones, I’m going to sound like I’m name-dropping, and if I tell you which ones were such arrogant douches that I lost respect for them I’m going to sound bitter and negative. But hey, if you want to ask…

**When I was getting up to walk away and out of the store he playfully asked, “Why are you leaving so fast, baby?” This took serious, serious self-control (and the fact I’m married) to just smile at him over my shoulder and walk away from. I’m still surprised I made it all the way to the car with my legs working; took a few minutes to “collect myself” before I could drive, though.