It seems like everyone is writing a memoir these days. Bill Clinton just got a record $10 million for his, because he was president. I don't know how much Bruce Campbell was paid for "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor," but he was in "Congo."
"I often get hassled by a lot of fans about why I did that film," Campbell admits toward the end of his autobiography. "The thing many folks don't understand is that an actor doesn't always do things for art. I would have paid to go to Costa Rica, and yet I had a chance to not only go there for free but get paid as well."
That statement is probably the dishiest "confession" Campbell offers up. His book is no Hollywood tell-all. Instead, it's the story of a moderately talented working stiff actor who meandered his way from starring in B-list horror movies to making memorable guest star appearances in some of television's most noteworthy programs.
In other words, it's not the usual tale of a "meteoric rise" followed by a "tragic fall," as Campbell explains in the introduction. Campbell has flitted around the periphery of stardom for the past twenty years without ever quite nailing it. But think about him hard enough, and a whole string of associations follow.
Yes, that was him giving Jennifer Jason Leigh a hard time in "The Hudsucker Proxy." Yes, he was in the coming-out episode of "Ellen." Try also "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," "Xena: Warrior Princess," "The X-Files," "Homicide: Life on the Streets" and "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman," to name a few.
So Campbell's been around. So what?
His memoir is worth reading because it's an honest, unglamorized portrayal of what being a screen actor trying to make a living is really like. Born in Detroit in 1958, Campbell was considerably out of the Hollywood loop. Making Super-8 films with his friends in high school gave him an appreciation for the grunt work of filmmaking. As a result, he gives equal attention to the famous director or the anonymous extra in his storytelling-as long as each has a good story to tell.
Despite his early assertion that "this book is dedicated to the players on the second string, the B people, if you will, and I cheerfully include myself in that lot," Campbell does his fair share of namedropping. But whether he's a young man on his first trip to Hollywood, gazing starry-eyed at Charlton Heston, or a supporting cast member trying to keep himself amused on the set of "McHale's Navy," Campbell is never pretentious and always attentive to detail of the grandest or smallest sort.
That gift of attention may be Campbell's memoir's greatest liability. At 302 pages, it's a long, if mostly delightful, journey. Fans of the 1979 cult horror classic, "Evil Dead," starring Campbell and directed by Sam Raimi, will be thrilled to know that over 70 pages are devoted to every gruesome detail of conceiving, funding, filming and selling the movie.
The making of "Evil Dead" is an important lesson in low-budget success. Armed only with their naivete, childhood friends Campbell and Raimi plunged into the frigid Tennessee winter and emerged with their careers.
In 1993, Campbell was offered the role that could have catapulted him into major television stardom. "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." was a clever cowboy drama where Campbell beat the bad guy and got the girl every week. "Brisco County" was also canceled after one season.
Despite biting the dust so rapidly, "Brisco County" turned things around for Campbell, so much that by the end of the 1990s, he felt qualified to write the story of his experiences.
In the end, "If Chins Could Kill" doesn't feel like four years' work (which it was). Campbell's writing style is engaging but utilitarian. A few editing slips, a fondness for italics and a vagueness about dates give the book a slightly unprofessional air, but perhaps it's only appropriate to Campbell. He comes off as a jovial, jocular guy who's just as likely to be on TV as he is to be plotting a monstrous practical joke on a friend involving stolen cars and U.S. marshals (which he does).
"If Chins Could Kill" is a textbook for anyone who is seduced by Campbell's comfortable semi-obscurity into the entertainment business. Or, if not, Campbell offers this consolation: "If the book sucks, at least there are gobs of pictures, and they're not all crammed in the middle like all those other actor books"
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