Bruce Campbell Shares Sobering Cancer Update: “The Current Thing Is a Five-Year Deal”

Bruce Campbell has spent most of his career battling Deadites, demons, and all kinds of ridiculous cinematic horrors. Now, the beloved Evil Dead icon is facing the unthinkable.

Campbell, 68, revealed earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with a treatable but incurable form of cancer. During a recent appearance on The Adam Carolla Show, he shared another difficult update, saying doctors have given him an estimate of roughly five years.

“The current thing is a five-year deal,” Campbell said. “Give or take.”

It's sobering news, but Campbell isn't interested in letting a timeline dictate how he spends whatever time he has ahead of him.

“I have decided to live with it, and not die from it,” Campbell told Carolla.

His approach is pretty straightforward: keep living, keep working, and make the projects he wants to make. That includes Ernie & Emma, a comedy-drama Campbell wrote, directed, produced, and stars in alongside his wife, Ida Gearon, who also produced the film.

The story follows a widower played by Campbell who travels to scatter his late wife's ashes at locations she chose before her death. Along the way, he deals with his grief and begins finding a new purpose for himself.

Considering what Campbell is going through in his own life, the movie's exploration of mortality carries some weight, though he isn't approaching death as something purely grim or frightening.

Campbell recalled how he handled the death of his own father, explaining that he brought his children to hospice so they could be there when their grandfather died. For Campbell, it became something they could experience and understand rather than hide from.

“People die, and we have to get over that.”

Campbell admitted that his diagnosis messes with his head, which is certainly understandable, but he refuses to let it consume whatever time he has left.

He has continued promoting Ernie & Emma and plans to keep working, although fans can expect him to scale back his convention appearances after decades as one of the most popular personalities on the circuit.

There's also the possibility that medical advances could change his situation over the next five years. Campbell knows that could happen, but he isn't planning his life around a hypothetical breakthrough.

This hits close to home for me. My own mom was diagnosed with a treatable but incurable form of cancer and was initially given only a year and a half to live. After undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, doctors extended that estimate to three years.

It's now been five years, and thankfully, she's still doing really well. Experiences like that are a reminder of just how difficult it can be to predict how these things will play out.

Every person and every cancer is different, and a prognosis isn't necessarily a precise clock. Regardless, hearing that you or someone you love has a limited amount of time is incredibly scary.

Campbell has a great attitude about the situation, and hopefully that five-year estimate turns into many more. For now, Campbell is focused on living his life, spending time with the people he loves, and making the projects he wants to make. Here’s hoping he gets a lot more time to do all of it.