Bruce Campbell Has 5 Years to Live After Incurable Cancer Diagnosis

“Evil Dead” star Bruce Campbell is opening up about his battle with cancer, revealing that he’s been given about five years to live.

Back in March, Campbell revealed he had been diagnosed with a cancer that was “treatable but not curable.”

“These days, when someone is having a health issue, it’s referred to as an ‘opportunity,’ so let’s go with that — I’m having one of those,” he wrote on X in March. “It’s also called a type of cancer that’s ‘treatable’ not ‘curable.’ I apologize if that’s a shock – it was to me too.”

Campbell didn’t go into detail about what type of cancer he’d been diagnosed with, but wrote that “professionally, a few things will have to change. Appearances and cons and work in general need to take 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’ this fall.”

On Wednesday’s episode of “The Adam Carolla Show,” Campbell opened up more about his diagnosis and treatment while also discussing his new movie.

“I’m in a five-year prognosis,” he said. “With the type of cancer that I have, which I don’t want to get into, the current thing is a five-year deal.” When Carolla asked if that meant Campbell had five years to live, the actor replied “give or take.”

“It’s a fascinating thing that takes place because [cancer] messes with your head, too. I’ve decided though, pretty specifically, to live with it, not die from it,” he added. “You can go down a massive rabbit hole. The cancer rabbit hole is enormous. You can go into focus groups of 10,000 guys who have exactly what you have. I won’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”

Campbell serves as director, writer, producer and lead actor in “Ernie & Emma,” in which he plays a widower scattering his late wife’s ashes, reflecting on their relationship together and confronting his grief.

“It’s a very fascinating time of having a movie about a guy who’s spreading his wife’s ashes, who died, made by a guy who’s dying,” he told Carolla.

Campbell, who starred as the chainsaw-wielding Ash Williams in director Sam Raimi’s original “Evil Dead” trilogy, executive produced this summer’s installment in the horror franchise, “Evil Dead Burn.” He’s also an EP on the next movie, 2028’s “Evil Dead Wrath.”

“I’m moving on. I got a movie to promote. And when I promote this movie, I have nothing. I’m free and clear when I promote this movie mentally,” Campbell said. “You have to make this decision of, ‘Well, OK, but do I have to stop everything that I’m doing because of this?’ Well, no.”

Watch his full interview below.