The actors of Bubba Ho-Tep and maybe Bubba Nosferatu

Okay, you've seen the movie Bubba Ho-Tep and you have obviously enjoyed it enough to be here now finding out about the next movie in the Bubba series, but who was behind the magic? Well I guess we should probably start with the actors that brought the story to life.

Bruce Campbell plays Elvis Presley/Sebastian Haff - First up we have the man of the hour, Elvis. In Bubba Ho-Tep both the roles of Elvis Presley and Sebastian Haff were played by the same guy, the frankly awesome Bruce Campbell. Bruce Campbell is one of those people who has an incredible fan following. He is very probably the best known 'B' movie actor working today. Bruce has never been the Hollywood superstar that headlines major blockbusters, he has however had a phenomenal career working in supporting roles in big movies and taking the lead in many smaller movies.

Bruce Campbell started off working on local theatre productions in his native state of Michigan. He enjoyed being in the limelight and spent summers playing bit parts in small scale plays. In High School he met other people who were interested in making movies. One of these people was Sam Raimi, probably best known as the director of the recent mega-successful Spiderman movies. Bruce and Sam became great friends when they were teenagers. To start with they were just a couple of yahoos (as Bruce himself would say) messing around with a camera. After making a number of ultra-low budget Super 8 movies they decided to scrounge together a $150,000 dollar budget for their first proper movie. This would have been a tiny budget for any large scale movie, but it was a monster undertaking for With the help of many other childhood friends they made a small movie called 'Evil Dead' (you might have heard of it? :D ) in 1981. The movie was made on a shoestring budget and required the cast and crew to live together in cramped conditions in a house down in Tennessee where they shot the movie. Bruce was involved in every aspect of the movie and played Ash the hero. It was this movie that kick started the careers of both Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi.

The movie spawned 2 sequels over the following years and paved the way for Bruce to appear in many other movies. He starred in the western TV series The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and played recurring roles in both Hercules and Xena: Warrior Princess TV shows. He took the leap and directed a number of episodes of these shows along the way. Bruce has continued to play parts in large scale movies over the years and he still pops up in the vast majority of Sam Raimi's movies.

Bruce wrote a book titled If Chins Could Kill: Confessions Of A B Movie Actor which details his career so far. The book is an excellent read and I would seriously recommend that you pick it up if you have the chance. He has also recently finished writing a new fiction book called Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way. Most recently Bruce Campbell has become the face of Old Spice, the makers of men's after shave and deodorants. His cheeky commercials for this brand are excellent (see the media section for a link to one of the commercials!).

Bruce Campbell was probably the biggest reason that Bubba Ho-Tep succeeded in the cinemas. His hardcore fan base sticks with him every step of the way and they loved Bruce's tongue in cheek method of acting. He really brought the character of Elvis and Sebastian to life in the movie. Here's hoping that he sticks around for Bubba Nosferatu.

Don Coscarelli wrote the screenplay and also produced and directed Bubba Ho-Tep - Like Bruce Campbell, Don Coscarelli was interested in movies from a very early age and was making his first steps to becoming a film maker in his teenage years. Don made a few movies before hitting the horror movie big time with the movie Phantasm. He wrote, produced and directed Phantasm himself and it was released to great acclaim in 1979. Over the year's he has written and directed many horror related movies including a number of popular Phantasm sequels and has also been closely related to the Beastmaster movies too. In his career so far he has worked in most areas of film making, including scriptwriting, cinematography, producing, acting and filming. Don Coscarelli is a well known member of the horror movie fraternity and it was his vision and passion that brought Joe Lansdale's short story 'Bubba Ho-Tep' to the big screen.

Joe R. Lansdale wrote the original short story Bubba Ho-Tep - Not a huge amount is known about Joe Lansdale. He has been writing books and scripts for film and TV for over 15 years. Some of his credits include writing episodes of popular animated series Batman and Superman. He has written a large number of short stories over the years. More can be found at his web site. Joe Lansdale is a martial arts expert and he developed the Shen Chuan martial science. He has practiced martial arts for over 40 years and runs his own martial arts studio near his home in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Ossie Davis plays Jack 'JFK' Kennedy - Veteran movie actor Ossie Davis played Jack Kennedy in Bubba Ho-Tep. It was one of his last movie roles before he very sadly died on the 4th February 2005. Ossie was a well known film and TV actor for over 50 years. He was a featured speaker at the funerals of both martin Luthor King and Malcolm X. In addition to acting he also wrote a number of TV and film scripts. Ossie also produced and directed a number of different movies in the 1970's. Ossie was well loved by pretty much everybody who worked with him. Bruce Campbell has often spoken of his sadness at his loss.

Bob Ivy plays Bubba Ho-Tep - Bob Ivy plays the titular Bubba Ho-Tep. Bob has had an illustrious career as a stunt man and stunt co-coordinator in many movies and TV shows. He has also acted in a number of smaller roles requiring his unique stunt skills. For Bubba Ho-Tep he was required to spend long periods of time in the make-up chair having his monster make-up applied each day. He was forced to endure many cold nights in costume during filming. His stunt man roots came in to play a number of times during the shoot (yes, that was really him being set on fire in the final scenes of the movie!).

Countless other cast and crew members - The people profiled above were the big names featured in the cult classic movie Bubba Ho-Tep, however it should be noted that many other people were involved along the way. I am talking about the other cast members (including Ella Joyce as the Nurse) and many other behind-the-scenes crew members too. Without these many other people the Bubba movie would not have been the success it was. Thanks and well done to all involved!