When it comes to icons of the horror genre, today marks the 63rd birthday of one that stands head and shoulder above many - especially if that head has been dismembered with a chainsaw and lofted high on the end of a boomstick. Yes, Bruce Campbell, the man responsible for bringing Ash Williams and the Evil Dead franchise to life, celebrated his birthday today and of course so did his many fans. With Campbell currently producing the new Evil Dead Rise reboot, it seems that his fans have not forgotten his gory screen persona or the unexpected icon of cinema he has become over the years.

Bruce Campbell was born in 1958 in Royal Oak, Michigan and he is best known for playing the often put-upon plaything of the Deadites in the Evil Dead franchise. Starting in short film Within The Woods in 1978, Campbell appeared in three Evil Dead movies, as well as the Ash vs Evil Dead TV show which ran for three gloriously gory seasons and gave fans a much needed blast of the chainsaw wielding unlikely hero.

Outside the Evil Dead, Campbell has had a varied career, appearing in many low-budget cult movies such as Maniac Cop, Sundown: The Vampire Retreat and in the role of Elvis Presley in Bubba Ho-Tep, as well as numerous TV series including Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, and as Sam Axe in Burn Notice for six years between 2007 and 2013. He had also dabbled in directing, with A Community Speaks, The Man With The Screaming Brain and My Name Is Bruce, a spoof movie about his own strange and sometimes unexpected career.

Back in Evil Dead territory, from which Campbell has never strayed too far, he has provided voice-overs for several video games based on the franchise including Hail to The King and A Fistful of Boomstick, and the upcoming Evil Dead The Game, in which he appears as one of the playable characters from the movies and series. He has also worked on other game titles, including the Spiderman games based on Evil Dead cohort Sam Raimi's first foray into the world of Marvel, Pitfall 3D and Dead By Daylight.

In the near future we will also see Bruce Campbell step into the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the first time, again seemingly via the invisible cord that ties him to Raimi, in Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness, which he has an as yet unspecified role. What the future holds beyond that is anyone's guess, but after the crazy life he has had so far, I wouldn't like to try and work out where he will show up next.

So on his birthday, it was only right for his fans, and horror lovers, to come out and wish the actor many happy returns. Campbell himself is active on Twitter, recently having posted teases for the new Evil Dead game and providing updates on the Evil Dead Rise movie, so it is likely that he will show up at some point to thank everyone for their thoughts. Here are just a small amount of the posts shared via the social media site to mark the occasion.