An actor from a beloved Christmas film has been diagnosed with cancer and is preparing to undergo a surgical procedure as part of his treatment plan.
Credit: Disney/21st Century Studios
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The McAllister home in “Home Alone” (1990)/Credit: Disney/21st Century Studios
‘Home Alone’
In 1990, a then-unknown ten-year-old child actor named MacCauley Culkin forever changed Christmas-themed movies with several iconic scenes in a new film titled Home Alone.
In the holiday flick, which also starred Catherine O’Hara, Kieran Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern, Kevin McCallister, played by MacCauley Culkin, is accidentally overlooked and left at home when his parents and siblings leave for the airport to board an airplane and jet off for the holidays.
It’s bad enough that Kevin’s distraught mother can’t get a flight back home to Chicago to see her son and to make sure he’s ok, but something more sinister is at work, as Kevin soon finds out.
Credit: Disney/21st Century Studios
Two bandits have been casing Kevin’s neighborhood, one of them posing as a police officer checking to make sure residents have their homes protected over the holidays, as the majority of them are traveling away for Christmas.
Instead, the “Wet Bandits” plan to use that information to break into the homes and take anything they want.
They’re sure the McAllisters’ home will be empty, but when they make their first attempt to break in, they discover the house is occupied.
Credit: Disney/21st Century Studios
What ensues is a series of hilarious holiday hijinks that has kept merry movie-watchers laughing for more than three decades.
No Laughing Matter
Though Home Alone is a holiday comedy film, recent news about an actor in the film is no laughing matter.
Actor Ken Hudson Campbell, 61, who played the role of Santa Claus in the 1990 film, was recently diagnosed with cancer and has been raising funds to cover the expenses of a related surgical procedure via a GoFundMe page.
Per a statement from his daughter Michaela on the page, the actor had a tumor that had “elusively grown on the bottom of his mouth and began encroaching on his teeth.”
Campbell as Santa Claus in “Home Alone” (1990)/Credit: Disney/21st Century Studios
The actor was scheduled for a surgical intervention on Thursday, which was said to have lasted for ten hours.
According to his daughter, his treatment plan will also include a six-month recovery period and the possibility of chemotherapy as well.
“We need the world’s help to save Ken,” writes Campbell’s daughter on his GoFundMe page.
Ken Hudson Campbell/Credit: GoFundMe
“Huge Out-of-Pocket Costs”
She goes on to explain that Campbell lost the health insurance he had through the SAG-AFTRA union, and that he has since switched to a new insurance carrier:
“We are anticipating huge out-of-pocket costs for caregivers/skilled nursing, insurance premiums, medical equipment, transportation, dental implants, dentures, and who knows what else,” his daughter writes.
“Our entire immediate family–Kathleen, Richard, and Michaela–are planning on taking care of him as much as we can during this long journey.”
Ken Hudson Campbell (R) in “Groundhog Day” starring Bill Murray (1993)/Credit: Columbia Pictures
Campbell’s daughter describes her father as a loving family man:
“Ken Campbell is a family man. A loving father of two children with an admirable lust for life and a passion for acting, writing, & sports. It is possible that this procedure will affect his ability to work as an actor in the future.
We are asking for your help so that Kenny can use the time ahead to return to health and spend more time with family & friends. Every prayer, positive thought, dollar, or gesture of support means the world to our family.”
