Home AloneActor Ken Hudson Campbell 'Burst Into Tears' After Seeing GoFundMe Support for Cancer Surgery (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Ken Hudson Campbell.Photo:Paul Archuleta/Getty

Paul Archuleta/Getty

Ken Hudson Campbell, known for playing Santa in the 1990 holiday classicHome Alone, is on the mend after his cancer was successfully removed during surgery.

The 61-year-old actor’s daughter Michaela spoke to PEOPLE about the type of cancer her father is battling and shared an update on his health after he was diagnosed on Oct. 27.

“It’s called squamous cell carcinoma,” she tells PEOPLE. “It was a big tumor in his mouth. The last two years he’s gotten lots of biopsies done and they’ve tried to control it. And it was only this year that it just got very, very aggressive. So when he got his biopsy in October, that is when we got the diagnosis.”

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the most common oral cancer and affects about 35,000 people in the United States each year. It often appears as scaly red patches or elevated growths. SCC is typically not life-threatening but if left untreated, can grow large or spread to other parts of the body.

Michaela says her father’s diagnosis came as a shock because she believed he was staying on top of his health — which he was doing until earlier this year.

In January, Campbell underwent surgery to have some areas of dysplasia removed. However, Michaela says he stopped getting the tumor checked out after losing hisSAG-AFTRA health insurancearound the same time. Within 10 months, his cancer became aggressive.

“He lost his health insurance with SAG and he had to stop going to the same doctors that he had been going to for a while about his mouth,” she explains. “And it discouraged him a little bit and he just didn’t really check on it.”

“I think it was really shocking for us because we thought he was taking care of it, at least I did. It was really hard for me to hear and I had a hard time emotionally,” Michaela continues. “My dad, he was just in shock about it all.”

Ken Hudson Campbell with his son Richard and daughter Michaela before cancer surgery.Michaela Campbell

Michaela Campbell

Last week, Campbell went into surgery to have the tumor removed. During the 10-hour procedure, his lymph nodes and a large part of his jaw bone were removed, Michaela says. Surgeons also removed a part of his leg bone in order to reconstruct a new jaw with it.

In one month, Campbell will start radiation treatment five days a week and the actor will have a six-month recovery period. Michaela says she, her mother Kathleen, and brother Richard will take care of him unless further assistance is needed.

“I think the hardest part of this is going to be him losing his speech and his ability to talk. So speech therapy is going to play a big role in it,” Michaela says.

“We’re kind of playing it one step at a time, depending on how debilitated he is,” she adds. “If he needs extra help, we might put him into a nursing home for a little while, but if not, we’re going to take him back home and we still will be hiring post-op care help with that.”

Ken Hudson Campbell.GoFundMe

GoFundMe

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Days before Campbell’s surgery, Michaela created aGoFundMepage on her father’s behalf in order to help raise money for physical and speech therapy, medical equipment, dental implants, caregivers and more.

The fundraiser has since surpassed its $100,000 goal, with donations from several stars, includingSteve Carell,Jeff Garlin,Tim Meadows,Big Bang Theoryco-creator Bill Prady, and more.

“The first day we posted it, every time he read something, he would just burst into tears,” she says of her dad. “It was the first time he really got emotional about the whole situation. It was kind of a shock to him to feel so loved.”

“It really means the world,” Michaela tells PEOPLE. “My family’s been struggling for a long time financially. So just having my dad’s friends come together, this is just very overwhelming and it really takes a lot of stress off of my family’s shoulders.”

source: people.com