
Rosemary DeCamp
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Female
Birthday
1910-11-14
Day of Death
2001-02-20 (90 years old)
Place of Birth
Prescott, Arizona, USA
Rosemary DeCamp
Biography
Rosemary DeCamp was an American radio, film, and television actress. DeCamp first came to fame in November 1937, when she took the role of Judy Price, the secretary/nurse of Dr. Christian in the long-running radio series of the same name. She also played in The Career of Alice Blair, a transcribed syndicated soap opera that ran in 1939–1940.
She made her film debut in Cheers for Miss Bishop and appeared in many Warner Bros. films, including Eyes in the Night, Yankee Doodle Dandy playing Nellie Cohan opposite James Cagney, This Is The Army playing the wife of George Murphy and the mother of Ronald Reagan, Rhapsody in Blue, and Nora Prentiss. She played the mother of the character played by Sabu Dastagir in Jungle Book. In 1951 and 1953, respectively, she starred in the nostalgic musical films On Moonlight Bay and its sequel, By The Light Of The Silvery Moon, as Alice Winfield, Doris Day's mother, opposite Leon Ames.
DeCamp played Peg Riley in the first television version of The Life of Riley opposite Jackie Gleason in the 1949–1950 season, then reprised the role on radio with original star William Bendix for an episode of Lux Radio Theater in 1950. From 1955–1959, she was a regular on the popular NBC television comedy The Bob Cummings Show, playing Margaret MacDonald, widowed sister of Cummings's character, the lothario photographer and former World War II pilot Bob Collins. Dwayne Hickman (future star of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) portrayed her son, Chuck.
She appeared in the 1961 Rawhide episode, "Incident Near Gloomy River". In 1962, she played a dishonest Southern belle in the NBC sitcom Ensign O'Toole with Dean Jones. She appeared in the role of Gertrude Komack on ABC's medical drama Breaking Point in the episode entitled "A Little Anger is a Good Thing".
DeCamp had a recurring role as Helen Marie, the mother of Marlo Thomas's character on the ABC sitcom That Girl from 1966–1970. She appeared in several 1968 episodes of the CBS sitcom Petticoat Junction as Kate Bradley's sister, Helen, filling in as a temporary replacement for the ailing Bea Benaderet as the mother figure to Bradley's three daughters.
DeCamp made several appearances as the mother of Shirley Partridge in The Partridge Family from 1970–1973. She also played The Fairy Godmother in the 1980s TV show, The Memoirs of a Fairy Godmother.
DeCamp played Buck Rogers' mother in flashback scenes of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "The Guardians".
On July 7, 1946, her Beverly Hills home was damaged when struck by a wing after the experimental XF-11 piloted by Howard Hughes (re-created in the 2004 movie, The Aviator) crashed nearby. Although a piece of the wing and a part of the neighbor's roof landed in DeCamp's bedroom (where she and her husband were sleeping) they sustained no injuries.
Acting
(1981)
Saturday the 14th
as Aunt Lucille
(1980)
(1978)
The Time Machine
as Agnes
(1960)
13 Ghosts
as Hilda Zorba
(1960)
Tom, Dick and Harriet
as Mother
(1955)
Strategic Air Command
as Mrs. Thorne
(1955)
Many Rivers to Cross
as Lucy Hamilton
(1955)
Man on a Bus
as Miriam
(1953)
Main Street to Broadway
as Mrs. Harry Craig
(1953)
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
as Alice Winfield
(1953)
So This Is Love
as Aunt Laura Stokley
(1952)
Scandal Sheet
as Charlotte Grant
(1952)
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
as Samuella
(1951)
On Moonlight Bay
as Alice Winfield
(1951)
Night Into Morning
as Mrs. Annie Ainley
(1950)
The Big Hangover
as Claire Bellcap
(1949)
The Story of Seabiscuit
as Mrs. Charles S. Howard
(1949)
Look for the Silver Lining
as Mom Miller
(1949)
Night Unto Night
as Thalia Shawn
(1949)
The Life of Riley
as Peg Riley
(1947)
Nora Prentiss
as Lucy Talbot
(1946)
From This Day Forward
as Martha Beesley
(1946)
Two Guys from Milwaukee
as Nan
(1945)
Week-End at the Waldorf
as Anna
(1945)
Blood on the Sun
as Edith Miller
(1945)
Rhapsody in Blue
as Rose Gershwin
(1945)
Pride of the Marines
as Virginia Pfeiffer
(1945)
Danger Signal
as Dr. Jane Silla
(1945)
Too Young to Know
as Mrs. Enright
(1944)
Practically Yours
as Ellen Macy
(1944)
Bowery to Broadway
as Bessie Kirby
(1944)
The Merry Monahans
as Lillian DeRoyce
(1943)
This Is the Army
as Ethel Jones
(1943)
City Without Men
as Mrs. Slade
(1943)
The Voice That Thrilled the World
as Self (segment 'Yankee Doodle Dandy') (archive footage)
(1942)
Jungle Book
as Messua
(1942)
Yankee Doodle Dandy
as Nellie Cohan
(1942)
Eyes in the Night
as Vera Hoffman
(1942)
Commandos Strike at Dawn
as Hilma Arnesen
(1942)
Smith of Minnesota
as Mrs. Smith (uncredited)
(1941)
Hold Back the Dawn
as Berta Kurz
(1941)
Cheers for Miss Bishop
as Minna Fields
(1937)
The Wayward Pups
as Lady of the house (voice) (uncredited)