Rosemary DeCamp

Rosemary DeCamp

1910-11-14 – 2001-02-20 (age 90) Prescott, Arizona, USA
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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.

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Known For

Jungle Book
Jungle Book

1942

as Messua

13 Ghosts
13 Ghosts

1960

as Hilda Zorba

Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command

1955

as Mrs. Thorne

Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle Dandy

1942

as Nellie Cohan

Scandal Sheet
Scandal Sheet

1952

as Charlotte Grant

On Moonlight Bay
On Moonlight Bay

1951

as Alice Winfield

Week-End at the Waldorf
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
Saturday the 14th
Saturday the 14th

1981

as Aunt Lucille

Many Rivers to Cross
Many Rivers to Cross

1955

as Lucy Hamilton

Rhapsody in Blue
Rhapsody in Blue

1945

as Rose Gershwin

This Is the Army
This Is the Army

1943

as Ethel Jones

Eyes in the Night
Eyes in the Night

1942

as Vera Hoffman

Main Street to Broadway
Main Street to Broadway

1953

as Mrs. Harry Craig

The Time Machine
The Time Machine

1978

as Agnes

So This Is Love
So This Is Love

1953

as Aunt Laura Stokley

Commandos Strike at Dawn
Commandos Strike at Dawn

1942

as Hilma Arnesen

Blood on the Sun
Blood on the Sun

1945

as Edith Miller

By the Light of the Silvery Moon
By the Light of the Silvery Moon

1953

as Alice Winfield

The Voice That Thrilled the World
The Voice That Thrilled the World

1943

as Self (segment 'Yankee Doodle Dandy') (archive footage)