Rosemary DeCamp
Born: 1910-11-14 in Prescott, Arizona, USA
Died: 2001-02-20
Known For: Acting
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.
Filmography
1984
- Murder, She Wrote as Agnes
1982
- Hotel as Mary Tyson
- St. Elsewhere as Amy Jeffries
1981
- Simon & Simon
- Saturday the 14th as Aunt Lucille
1979
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as Buck's Mother
- B. J. and the Bear
- Blind Ambition as Maureen Dean's Mother
1978
- The Time Machine as Agnes
1977
- The Love Boat as Cynthia Loudon
- We've Got Each Other
1976
1974
- The Rockford Files as Mary Ramsey
- Petrocelli as Mrs. Drew
1973
1970
- Night Gallery as Ellen Chase
- The Partridge Family as Grandma Amanda Renfrew
1969
- Love, American Style as Mrs. Kearn
1967
1966
1963
- Petticoat Junction as Emily Mapes
- Burke's Law as Mrs. Franklin
- Breaking Point
1962
- The Beverly Hillbillies as Priscilla Rolfe Alden Smith-Standish
- Ensign O'Toole as Leona
1961
- The Mike Douglas Show as Self
- Dr. Kildare as Angela Faring
- Hazel as Sybil
- 87th Precinct as Mrs. Phelps
1960
- 13 Ghosts as Hilda Zorba
- Tom, Dick and Harriet as Mother
1959
- Rawhide as Margaret Fletcher
1958
- 77 Sunset Strip as Nurse (uncredited)
1955
- The Bob Cummings Show as Margaret MacDonald
- Strategic Air Command as Mrs. Thorne
- Many Rivers to Cross as Lucy Hamilton
- Man on a Bus as Miriam
1954
- Climax! as Eleanor Farrington
1953
- Main Street to Broadway as Mrs. Harry Craig
- By the Light of the Silvery Moon as Alice Winfield
- So This Is Love as Aunt Laura Stokley
- General Electric Theater as Maxine
1952
- This Is Your Life as Self
- The Ford Television Theatre
- The Treasure of Lost Canyon as Samuella
- Scandal Sheet as Charlotte Grant
1951
- The Red Skelton Show as Abigail Van Clive
- Night Into Morning as Mrs. Annie Ainley
- On Moonlight Bay as Alice Winfield
- Hallmark Hall of Fame as Anna Baetz
1950
- The Big Hangover as Claire Bellcap
1949
- The Story of Seabiscuit as Mrs. Charles S. Howard
- Night Unto Night as Thalia Shawn
- Look for the Silver Lining as Mom Miller
- The Life of Riley as Peg Riley
- The Life of Riley as Peg Riley
1948
- Studio One as Cora Thompson
1947
- Nora Prentiss as Lucy Talbot
1946
- From This Day Forward as Martha Beesley
- Two Guys from Milwaukee as Nan
1945
- Danger Signal as Dr. Jane Silla
- Rhapsody in Blue as Rose Gershwin
- Blood on the Sun as Edith Miller
- Pride of the Marines as Virginia Pfeiffer
- Too Young to Know as Mrs. Enright
- Week-End at the Waldorf as Anna
1944
- Practically Yours as Ellen Macy
- The Merry Monahans as Lillian DeRoyce
- Bowery to Broadway as Bessie Kirby
1943
- The Voice That Thrilled the World as Self (segment 'Yankee Doodle Dandy') (archive footage)
- This Is the Army as Ethel Jones
- City Without Men as Mrs. Slade
1942
- Commandos Strike at Dawn as Hilma Arnesen
- Eyes in the Night as Vera Hoffman
- Yankee Doodle Dandy as Nellie Cohan
- Jungle Book as Messua
- Smith of Minnesota as Mrs. Smith (uncredited)
1941
- Hold Back the Dawn as Berta Kurz
- Cheers for Miss Bishop as Minna Fields
1937
- The Wayward Pups as Lady of the house (voice) (uncredited)