Rosemary DeCamp
Acting • Born 1910-11-14 – Died 2001-02-20
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
89 credits
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Movie • 1942
Nellie Cohan
Saturday the 14th
Movie • 1981
Aunt Lucille
Nora Prentiss
Movie • 1947
Lucy Talbot
Scandal Sheet
Movie • 1952
Charlotte Grant
On Moonlight Bay
Movie • 1951
Alice Winfield
13 Ghosts
Movie • 1960
Hilda Zorba
Danger Signal
Movie • 1945
Dr. Jane Silla
Rhapsody in Blue
Movie • 1945
Rose Gershwin
This Is the Army
Movie • 1943
Ethel Jones
The Story of Seabiscuit
Movie • 1949
Mrs. Charles S. Howard
Strategic Air Command
Movie • 1955
Mrs. Thorne
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Movie • 1953
Alice Winfield
Hold Back the Dawn
Movie • 1941
Berta Kurz
Many Rivers to Cross
Movie • 1955
Lucy Hamilton
Pride of the Marines
Movie • 1945
Virginia Pfeiffer
The Treasure of Lost Canyon
Movie • 1952
Samuella
Eyes in the Night
Movie • 1942
Vera Hoffman
Look for the Silver Lining
Movie • 1949
Mom Miller
Week-End at the Waldorf
Movie • 1945
Anna
Night Unto Night
Movie • 1949
Thalia Shawn
From This Day Forward
Movie • 1946
Martha Beesley
The Merry Monahans
Movie • 1944
Lillian DeRoyce
The Big Hangover
Movie • 1950
Claire Bellcap
The Life of Riley
Movie • 1949
Peg Riley
So This Is Love
Movie • 1953
Aunt Laura Stokley
The Wayward Pups
Movie • 1937
Lady of the house (voice) (uncredited)
Man on a Bus
Movie • 1955
Miriam
Jungle Book
Movie • 1942
Messua
Practically Yours
Movie • 1944
Ellen Macy
City Without Men
Movie • 1943
Mrs. Slade
Night Into Morning
Movie • 1951
Mrs. Annie Ainley
Commandos Strike at Dawn
Movie • 1942
Hilma Arnesen
Smith of Minnesota
Movie • 1942
Mrs. Smith (uncredited)
Main Street to Broadway
Movie • 1953
Mrs. Harry Craig
Too Young to Know
Movie • 1945
Mrs. Enright
The Time Machine
Movie • 1978
Agnes
Tom, Dick and Harriet
Movie • 1960
Mother
Bowery to Broadway
Movie • 1944
Bessie Kirby
Two Guys from Milwaukee
Movie • 1946
Nan
Cheers for Miss Bishop
Movie • 1941
Minna Fields
Blood on the Sun
Movie • 1945
Edith Miller
The Voice That Thrilled the World
Movie • 1943
Self (segment 'Yankee Doodle Dandy') (archive footage)
The Memoirs of a Fairy Godmother
Movie • 1980
St. Elsewhere
TV • 1982
Amy Jeffries
Burke's Law
TV • 1963
Mrs. Franklin
B. J. and the Bear
TV • 1979
The Love Boat
TV • 1977
Cynthia Loudon
Simon & Simon
TV • 1981
That Girl
TV • 1966
The Beverly Hillbillies
TV • 1962
Priscilla Rolfe Alden Smith-Standish
Quincy, M.E.
TV • 1976
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
TV • 1979
Buck's Mother
Petticoat Junction
TV • 1963
Emily Mapes
Mannix
TV • 1967
Studio One
TV • 1948
Cora Thompson
General Electric Theater
TV • 1953
Maxine
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Anna Baetz
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Margaret Fletcher
Police Story
TV • 1973
The Life of Riley
TV • 1949
Peg Riley
This Is Your Life
TV • 1952
Self
Climax!
TV • 1954
Eleanor Farrington
The Baileys of Balboa
TV • 1964
We've Got Each Other
TV • 1977
Breaking Point
TV • 1963
Dr. Kildare
TV • 1961
Angela Faring
The Ford Television Theatre
TV • 1952
The Bob Cummings Show
TV • 1955
Margaret MacDonald
The Red Skelton Show
TV • 1951
Abigail Van Clive
Hazel
TV • 1961
Sybil
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Mrs. Armstrong
Ensign O'Toole
TV • 1962
Leona
Petticoat Junction
TV • 1963
Aunt Helen
Studio One
TV • 1948
Laura Weber
The Rockford Files
TV • 1974
Mary Ramsey
77 Sunset Strip
TV • 1958
Nurse (uncredited)
The Ford Television Theatre
TV • 1952
Mildred Ledbetter
Love, American Style
TV • 1969
Mrs. Kearn
Petrocelli
TV • 1974
Mrs. Drew
Love, American Style
TV • 1969
Old Martha Pomerantz
Blind Ambition
TV • 1979
Maureen Dean's Mother
Murder, She Wrote
TV • 1984
Agnes
Mannix
TV • 1967
Mrs. Henry
87th Precinct
TV • 1961
Mrs. Phelps
Night Gallery
TV • 1970
Ellen Chase
The Partridge Family
TV • 1970
Grandma Amanda Renfrew
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self
Hotel
TV • 1982
Mary Tyson
Police Story
TV • 1973
Beaulah