Name
Rosemary DeCamp
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1910-11-14
Deathday
2001-02-20 (91 years old)
Place of Birth
Prescott, Arizona, USA
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.
Known For
7.034
A film of the life of the renowned musical composer, playwright, actor, dancer and singer ...
6.08
Air Force reservist Lt. Col. Robert "Dutch" Holland is recalled into active duty at the pe...
6.036
Horse trainer Shawn O'Hara and his lovely niece, Margaret, come to America to escape the m...
6.354
Mowgli, lost in the jungle when a toddler, raised by wolves, years later happens upon his ...
5.925
Nick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for w...
6
Berkeley university professor adjusts (using alcohol) to tragic fire deaths of wife & ...
6.111
Blind detective Duncan Maclain gets mixed up with enemy agents and murder when he tries to...
6.217
Quiet, organised Dr. Talbot meets nightclub singer Nora Prentiss when she is slightly hurt...
5.5
A gentle widower with a small daughter finds his peaceful small rural village suddenly inv...
- 1942 Yankee Doodle Dandy as Nellie Cohan
- 1981 Saturday the 14th as Aunt Lucille
- 1947 Nora Prentiss as Lucy Talbot
- 1952 Scandal Sheet as Charlotte Grant
- 1951 On Moonlight Bay as Alice Winfield
- 1960 13 Ghosts as Hilda Zorba
- 1945 Danger Signal as Dr. Jane Silla
- 1945 Rhapsody in Blue as Rose Gershwin
- 1943 This Is the Army as Ethel Jones
- 1949 The Story of Seabiscuit as Mrs. Charles S. Howard
- 1955 Strategic Air Command as Mrs. Thorne
- 1953 By the Light of the Silvery Moon as Alice Winfield
- 1941 Hold Back the Dawn as Berta Kurz
- 1955 Many Rivers to Cross as Lucy Hamilton
- 1945 Pride of the Marines as Virginia Pfeiffer
- 1952 The Treasure of Lost Canyon as Samuella
- 1942 Eyes in the Night as Vera Hoffman
- 1949 Look for the Silver Lining as Mom Miller
- 1945 Week-End at the Waldorf as Anna
- 1949 Night Unto Night as Thalia Shawn
- 1946 From This Day Forward as Martha Beesley
- 1944 The Merry Monahans as Lillian DeRoyce
- 1950 The Big Hangover as Claire Bellcap
- 1949 The Life of Riley as Peg Riley
- 1953 So This Is Love as Aunt Laura Stokley
- 1937 The Wayward Pups as Lady of the house (voice) (uncredited)
- 1955 Man on a Bus as Miriam
- 1942 Jungle Book as Messua
- 1944 Practically Yours as Ellen Macy
- 1943 City Without Men as Mrs. Slade
- 1951 Night Into Morning as Mrs. Annie Ainley
- 1942 Commandos Strike at Dawn as Hilma Arnesen
- 1942 Smith of Minnesota as Mrs. Smith (uncredited)
- 1953 Main Street to Broadway as Mrs. Harry Craig
- 1945 Too Young to Know as Mrs. Enright
- 1978 The Time Machine as Agnes
- 1960 Tom, Dick and Harriet as Mother
- 1944 Bowery to Broadway as Bessie Kirby
- 1946 Two Guys from Milwaukee as Nan
- 1941 Cheers for Miss Bishop as Minna Fields
- 1945 Blood on the Sun as Edith Miller
- 1943 The Voice That Thrilled the World as Self (segment 'Yankee Doodle Dandy') (archive footage)
- 1980 The Memoirs of a Fairy Godmother
- 1982 St. Elsewhere ( 2 episodes ) as Amy Jeffries
- 1963 Burke's Law ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Franklin
- 1979 B. J. and the Bear ( 2 episodes )
- 1977 The Love Boat ( 1 episode ) as Cynthia Loudon
- 1981 Simon & Simon ( 1 episode )
- 1966 That Girl ( 12 episodes )
- 1962 The Beverly Hillbillies ( 2 episodes ) as Priscilla Rolfe Alden Smith-Standish
- 1976 Quincy, M.E. ( 1 episode )
- 1979 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century ( 1 episode ) as Buck's Mother
- 1963 Petticoat Junction ( 1 episode ) as Emily Mapes
- 1967 Mannix ( 0 episode )
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Cora Thompson
- 1953 General Electric Theater ( 1 episode ) as Maxine
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as Anna Baetz
- 1959 Rawhide ( 1 episode ) as Margaret Fletcher
- 1973 Police Story ( 1 episode )
- 1949 The Life of Riley ( 26 episodes ) as Peg Riley
- 1952 This Is Your Life ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1954 Climax! ( 1 episode ) as Eleanor Farrington
- 1964 The Baileys of Balboa ( 1 episode )
- 1977 We've Got Each Other ( 1 episode )
- 1963 Breaking Point ( 1 episode )
- 1961 Dr. Kildare ( 1 episode ) as Angela Faring
- 1952 The Ford Television Theatre ( 2 episodes )
- 1955 The Bob Cummings Show ( 173 episodes ) as Margaret MacDonald
- 1951 The Red Skelton Show ( 1 episode ) as Abigail Van Clive
- 1961 Hazel ( 1 episode ) as Sybil
- 1959 Rawhide ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Armstrong
- 1962 Ensign O'Toole ( 1 episode ) as Leona
- 1963 Petticoat Junction ( 6 episodes ) as Aunt Helen
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Laura Weber
- 1974 The Rockford Files ( 1 episode ) as Mary Ramsey
- 1958 77 Sunset Strip ( 1 episode ) as Nurse (uncredited)
- 1952 The Ford Television Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Mildred Ledbetter
- 1969 Love, American Style ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Kearn
- 1974 Petrocelli ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Drew
- 1969 Love, American Style ( 1 episode ) as Old Martha Pomerantz
- 1979 Blind Ambition ( 4 episodes ) as Maureen Dean's Mother
- 1984 Murder, She Wrote ( 1 episode ) as Agnes
- 1967 Mannix ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Henry
- 1961 87th Precinct ( 1 episode ) as Mrs. Phelps
- 1970 Night Gallery ( 1 episode ) as Ellen Chase
- 1970 The Partridge Family ( 4 episodes ) as Grandma Amanda Renfrew
- 1961 The Mike Douglas Show ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1982 Hotel ( 1 episode ) as Mary Tyson
- 1973 Police Story ( 1 episode ) as Beaulah
- 1975 Medical Story ( 1 episode )
