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.
Known For

Murder, She Wrote

The Mike Douglas Show

The Love Boat

Mannix

Mannix

Quincy, M.E.

Love, American Style

Love, American Style
All Movies (43)
- Saturday the 14th1981 · as Aunt Lucille
- The Memoirs of a Fairy Godmother1980
- The Time Machine1978 · as Agnes
- 13 Ghosts1960 · as Hilda Zorba
- Tom, Dick and Harriet1960 · as Mother
- Man on a Bus1955 · as Miriam
- Strategic Air Command1955 · as Mrs. Thorne
- Many Rivers to Cross1955 · as Lucy Hamilton
- Main Street to Broadway1953 · as Mrs. Harry Craig
- So This Is Love1953 · as Aunt Laura Stokley
- By the Light of the Silvery Moon1953 · as Alice Winfield
- The Treasure of Lost Canyon1952 · as Samuella
- Scandal Sheet1952 · as Charlotte Grant
- On Moonlight Bay1951 · as Alice Winfield
- Night Into Morning1951 · as Mrs. Annie Ainley
- The Big Hangover1950 · as Claire Bellcap
- The Story of Seabiscuit1949 · as Mrs. Charles S. Howard
- Look for the Silver Lining1949 · as Mom Miller
- Night Unto Night1949 · as Thalia Shawn
- The Life of Riley1949 · as Peg Riley
- Nora Prentiss1947 · as Lucy Talbot
- Two Guys from Milwaukee1946 · as Nan
- From This Day Forward1946 · as Martha Beesley
- Too Young to Know1945 · as Mrs. Enright
- Danger Signal1945 · as Dr. Jane Silla
- Week-End at the Waldorf1945 · as Anna
- Pride of the Marines1945 · as Virginia Pfeiffer
- Rhapsody in Blue1945 · as Rose Gershwin
- Blood on the Sun1945 · as Edith Miller
- Practically Yours1944 · as Ellen Macy
- Bowery to Broadway1944 · as Bessie Kirby
- The Merry Monahans1944 · as Lillian DeRoyce
- The Voice That Thrilled the World1943 · as Self (segment 'Yankee Doodle Dandy') (archive footage)
- This Is the Army1943 · as Ethel Jones
- City Without Men1943 · as Mrs. Slade
- Commandos Strike at Dawn1942 · as Hilma Arnesen
- Eyes in the Night1942 · as Vera Hoffman
- Smith of Minnesota1942 · as Mrs. Smith (uncredited)
- Yankee Doodle Dandy1942 · as Nellie Cohan
- Jungle Book1942 · as Messua
- Hold Back the Dawn1941 · as Berta Kurz
- Cheers for Miss Bishop1941 · as Minna Fields
- The Wayward Pups1937 · as Lady of the house (voice) (uncredited)
All TV Shows (47)
- Murder, She Wrote1984 · as Agnes
- St. Elsewhere1982 · as Amy Jeffries
- Hotel1982 · as Mary Tyson
- Simon & Simon1981
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century1979 · as Buck's Mother
- Blind Ambition1979 · as Maureen Dean's Mother
- B. J. and the Bear1979
- We've Got Each Other1977
- The Love Boat1977 · as Cynthia Loudon
- Quincy, M.E.1976
- Medical Story1975
- The Rockford Files1974 · as Mary Ramsey
- Petrocelli1974 · as Mrs. Drew
- Police Story1973
- Police Story1973 · as Beaulah
- Night Gallery1970 · as Ellen Chase
- The Partridge Family1970 · as Grandma Amanda Renfrew
- Love, American Style1969 · as Mrs. Kearn
- Love, American Style1969 · as Old Martha Pomerantz
- Mannix1967
- Mannix1967 · as Mrs. Henry
- That Girl1966
- The Baileys of Balboa1964
- Petticoat Junction1963 · as Emily Mapes
- Petticoat Junction1963 · as Aunt Helen
- Burke's Law1963 · as Mrs. Franklin
- Breaking Point1963
- The Beverly Hillbillies1962 · as Priscilla Rolfe Alden Smith-Standish
- Ensign O'Toole1962 · as Leona
- The Mike Douglas Show1961 · as Self
- Hazel1961 · as Sybil
- Dr. Kildare1961 · as Angela Faring
- 87th Precinct1961 · as Mrs. Phelps
- Rawhide1959 · as Margaret Fletcher
- Rawhide1959 · as Mrs. Armstrong
- 77 Sunset Strip1958 · as Nurse (uncredited)
- The Bob Cummings Show1955 · as Margaret MacDonald
- Climax!1954 · as Eleanor Farrington
- General Electric Theater1953 · as Maxine
- The Ford Television Theatre1952
- The Ford Television Theatre1952 · as Mildred Ledbetter
- This Is Your Life1952 · as Self
- Hallmark Hall of Fame1951 · as Anna Baetz
- The Red Skelton Show1951 · as Abigail Van Clive
- The Life of Riley1949 · as Peg Riley
- Studio One1948 · as Cora Thompson
- Studio One1948 · as Laura Weber