Star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame!

Nominated for a Prime Time Emmy Award.

Rosemary De Camp was the quintessential small-town American mother, a calming and steadying presence in scores of films in the 1940s and 1950s. She came to Hollywood after a successful career on the stage and in radio, making her film debut in 1941. Though she worked for many studios, she was most closely associated with Warner Bros., for whom she made many pictures, often playing a young mother or the friend or sister of the heroine. Her best-known role was probably as the mother of George M. Cohan (played by James Cagney) in the classic Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). She also did a lot of work on television; she was a regular on The Bob Cummings Show (1961) and played Marlo Thomas' mother on That Girl (1966).

DeCamp 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, and Nora Prentiss. She played the mother of the character played by Sabu Dastagir in Jungle Book.

DeCamp played Peg Riley in the early television sitcom The Life of Riley, was a regular on NBC’s The Bob Cummings Show in the 1950s, and played Marlo Thomas’ mother on ABC’s That Girl in the 1960s. In 1962, she appeared as a dishonest Southern belle in the NBC sitcom Ensign O’Toole with Dean Jones. She appeared in the role of Gertrude Komack in the episode entitled “A Little Anger is a Good Thing” on ABC’s medical drama Breaking Point. DeCamp also appeared as Aunt Helen on CBS’s sitcom Petticoat Junction as a replacement for ailing Bea Benaderet. Viewers in the 1960s also knew her from her many appearances in commercials for the laundry product 20 Mule Team Borax.

She also played the faithful nurse on the Dr. Christian radio show, starring Jean Hersholt, and she played Buck Rogers’ mother in flashback scenes of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode “The Guardians”.

This photo is from the extensive collection of Wilma K. Sprunt Hooper 1929-2008. She attended The University of Utah. She served an art docent for 19 years at The Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University. She also served as a member and board member of the Theatre Guild at The University and as Drama Director in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Please see my other listing for photos and autographs from Hollywoods’s golden era.