---
name: "Rosemary DeCamp"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/rosemary-decamp"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "14 November 1910"
died: "20 February 2001"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 78
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-20T00:48:13.284249+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Rosemary DeCamp

Actor. Born 14 November 1910 in Prescott, Arizona, USA. Died 20 February 2001.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 14 November 1910, Prescott, Arizona, USA
- **Died:** 20 February 2001
- **Active:** 1941–1942
- **Also known as:** Rosemary Shirley DeCamp
- **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_DeCamp, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2448035, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0213619/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/30273

## Fi1m on Rosemary DeCamp

> Rosemary DeCamp spent a career playing other people's mothers, often older than she was, in film, on radio and for two long runs on television. She was rarely given much to do, and she was reliable in it.

In *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942) she is Nellie Cohan, mother of the Four Cohans and of James Cagney's George, and the family scenes belong to Walter Huston, whose quiet exasperation with his son keeps them funny rather than sour. DeCamp's job is to stand beside him and make the act look like a family, and she does it. She was in her early thirties, playing mother to the star, and nobody in the audience was meant to notice. Nobody did.

That was the pattern. She began on radio in 1937 as Judy Price on *Dr. Christian* and stayed with the programme for its whole run, and when film came calling with *Cheers for Miss Bishop* (1941) it was Warner Bros. that kept her through the 1940s and into the 1950s, mostly as somebody's mother. The grey was often applied in the make-up chair, since the studio kept casting her older than the actors playing her children. By *On Moonlight Bay* (1951) and *By the Light of the Silvery Moon* (1953) she was Doris Day's mother, Alice Winfield, and the nostalgic musical had found its ideal parent: warm, capable, small-town and never in the way.

The one early part that breaks the pattern is the one we like best. In *Hold Back the Dawn* (1941) she is Berta Kurz, half of a young couple stuck in a Mexican border hotel alongside a professor who has stopped counting the days and Charles Boyer's gigolo, hoping their child can be born on the American side. It is a small part in a film that belongs to Boyer and Olivia de Havilland, and we found ourselves watching the Kurzes' corner of the lobby more than the script asked us to, because Berta is the only person there whose wait has a date attached. The film was made while the refugees were still arriving, and DeCamp plays her as someone who knows it.

She once said she had "this non-aggressive motherly look", and the industry took her at her word. It cost her leading parts; a woman who could pass for sixty at thirty was not going to be asked to play thirty. Television, which wanted exactly what the studios had wanted, gave her the longest runs of her career: Margaret MacDonald, the widowed sister keeping house on *The Bob Cummings Show* (1955–1959), and Helen Marie, mother to Marlo Thomas across four seasons of *That Girl* (1966–1970).

Watch her in *Yankee Doodle Dandy* for the way she listens to Cagney rather than for anything she says, and then find *Hold Back the Dawn*, where for once the waiting is hers. She was not asked to carry a film, and she never dropped one.

## Biography

Rosemary DeCamp, also credited as Rosemary Shirley DeCamp, was an American actress who worked in radio, film and television. She first gained prominence in radio, playing Judy Price in the long-running series *Dr. Christian* from 1937 and appearing in the syndicated soap opera *The Career of Alice Blair* (1939–1940).

DeCamp made her film debut in *Cheers for Miss Bishop* (1941) and appeared as Berta Kurz in *Hold Back the Dawn* (1941). She is known for roles including Nellie Cohan in *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), Messua in *Jungle Book* (1942), and Alice Winfield in *On Moonlight Bay* (1951) and its sequel *By the Light of the Silvery Moon* (1953). On television she played Margaret MacDonald in *The Bob Cummings Show* (1955–1959) and Peg Riley in the early television version of *The Life of Riley*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), Fi1m 78, as Nellie Cohan — [page](https://film.one/film/yankee-doodle-dandy.md)
- *Hold Back the Dawn* (1941), Fi1m 78, as Berta Kurz — [page](https://film.one/film/hold-back-the-dawn.md)

## Complete filmography (79)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Agnes
- *St. Elsewhere* (1982), series, as Amy Jeffries — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/st-elsewhere.md)
- *Hotel* (1982), series, as Mary Tyson
- *Simon & Simon* (1981), series, Actor
- *Saturday the 14th* (1981), as Aunt Lucille
- *The Memoirs of a Fairy Godmother* (1980), Actor
- *Buck Rogers in the 25th Century* (1979), series, as Buck's Mother
- *Blind Ambition* (1979), series, as Maureen Dean's Mother
- *B. J. and the Bear* (1979), series, Actor
- *The Time Machine* (1978), as Agnes
- *We've Got Each Other* (1977), series, Actor
- *The Love Boat* (1977), series, as Cynthia Loudon
- *Quincy, M.E.* (1976), series, Actor
- *Medical Story* (1975), series, Actor
- *The Rockford Files* (1974), series, as Mary Ramsey — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-rockford-files.md)
- *Petrocelli* (1974), series, as Mrs. Drew
- *Police Story* (1973), series, as Beaulah
- *Night Gallery* (1970), series, as Ellen Chase
- *The Partridge Family* (1970), series, as Grandma Amanda Renfrew
- *Love, American Style* (1969), series, as Mrs. Kearn, Old Martha Pomerantz
- *Mannix* (1967), series, as Mrs. Henry
- *That Girl* (1966), series, Actor
- *The Baileys of Balboa* (1964), series, Actor
- *Petticoat Junction* (1963), series, as Emily Mapes, Aunt Helen
- *Burke's Law* (1963), series, as Mrs. Franklin
- *Breaking Point* (1963), series, Actor
- *The Beverly Hillbillies* (1962), series, as Priscilla Smith-Standish
- *Ensign O'Toole* (1962), series, as Leona
- *Hazel* (1961), series, as Sybil
- *Dr. Kildare* (1961), series, as Angela Faring
- *87th Precinct* (1961), series, as Mrs. Phelps
- *13 Ghosts* (1960), as Hilda Zorba
- *Tom, Dick and Harriet* (1960), as Mother
- *Rawhide* (1959), series, as Margaret Fletcher, Mrs. Armstrong
- *77 Sunset Strip* (1958), series, as Nurse (uncredited)
- *Man on a Bus* (1955), as Miriam
- *Strategic Air Command* (1955), as Mrs. Thorne
- *Many Rivers to Cross* (1955), as Lucy Hamilton
- *The Bob Cummings Show* (1955), series, as Margaret MacDonald
- *Climax!* (1954), series, as Eleanor Farrington
- *Main Street to Broadway* (1953), as Mrs. Harry Craig
- *So This Is Love* (1953), as Aunt Laura Stokley
- *By the Light of the Silvery Moon* (1953), as Alice Winfield
- *General Electric Theater* (1953), series, as Maxine
- *The Ford Television Theatre* (1952), series, as Mildred Ledbetter
- *The Treasure of Lost Canyon* (1952), as Samuella
- *Scandal Sheet* (1952), as Charlotte Grant
- *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Anna Baetz
- *On Moonlight Bay* (1951), as Alice Winfield
- *Night Into Morning* (1951), as Mrs. Annie Ainley
- *The Big Hangover* (1950), as Claire Bellcap
- *The Story of Seabiscuit* (1949), as Mrs. Charles S. Howard
- *The Life of Riley* (1949), series, as Peg Riley
- *Look for the Silver Lining* (1949), as Mom Miller
- *Night Unto Night* (1949), as Thalia Shawn
- *The Life of Riley* (1949), as Peg Riley
- *Studio One* (1948), series, as Cora Thompson, Laura Weber
- *Nora Prentiss* (1947), as Lucy Talbot
- *Two Guys from Milwaukee* (1946), as Nan
- *From This Day Forward* (1946), as Martha Beesley
- *Too Young to Know* (1945), as Mrs. Enright
- *Danger Signal* (1945), as Dr. Jane Silla
- *Week-End at the Waldorf* (1945), as Anna
- *Pride of the Marines* (1945), as Virginia Pfeiffer
- *Rhapsody in Blue* (1945), as Rose Gershwin
- *Blood on the Sun* (1945), as Edith Miller
- *Practically Yours* (1944), as Ellen Macy
- *Bowery to Broadway* (1944), as Bessie Kirby
- *The Merry Monahans* (1944), as Lillian DeRoyce
- *This Is the Army* (1943), as Ethel Jones
- *City Without Men* (1943), as Mrs. Slade
- *Commandos Strike at Dawn* (1942), as Hilma Arnesen
- *Eyes in the Night* (1942), as Vera Hoffman
- *Smith of Minnesota* (1942), as Mrs. Smith (uncredited)
- *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), as Nellie Cohan — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/yankee-doodle-dandy.md)
- *Jungle Book* (1942), as Messua
- *Hold Back the Dawn* (1941), as Berta Kurz — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/hold-back-the-dawn.md)
- *Cheers for Miss Bishop* (1941), as Minna Fields
- *The Wayward Pups* (1937), as Lady of the house (voice) (uncredited)

## Gallery

- ![Rosemary DeCamp at the National Film Society convention, May 1979. NOTE: Permission granted to copy, publish, broadcast or post any of my photos, but please cre](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-8c223aeabf37.jpg) Rosemary DeCamp at the National Film Society convention, May 1979. NOTE: Permission granted to copy, publish, broadcast or post any of my photos, but please cre — Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Rosemary_DeCamp_%284505904314%29_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Rosemary DeCamp](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-36ed9e31f7af.jpg) Rosemary DeCamp — film screenshot (William Cagney Productions / United Artists), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Rosemary_DeCamp_in_Blood_on_the_Sun.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Rosemary DeCamp at the National Film Society convention, May 1979. NOTE: Permission granted to copy, publish, broadcast or post any of my photos, but please cre](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-cd9ec12a1818.jpg) Rosemary DeCamp at the National Film Society convention, May 1979. NOTE: Permission granted to copy, publish, broadcast or post any of my photos, but please cre — Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Rosemary_DeCamp_%284505904314%29.jpg/1280px-Rosemary_DeCamp_%284505904314%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Photo of Rosemary DeCamp as nurse Judy Price and Jean Hersholt as Doctor Christian from the radio program Dr. Christian. (1953)](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-7f373fe25f97.jpg) Photo of Rosemary DeCamp as nurse Judy Price and Jean Hersholt as Doctor Christian from the radio program Dr. Christian. (1953) — CBS Radio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Rosemary_DeCamp_Jean_Hersholt_Dr._Christian_1953.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Rosemary DeCamp](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-fa5125c00b75.jpg) Rosemary DeCamp — Image via TMDB
- ![Rosemary DeCamp](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-d634b1d6cf73.jpg) Rosemary DeCamp — Image via TMDB
- ![Rosemary DeCamp](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-e8e58843badd.jpg) Rosemary DeCamp — Image via TMDB
- ![Photo of Bob Cummings and Rosemary DeCamp promoting The Bob Cummings Show television program. DeCamp played his sister, Margaret, on the show. (1959)](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-839df15df555.jpg) Photo of Bob Cummings and Rosemary DeCamp promoting The Bob Cummings Show television program. DeCamp played his sister, Margaret, on the show. (1959) — Milburn-McCarty Public Relations, New York, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Bob_Cummings_Rosemary_DeCamp_Bob_Cummings_Show_1959.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Photo of Jackie Gleason as Chester A. Riley and Rosemary DeCamp as Peg Riley from the television program The Life of Riley. While William Bendix played the role (1949)](https://film.one/media/person/1232386/gallery-ddbbaab77805.jpg) Photo of Jackie Gleason as Chester A. Riley and Rosemary DeCamp as Peg Riley from the television program The Life of Riley. While William Bendix played the role (1949) — NBC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Jackie_Gleason_Rosemary_DeCamp_The_Life_of_Riley_1949.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/rosemary-decamp