Rosemary DeCamp

Actress Rosemary deCamp studied at Mills College in Oakland, California, and worked on Broadway as an understudy before getting into radio -- voicing roles on "Dr. Christian" and "The Career of Alice Blair." She debuted on the big screen in 1941 with the film "Cheers for Miss Bishop" and over the next eight years made 25 movies for a variety of studios. She was often cast as the confidant or close friend of the female lead in features like "Hold Back the Dawn," "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Rhapsody in Blue," and "Night Unto Night." She played Peg Riley in the movie and TV versions of "The Life of Riley" opposite both William Bendix and Jackie Gleason. DeCamp was also a regular on "The Bob Cummings Show" throughout the '50s, worked with Marlo Thomas on "That Girl," and played Aunt Helen on "Petticoat Junction" in the '60s. Although her work in films had mostly subsided in the last two decades of her career, she continued to work steadily on television, with recurring roles on "The Partridge Family," "Lobo," "B.J. and the Bear," and "St. Elsewhere." Her last TV appearance was in the "Murder, She Wrote" episode "Dead Letter" in 1989. She died of pneumonia in 2001 at the age of 90.