Joe Camp, a pioneering filmmaker who created a groundbreaking franchise together with his “Benji” movies that introduced the lovable live-action dog to the masses and have become a powerful success, died Friday at his home in Bell Buckle, Tenn. He was 84 years old.
His son, director Brandon Camp, announced his death in an announcement. He said his father died “after a long illness” but gave no other details.
Joe Camp began serious about directing at the age of 8, but first faced rejection for a long time. While attending the University of Mississippi, he tried to transfer to the film school at the University of California, Los Angeles, but was rejected. After college, he worked in promoting at McCann Erickson’s Houston office after which at the Norsworthy-Mercer agency in Dallas, writing unproduced sitcom scripts on the side.
In 1971, Mr. Camp and cinematographer James Nicodemus founded their very own production company, Mulberry Square Productions, based in Dallas, removed from the traditional centers of the television and film industry, Los Angeles and New York.
The idea for “Benji” got here to Mr. Camp while watching the animated Disney film “Lady and the Tramp” (1955) in the late Nineteen Sixties together with his first wife, Carolyn (Hopkins) Camp. Mr. Camp then observed the expression on his dog’s face and wondered if it was possible to make a movie starring an actual dog and told from his perspective.
“I went to bed with the distinct belief that dogs really talk if you really pay attention to them” – Mr. Camp told the Associated Press in 2003.
With little skilled experience, Mr. Camp frantically got here up with a scenario in a single sitting – his first feature-length screenplay – during which an cute stray dog rescues two children from being kidnapped. In 1973, he raised $500,000 and shot the film in 12 weeks.
He initially had trouble finding a dog trainer to work on the film before famous trainer Frank Inn agreed to participate. But no Hollywood studios were eager about distributing it. So Mr. Camp did it independently, through his production company.
“Making the first Benji movie was like navigating a minefield of slammed doors, unplanned disasters, catastrophic mistakes and a noticeable vacuum of money, knowledge and experience” – Mr. Camp – he wrote on his website.
“Benji” premiered in 1974. The film grossed roughly $40 million, or roughly $250 million in today’s dollars, and shattered notions of tips on how to make successful movies. It was one of the top three grossers of the yr, behind “Jaws” and “The Towering Inferno.”
Mr. Camp later made several other Benji movies, including “For the Love of Benji” (1977), “Oh, Heavenly Dog” (1980), starring Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour; “Benji the Hunted” (1987) and “Benji: On a Leash!” (2004). There was also a CBS kid’s program in 1983 “Benji, Zax and the Alien Prince”.
“If you do it well enough, the dollars will take care of themselves,” Camp told The New York Times in 1975.
“Benji” was re-released as the 2018 film Nexis, written by Mr. Camp and his son Brandon, who also directed it.
Mr. Camp, inspired Walt Disney vision, insisted on creative control over his films, and also insisted that they contain no profanity. He recalled that while negotiating the distribution of “Benji: Off the Leash!” the director of one studio argued that sexual innuendos and pornography are what children increasingly want in their programs.
“I told him, ‘Do you have any children?’” Mr. Camp said in a 2004 interview with The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass.
As Mr. Camp recalls, the principal said “yes” and replied, “Are you giving them what they need or what you’re thinking that they need to have?” And that ended the conversation quite well.
Joseph Shelton Camp Jr. was born on April 20, 1939 in St. Louis. His father was an insurance executive; his mother, Ruth Wilhelmina (Mclaulin) Camp, ran the household.
In addition to his son, Brandon, Mr. Camp is survived by his wife, Kathleen; another son, Joe; and his stepchildren, David Wolff, Dylan Wolff and Allegra Wolff. His first wife, Carolyn, whom he married in 1960, died of heart disease in 1997 at the age of 58.
After “Benji: Unleashed!” was a box office disappointment, Mr. Camp changed into a brand new love: horses. He has written quite a few books, including the 2009 memoir, “The Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons From the Herd,” about his journey to develop into a rider.
But it’s the “Benji” series that Mr. Camp will most remember. For decades, he defied Hollywood costumes and told uplifting stories the way he wanted.
“The whole point of it comes all the way down to saying, ‘If this dog can do it, if I can do it, that (*84*) idiot can do it, anyone can do it.’ If you are trying hard enough and do not hand over,” Camp said Associated Press in 2003. “That’s what the ‘Benji’ movies are all about.”
