Hamilton Camp

Biography

Hamilton Camp (born Robin S. Camp; 30 October 1934 – 2 October 2005) was a British-born actor and singer, who relocated to the United States with his family when he was a young child. He is known for his work as a folk singer during the 1960s, and eventually branched out into acting in films and television.

Early life

Camp was born in London and was evacuated during World War II to the United States as a child with his mother and sister. He became a child actor in films and onstage. He originally performed under the names Robin Camp and Bob Camp, later changing his name to Hamilton after joining the Subud spiritual movement. For a few years, he billed himself as Hamid Hamilton Camp; in this period, he was leader of a group called Skymonters that released an album in 1973 on Elektra. The band consisted of himself (vocals, guitar), Lewis Arquette (vocals, comedy monologues), Lewis Ross (lead guitar), Jakub Ander (bass) and Rusdi Lane (percussionist & mime).

Career

Hamilton Camp began his acting career in 1946, at 12 years old.
In 1960, Camp made his debut as a folk singer at the Newport Folk Festival. In 1961, Camp's first recording, with Bob Gibson, was Bob Gibson & Bob Camp at the Gate of Horn. Over the next four decades he maintained a dual career as a musician/songwriter and as an actor. Camp is probably best known, however, as the author of the 1964 song "Pride of Man", which was recorded by a number of artists, notably Quicksilver Messenger Service, Gram Parsons, and Gordon Lightfoot, who included it as one of three songs by other songwriters on his first record.
In 1964, Camp made his Broadway debut in the musical revue The Committee.
An early Gibson & Camp gospel song, "You Can Tell the World" was the opening track on Simon & Garfunkel's first album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. As a singer, Camp had a minor hit with the song "Here's to You×Here's to You1968 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Here's to You2:16A2Travelin' in the Dark2:35A3Seven Circles2:22A4A Lot Can Happen in a Day2:40A5Lonely Place2:40A6Love Is2:40B1For My Loved Ones2:41B2Flower and Flame3:00B3Leavin' Anyhow2:35B4Garden of Love3:20B5Lisa2:12B6Handwriting on the Wall2:10," which peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. The track was produced and arranged by Felix Pappalardi, who also produced albums for Cream and played bass with the band Mountain.
In 1969 Camp formed a group called The True Brethren with Waqidi Falicoff (guitar, vocals), Raphael Grinage (cello) and Loren Pickford (flute and saxophone). The four later composed the incidental music for the Broadway show Paul Sills' Story Theatre, which won two Tony awards and was nominated for best show in the 1971 awards.
He provided voice work as "L" the robot policeman in the 1978 film Starcrash and for the 1976 Peter Bogdanovich film Nickelodeon. He also performed with the Chicago comedy troupe The Second City and the San Francisco satirical comedy troupe the Committee, as well as appearing in a number of stage productions, including a 2004 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Hollywood Bowl.
His television work includes a supporting role on He & She, a sitcom starring Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss, which ran for one season in 1967–68. He guest-starred on television shows such as The Rat Patrol, The Monkees, M*A*S*H, Soap, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Twilight Zone, Starsky and Hutch, Cheers, The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Three's Company and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, as the older H. G. Wells. He appeared on two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Leck, a Ferengi and on one episode of Star Trek: Voyager as a Malon freighter pilot.
In 1977, Camp appeared in three episodes of The Feather and Father Gang. In the 1978 opening season of WKRP in Cincinnati, Camp guest-starred in the fifth episode as Del Murdock, owner of Del's Stereo and Sound. He returned to WKRP as Johnny Fever's ex-wife's new fiancé. Also in 1978, he played Warren Beatty's valet, Bentley, in Heaven Can Wait. In 1980, he appeared as a semi-regular on Too Close for Comfort as Arthur Wainwright, the adventurous, youth-oriented boss of Henry Rush, and on the FOX sitcom Titus as Erin Fitzpatrick's alcoholic father, Merritt. He played Bart Furley, brother of Don Knotts' character Ralph Furley, on an episode of Three's Company, "Furley vs. Furley". He also voiced Professor Moriarty in the English dub of the anime series Sherlock Hound.
He was the voice of Fenton Crackshell, aka GizmoDuck, on the Disney animated series DuckTales and its spinoff Darkwing Duck. He played the role of old Malcolm Corley in LucasArts' graphic adventure Full Throttle. He voiced the Prophet of Mercy in the 2004 video game Halo 2.
He became Disney Studio's new voice of Merlin, following the death of Karl Swenson. Camp also voiced for Hanna–Barbera; as Greedy Smurf and Harmony Smurf on The Smurfs series and all of HB's Smurf television specials, Count Dracula in Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Turk Tarpit in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, Mr. Gruber in Paddington Bear, The Grand Dozer on Potsworth & Co., several villains of the week from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Barney Rubble as a kid in The Flintstone Kids. Camp's final work was on the film Hard Four in early 2005, as well as a musical album produced by James Lee Stanley called Sweet Joy×Sweet Joy9 October 2010 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Song of the Wandering Angus2:562Long Train3:4132:192:054Nothin' But the Blues3:475New Beginnings3:176Highway Man3:277Sittin on a Roof Top3:118Celts (Lost Child / Go No More A Rovin')4:499Pride of Man2:5610Ring Them Bells4:0311Sweet Joy2:4212Windsong3:23, completed shortly before his death.

Personal life and death

He married Rasjadah Lisa Jovita Cisz in 1961, and they had six children. His wife died in 2002.
Camp died of a heart attack on October 2, 2005, at age 70. He was survived by his six children and thirteen grandchildren.

Singles

Songs
"Here's to You×Here's to You1968 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracksA1Here's to You2:16A2Travelin' in the Dark2:35A3Seven Circles2:22A4A Lot Can Happen in a Day2:40A5Lonely Place2:40A6Love Is2:40B1For My Loved Ones2:41B2Flower and Flame3:00B3Leavin' Anyhow2:35B4Garden of Love3:20B5Lisa2:12B6Handwriting on the Wall2:10" (1968, Warner Brothers - Seven Arts; written by Hamilton Camp)
"This Wheel's On Fire" (1968, Warner Brothers; written by Bob Dylan)
"Oklahoma City Times" (1969, Warner Brothers - Seven Arts; written by Paul Hamilton)
"Didn't I Turn Out Nice" (1970, American International Records; written by Dory Previn)
"Gypsy" (Skmonters with Hamid Hamilton Camp; 1974, Scholastic Records; written by Lewis Ross)
Children's records
"Rumpelstiltskin" (Hamid Hamilton Camp and Judy Graubart; 1973, Scholastic Records; adapted by Edith Harcov and Hamid Hamilton Camp)
"The Brementown Musicians" (Hamid Hamilton Camp and the Skmonters; 1974, Scholastic Records; adapted by Ruth Belov Gross, Hamid Hamilton Camp, and the Skmonters)
"The Emperor's New Clothes" (Hamid Hamilton Camp and Lewis Arquette; 1977, Scholastic Records; written by Hans Christian Andersen, adapted by Ruth Belov Gross and Lewis Ross)