Louise Campbell; Actress in ‘Star Maker’

Louise Campbell, Hollywood and Broadway actress who starred with Bing Crosby in “The Star Maker,” has died. She was 86.

Campbell, who was under contract to Paramount Studios and made 13 films in the 1930s and 1940s, died Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn.

A native of Chicago who studied dramatic arts at De Paul University there, Campbell performed in several stage stock companies and half a dozen Broadway plays before making her way to Hollywood in 1937.

But she insisted that her best tutelage in character occurred when she worked as a dental assistant.

“People let their hair down when they visit the dentist,” she told a reporter in 1938 at the premiere of her film “Men With Wings.” “Their facial expressions change and their real character presents itself. I consider the three years I spent in one dental office invaluable to me in my acting.”

She made her screen debut in “Bulldog Drummond Comes Back,” followed by two sequels, but is better remembered for “The Buccaneer” with Fredric March and “The Star Maker” with Crosby. Her last picture was “Devil Ship” in 1947.

Campbell’s Broadway plays included “Julie the Great,” “White Man,” “House in the Country” and “Three Men on a Horse,” in which she met her husband, actor Horace McMahon.

Despite her modest success in Hollywood, Campbell made it clear she preferred the stage.

“The demands of the screen are less than those for the stage,” she told The Times in 1939.

“The close-up, for instance, is a tremendous aid to the screen player. In close-ups the star has a chance to put over any emotion called for, with a lot of rehearsals and direction, whereas on the stage the actress must manage to get that emotion over without any such assistance whatsoever. Then, too, the stage demands talent and hard work, not merely personality and looks.”