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Joe Camp, a pioneering filmmaker who created a groundbreaking franchise with his \u201cBenji\u201d movies, which brought a lovable live-action dog to the masses and became a smash success, died on Friday at his home in Bell Buckle, Tenn. He was 84.<\/p>\n
His son the director Brandon Camp announced the death in a statement. He said his father died \u201cfollowing a long illness\u201d but provided no other details.<\/p>\n
Joe Camp began thinking about directing when he was as young as 8 years old, but he would first encounter decades of rejections. While attending the University of Mississippi, he tried to transfer to U.C.L.A.\u2019s film school, only to be turned down. After college, he dabbled in advertising at the Houston office of McCann Erickson and then at Norsworthy\u2010Mercer<\/a>, an agency in Dallas, while writing unproduced sitcom scripts on the side.<\/p>\n In 1971, Mr. Camp and James Nicodemus, a cinematographer, formed their own production company<\/a>, Mulberry Square Productions, which was based in Dallas, far from the traditional hubs of the television and film industry, Los Angeles and New York.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The idea for \u201cBenji\u201d came to Mr. Camp while he was watching the animated Disney feature film \u201cLady and the Tramp\u201d (1955) in the late 1960s with his first wife, Carolyn (Hopkins) Camp. Afterward, Mr. Camp observed his own dog\u2019s facial expressions and wondered if a movie could be made starring a real-life dog and told from the dog\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI went to sleep with the distinct concept that dogs do talk if you\u2019re really paying attention,\u201d Mr. Camp told The Associated Press in<\/a> 2003.<\/p>\n With little professional experience, Mr. Camp feverishly came up with a script in one sitting \u2014 his first feature-length screenplay \u2014 in which an adorable stray dog would save two children from a kidnapping. He raised $500,000 and shot the film in 12 weeks in 1973.<\/p>\n He initially had trouble finding a dog trainer who would work on the film before the celebrated trainer Frank Inn agreed to take part. But no Hollywood studios were interested in distributing it. So Mr. Camp did it independently through his production company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGetting that first \u2018Benji\u2019 movie made was like careening through a minefield of slammed doors, unplanned disasters, catastrophic mistakes, and a noticeable vacuum of money, knowledge and experience,\u201d Mr. Camp wrote on his website.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201dBenji\u201d premiered in 1974. It would go on to gross around $40 million \u2014 roughly $250 million in today\u2019s dollars \u2014 and to shatter perceptions about how to make successful films. It was one of the three top money makers of the year<\/a>, just below \u201cJaws\u201d and \u201cThe Towering Inferno.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Camp went on to make several other \u201cBenji\u201d films, including \u201cFor the Love of Benji\u201d (1977), \u201cOh Heavenly Dog<\/a>\u201d (1980), which starred Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour; \u201cBenji the Hunted\u201d (1987) and \u201cBenji: Off the Leash!\u201d (2004). There was also a CBS children\u2019s show<\/a> in 1983, \u201cBenji, Zax & the Alien Prince.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy doing it well enough, the dollars will take care of themselves,\u201d Mr. Camp told The New York Times in 1975.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBenji\u201d was rebooted as a 2018 Nexis film, written by Mr. Camp and his son Brandon, who also directed it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Camp, inspired by Walt Disney\u2019s<\/a> vision, insisted on creative control over his films and also insisted that they contain no profanity of any sort. He recalled that during negotiations about distributing \u201cBenji: Off the Leash!,\u201d an executive from one of the studios made the case that sexual innuendos and smut were something children increasingly wanted in their programming.<\/p>\n \u201cI said to him, \u2018Do you have kids?\u2019\u201d Mr. Camp said in an interview with The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass., in 2004.<\/p>\n After the executive said yes, Mr. Camp recalled, he responded: \u201c\u2018Do you give them what they want or what you think they ought to have?\u2019 And that pretty well ended the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 a heart disorder in 1997 at age 58.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After \u201cBenji: Off the Leash!\u201d was a disappointment at the box office, Mr. Camp turned to a new love<\/a>: horses. He wrote multiple books, including a 2009 memoir, \u201cThe Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons From the Herd,\u201d about his journey into becoming a horseman<\/a>.<\/p>\n But it is the \u201cBenji\u201d series for which Mr. Camp will most be remembered. For decades, he defied Hollywood suits to tell heartwarming stories the way he wanted to.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole point of it is to say, \u2018If this dog can do it, if I can do it, this idiot from the sticks of the South can do it, anyone can do it. If you try hard enough and you don\u2019t give up,\u2019” Mr. Camp told The Associated Press in 2003<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s what \u2018Benji\u2019 movies are all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n