Hamilton Camp | |
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Camp on the album cover of Sweet Joy (2005)
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Born |
London, England, UK |
October 30, 1934
Died | October 2, 2005 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
(aged 70)
Other names | Bob Camp, Hamid Hamilton Camp |
Occupation | Singer-songwriter, actor, voice artist |
Years active | 1946–2005 |
Spouse(s) | Rasjadah Camp (1961–2002; her death) |
Children | 6 |
Website | hamiltoncamp |
Hamilton Camp (October 30, 1934 – October 2, 2005) was an English actor, singer-songwriter and voice artist.
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).
Camp's debut as a folk singer was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1960; and his first recording, with Bob Gibson, was Bob Gibson & Bob Camp at the Gate of Horn, from 1961. Over the next four decades he maintained a dual career as a musician/songwriter and as an actor. He appeared in nearly one hundred films and television programmes. Camp is probably best known, however, as the author of the song "Pride of Man", which was recorded by a number of artists, notably Quicksilver Messenger Service and Gordon Lightfoot, who included it as one of three covers on his first record.
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," which peaked at number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. 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.