Adman turned ‘Benji’ filmmaker Joe Camp, 84

Joe Camp, a Texas adman turned filmmaker who bootstrapped his way to a smashhit with “Benji,” the 1974 live-action film starring a shaggy-haired pooch, after being turned away by Hollywood studios, died Friday at his home in Bell Buckle, Tenn. He was 84.

His son Brandon Camp said he died “after battling a long illness.”

In a statement, Camp’s family noted his “unwavering belief in the power of storytelling.” That, they said, “propelled him into a career that challenged and ultimately triumphed over Hollywood convention.”

“Joe knows how to tug the heart strings,” media executive and former Walt Disney Studios Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg once said about him. “He’s a very emotional guy, and for a filmmaker, that’s a positive trait.”

Camp’s breakthrough movie grossed more than $270 million in today’s dollars and spawned five sequels, not to mention television projects, toys, books and other merchandise. But it almost never made it to theaters when Walt Disney Pictures and a host of other studios passed on the movie after it had been shot in McKinney.

The cold shoulder left Camp with only one clear choice to get the movie in front of an audience: Do it himself.

“Everybody told me, ‘ You don’t know anything about distribution,’” he told a Dallas Morning News reporter with a smile in 1987. “But then we didn’t know anything about making a movie either.”

Less than a decade before the film’s release, the family was living a typical suburban life. Camp worked as an advertising copywriter and Carolyn, his wife, was a stay-at-home mom in Richardson.

But Camp had a childhood dream of making movies. He grew up on Disney films. “Walt Disney really was his idol,” said his son Brandon.