Joe Camp

Joe Camp (Joseph Shelton Camp Jr., 1939 to 2024) was an American film director and writer, best known as the creator and director of the Benji films, which began with Benji in 1974 and continued through Benji in 2018. He also made Hawmps! and The Double McGuffin. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he studied advertising and marketing at the University of Mississippi and worked in advertising before filmmaking. After studios declined to back Benji, he and co-producer Ed Vanston created their own distribution company to release it, and Camp developed the marketing strategy himself. He is described as one of the most successful independent filmmakers in history, with more than 600 million dollars in gross income, and he also wrote books about horses and dogs. He died in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, on 15 March 2024.