Campbell attended St. Michael's School.and DePaul University, studying dramatic arts at the latter. She gained additional dramatic training at the Chicago School of Expression. She said that when she was 6 years old, she decided to be an actress after she watched a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
At one point, she worked as a dental assistant, an experience which she said was "invaluable to me in my acting" as she observed changes in patients' facial expressions in the dentist's office, with their changing expressions displaying "their real character."
Campbell gained early theatrical experience by performing in stock theater. Her Broadway debut was in Three Men on a Horse (1935). Her other Broadway credits include Julie the Great, Guest in the House (1941), A House in the Country (1936) and White Man (1936). A column in the June 13, 1942, issue of Billboard complimented "Louise Campbell, that fine actress, for a lovely, beautifully projected, altogether excellent performance in Guest in the House."
Campbell went to Hollywood in 1937 and made 13 films in the 1930s and 1940s. Her film debut was in Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937).Her film credits included Bulldog Drummond sequels, Night Club Scandal (1937), Men with Wings (1938), The Buccaneer (1938) with Fredric March, and The Star Maker (1939) with Bing Crosby. It would be her most popular film, playing Bing's wife in the loose bio of songwriter Gus Edwards. Watching her film appearances, Louise looks and sounds amazingly like Mary Martin.
Despite leaving Hollywood in 1947, she would occasionally act on 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.”
Campbell was married to actor Horace McMahon, whom she met when they were both in the Broadway play Three Men on a Horse. They wed in 1938 and remained married until his death in 1971. Not much is know about Louise's private life, but I believe she had three children. Campbell died November 5, 1997, in Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut. She is buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Norwalk, Connecticut...
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