OBITUARIES : John Campbell; Newsman and Press Agent
John B. T. Campbell Jr., newspaperman, Marine combat correspondent and Hollywood press agent for more than 40 years, has died at the age of 71.
A memorial service will be held Saturday at Pierce Bros. Westwood Village Memorial Park.
Friends said Campbell suffered a heart attack Sept. 4 and died two days later in St. John’s Hospital.
Campbell was a press agent for 20th Century Fox from 1938 until his retirement in 1978, working with such major figures as Darryl F. Zanuck and Richard D. Zanuck. During World War II, Campbell took leave from the studio to enlist in the Marine Corps. He served as a combat correspondent with the 4th Marine Division and covered the landings on Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima.
Campbell, a native of Tucson, came to Los Angeles as a child when his father, John B. T. Campbell Sr., took a job as city editor of the Los Angeles Herald, later known as the Herald-Express. The elder Campbell was managing editor of the newspaper from 1933 until his retirement in 1954. He died in 1976.
The younger Campbell was a graduate of USC and worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News, later becoming an assistant to columnists Jimmy Fidler and Erskine Johnson.
He is survived by his wife, Joan, and a brother, Alex Campbell.
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