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Actress Mercedes McCambridge, who won an Oscar for the 1949 film All the King's Men and later provided the raspy voice of the demon-possessed girl in The Exorcist, has died -- two weeks shy of her 88th birthday. McCambridge died from natural causes on March 2, 2004 (but apparently not reportedly for two weeks). From 1950 to 1962, McCambridge was married to Canadian-born Fletcher Markle, a radio director who became well-known in the U.S. during the years of live television drama. During the marriage and afterward, she was sometimes hospitalized after episodes of heavy drinking. After years with Alcoholics Anonymous, she achieved sobriety. Her films also include: Johnny Guitar (1954), Giant (1956), A Farewell to Arms (1957), Touch of Evil (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Cimarron (1961), The Concorde: Airport '79 (1979). She was in the TV Movie The Sacketts (1979) with Glenn Ford and Tom Selleck, and appeared on Selleck's Magnum PI series two years later, in 1981, in an episode entitled "Don't Say Goodbye." But Glenn Ford's still alive. And, as I'm famous for saying, "Glenn Ford rules." A photo of Glenn Ford.
Born Carlotta (or Charlotte) Mercedes Agnes McCambridge on March 17, 1916 (possibly 1918), on the family farm at Joliet, Ill. She was of Irish Catholic extraction (see "alcoholism" below), and educated at Catholic schools (see "alcoholism" below). After graduation from Mundelein College in Chicago, she acted in Chicago radio, which then produced several network soap operas and nighttime shows. She married her first husband, William Fifield, at 23. They eventually wound up in Hollywood, where she resumed her career as a radio actress. Her vocal versatility brought her jobs on shows ranging from "I Love a Mystery" to "Red Ryder." McCambridge had one child with Fifield, and then divorced in 1946. She returned to New York for the title role in a radio adaptation of the play "Abie's Irish Rose." She later found steady work in the radio dramas of Welles, who called her "the world's greatest living radio actress." She was a very in demand radio star in the 40s and 50s, before finding success in film. Among the popular radio programs McCambridge was heard on were Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Big Sister, The Ford Theater, Studio One, Murder At Midnight, One Man's Family, The Guiding Light, Carlton E. Morse's classic I Love a Mystery, and others. McCambridge was also a member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater, as was Agnes Moorehead (with whom she appeared as Endora's old nemesis, Carlotta, in an episode of "Bewitched"). From 1950 to 1962, McCambridge was married to Canadian-born Fletcher Markle, a film and radio director who became well-known in the U.S. during the years of live television drama. During the marriage and afterward, she was sometimes hospitalized after episodes of heavy drinking. After years with Alcoholics Anonymous, she achieved sobriety. McCambridge's strong, radio-trained voice made her an ideal film portrayer of hard-driving women. She won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her screen debut as Broderick Crawford's hard-boiled nemesis/ secretary/ lover/ reporter (different sources, guess I need to finally see this film; except I have the book and want to read it first, isn't this all very professional?) in All the King's Men (1949). Broderick Crawford was named best actor for his role as populist Southern governor, Willie Stark, a close replica of Louisiana's Huey Long, and the drama was honored with a best picture Oscar. Despite the celebrity that followed her Academy Award for All the King's Men, McCambridge's film career did not flourish. Because she did not fit the glamour girl image that was prevalent in postwar films, her movie work was sporadic. Despite All the King's Men, she may be even better remembered as the icy villainess who locked horns with Joan Crawford in the role-reversal Western Johnny Guitar (1954) and Rock Hudson's strong-willed sister in Giant (1956, for which she was Oscar-nominated). (Interesting side-note: The hat McCambridge wore in Giant was given to her by Gary Cooper.) Johnny Guitar (1954) was director Nicholas Ray's first film as a free agent and was also his most brilliantly outrageous The gaudy, floridly colored Western, pitted stalwart saloon owner Joan Crawford against twitchy, jealous townswoman Mercedes McCambridge. Sterling Hayden was the laconic titular character, and Crawford's old boyfriend. Though the fight is allegedly about property (and possibly, allegorically about the Communist witch hunts), McCambridge's sexual hysteria and Crawford's butch wardrobe of blue jeans, bright shirts, and the best lipstick in the West suggested a kinkier undercurrent. Ray followed his deliriously Freudian oater with Run for Cover (1955), a Western featuring James Cagney and John Derek in an Oedipally fraught relationship. During her film career, McCambridge acquired a reputation as a strong-willed, outspoken woman on and off the screen. When she was hired to play the enemy of Joan Crawford in a 1954 Western, Johnny Guitar, the pair feuded on the set. In her memoir, McCambridge called Crawford "a mean, tipsy, powerful, rotten-egg lady." In recent years she has become something of a cult figure. Her memorable voice-over for the demon child in The Exorcist (1973) -- has secured her place in movie history. Because of her great vocal skills, McCambridge was hired to portray The Demon in William Friedkin's 1973 smash hit The Exorcist. After weeks of what she called the hardest work she had done for a film, she had been promised prominent mention in the credits.
In her later years, McCambridge also appeared in "Magnum, P.I." and other television series, but her movie work was sparse. In her autobiography, The Quality of Mercy (1981), she discusses her battle with alcoholism, among other things. "I don't think the Hollywood community is interested in what I can do," she said in a 1981 interview. "That's all right. I've never looked for a job in my life, and I'm not going to start now. I have plenty to keep me busy." McCambridge battled through much of her life, surviving a long siege of alcoholism, two failed marriages, and series of tragedies involving her only child, John Lawrence Fifield. In 1987, her son, (who later took his step-father's name of Markle), killed his wife, children, and then himself. In the early 1990s, Neil Simon called with an offer to play the grandmother in "Lost in Yonkers" on Broadway and on the road. McCambridge's return to the New York theater proved triumphant, and she performed the play 560 times. Among the later films: Giant (1956 - her second Academy nomination as supporting actress), A Farewell to Arms (1957), Touch of Evil (1958 - with her radio cohort Orson Welles), Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Cimarron (1960), 99 Women (1969), Thieves (1977), The Concorde - Airport '79 (1979). She made a special guest appearance at the 70th Anniversary Academy Awards in 1998. McCambridge died from natural causes on March 2, 2004, the Rev. Joe Carroll, a friend and the founder of a San Diego charity for the homeless, said Tuesday. She had lived in the La Jolla area of San Diego since the 1980s. Filmography Notable TV Guest Appearances
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But when she attended the preview, her name was missing. As she left the theater in tears, Friedkin tried to explain that there had been no time to insert her credit. The Screen Actors Guild intervened and forced her inclusion in the credits.
