Mercedes McCambridge

Mercedes McCambridge
promotional photo
Born	Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge (1916-03-16)March 16, 1916 Joliet, Illinois, USA
Died	March 2, 2004(2004-03-02) (aged 87) La Jolla, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1949–92
Spouse(s)	William Fifield (m. 1941–1946) Fletcher Markle (m. 1950–1962)

Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge (March 16, 1916 – March 2, 2004) was an Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe-winning American actress of radio, stage, film, and television. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress."

Early life

McCambridge was born in Joliet, Illinois, the daughter of Irish American Roman Catholic parents Marie (née Mahaffry) and John Patrick McCambridge. She graduated from Mundelein College in Chicago before embarking on a career.

Career

Radio

She began her career as a radio actor during the 1940s while also performing on Broadway. Her radio work in this period included her portrayal of Rosemary Levy on Abie's Irish Rose and various characters on the radio series I Love A Mystery in both its West Coast and East Coast incarnations (most notably as "Charity Martin" in The Thing That Cries in the Night, "Nasha" and "Laura" in Bury Your Dead, Arizona, "Sunny Richards" in both The Million Dollar Curse and The Temple of Vampires and "Jack 'Jacqueline' Dempsey Ross" in The Battle of the Century). She frequently did feature roles on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and was an original cast member on The Guiding Light, before the Bauers took over as the central characters. She also starred in her own show, The Defense Attorney as Martha Ellis Bryant.

Films

Her Hollywood break came when she was cast opposite Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men (1949). McCambridge won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role, while the film won Best Picture for that year. McCambridge also won the Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress and New Star of the Year - Actress for her performance.

In 1954, the actress co-starred with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden in the offbeat western drama, Johnny Guitar, now regarded as a cult classic. McCambridge and Hayden publicly declared their dislike of Crawford, with McCambridge labeling the film's star "a mean, tipsy, powerful, rotten-egg lady."

McCambridge played the supporting role of 'Luz' in the George Stevens classic Giant (1956), which starred Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. She was nominated for another Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress but lost to Dorothy Malone in Written on the Wind. In 1959, McCambridge appeared opposite Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in Joseph L. Mankiewicz' film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer.

McCambridge provided the dubbed voice of the demonically possessed child in The Exorcist, acted by Linda Blair. McCambridge was promised a screen credit for the film's initial release, but she discovered at the premiere that her name was absent. Her dispute with director William Friedkin and the Warner Bros. brass over her exclusion ended when, with the help of the Screen Actors Guild, she was properly credited for her vocal work in the film.

In the 1970s, she toured in a road company production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Big Mama, opposite John Carradine as Big Daddy. She appeared as a guest artist in college productions such as El Centro College's 1979 The Mousetrap, in which she received top billing despite her character being murdered (by actor Jim Beaver) less than 15 minutes into the play.

El Centro brought her back the following year in the title role of The Madwoman of Chaillot. She also starred with longtime character actor Lyle Talbot (of ABC's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) in the 1970 production of Come Back, Little Sheba in the University of North Alabama Summer Theatre Productions. In the mid-1970s, McCambridge briefly took a position as director of Livingrin, a Pennsylvania rehabilitation center for alcoholics. She was at the same time putting the finishing touches on her soon-to-be released autobiography, The Quality of Mercy: An Autobiography (Times Books, 1981), ISBN 0-8129-0945-3.

Personal life

McCambridge married her first husband, William Fifield, in 1939 when she was 23 years old. The couple had a son, John Lawrence Fifield. The couple divorced in 1946 after seven years of marriage.

In 1950, when she was 34 years old, McCambridge married Canadian Fletcher Markle, a radio director. Her son, John, later took Markle's name, thereafter being known as John Markle. During the marriage and afterward, McCambridge battled alcoholism, often being hospitalized after episodes of heavy drinking. She and Markle divorced in 1962, after twelve years of marriage. In 1969, after years with Alcoholics Anonymous, she achieved sobriety.

McCambridge's son, John Markle, a UCLA graduate, had a PhD in Economics. After he was fired from his position as a futures trader at Stephens and Company for mishandling funds, a $5 million lawsuit was filed against him and McCambridge. Although some of the mishandled funds had been handled under McCambridge's name through Markle's power of attorney, she was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. In 1987, Markle killed his family -- his wife Christine and daughters Amy (age 13) and Suzanne (age 9) -- and then himself in a murder/suicide. He left a note taking responsibility for his crimes and a long, bitter letter to his mother.

Death

McCambridge died on March 2, 2004 in La Jolla in San Diego, California, of natural causes.

For her contribution to television and motion picture industry, Mercedes McCambridge has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures, located at 1722 Vine Street, and one for television located at 6243 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1949	All the King's Men	Sadie Burke	Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress
1951	Inside Straight	Ada Stritch
1951	The Scarf	Connie Carter
1951	Lightning Strikes Twice	Liza McStringer
1951	Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Awards	Herself	short subject
1954	Johnny Guitar	Emma Small
1956	Giant	Luz Benedict	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
1957	A Farewell to Arms	Miss Van Campen
1958	Touch of Evil	Gang leader	Uncredited
1959	Suddenly, Last Summer	Mrs. Grace Holly
1959	Rawhide	Mrs Miller	Episode: "Incident of the Curious Street"
1959	Riverboat	Jessie Quinn	Episode also entitled "Jessie Quinn" (NBC-TV)
1960	Cimarron	Mrs. Sarah Wyatt
1961	Angel Baby	Sarah Strand
1962	Bonanza	Deborah Banning	Episode: "Lady From Baltimore"
1963	The Dakotas	Jay French	Episode: "Trouble at French Creek" (ABC-TV)
1965	Run Home Slow	Nell Hagen
1966	Lost in Space	Cybilla	Episode: "The Space Croppers"
1968	The Counterfeit Killer	Frances
1968	Bewitched	Carlotta
1969	99 Women	Thelma D
1969	Justine	Madame Dusbois
1971	The Last Generation		Archive footage
1972	The Other Side of the Wind	Maggie	Unreleased
1973	Sixteen	Ma Irtley
1973	The Exorcist	Pazuzu	Voice only
1977	Thieves	Street Lady
1978	Charlie's Angels	Norma	Episode: "Angels in Springtime"
1979	The Concorde ... Airport '79	Nelli
1981	Magnum, P.I.	Agatha Kimball	Episode: "Don't Say Goodbye"
1983	Echoes	Lillian Gerben
1986	Amazing Stories	Miss Lestrange (Voice)	Episode: "Family Dog"

Further reading

• Lackmann, Ronald W. Mercedes Mccambridge: A Biography And Career Record. McFarland & Company. 2005. ISBN 0-7864-1979-2.
• McCambridge, Mercedes. The Quality of Mercy: An Autobiography. Times Books, 1981. ISBN 0-8129-0945-3.
• Terrace, Vincent. Radio Programs, 1924-1984. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-0351-9.

External links

• Mercedes McCambridge at the Internet Movie Database
• Mercedes McCambridge at the Internet Broadway Database
• Mercedes McCambridge at Find a Grave
• Tarple, J. "Run Home, Slow". Grim Little Movies in Black & White. Fade2Black. Retrieved 2009-07-16. 
• Moritz, Gwen. "15 years later, murder-suicide fades from view". Arkansas Business. Journal Publishing, Inc.