Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge (March 16, 1916 – March 2, 2004) was an American actress.
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
called her "the world's greatest living radio actress."
Early life
McCambridge was born in
Joliet, IllinoisJoliet is a city in Will and Kendall Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. As of the 2010 census, the city was the fourth-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 147,433. It continues to be Illinois' fastest growing...
, the daughter of
Irish AmericanIrish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
CatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
parents Marie (
néeA married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Mahaffry) and John Patrick McCambridge. She graduated from
Mundelein CollegeMundelein College was the last private, independent, Roman Catholic women's college in Illinois. Located on the edge of the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods on the far north side of Chicago, Illinois, Mundelein College was founded and administered by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed...
in Chicago before embarking on a career.
Radio
She began her career as a radio actor during the 1940s while also performing on
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. Her radio work in this period included her portrayal of Rosemary Levy on
Abie's Irish RoseAbie's Irish Rose is a popular comedy by Anne Nichols familiar from stage productions, films and radio programs. The basic premise involves an Irish Catholic girl and a young Jewish man who marry despite the objections of their families.-Theater and films:...
and various characters on the radio series
I Love A MysteryI Love a Mystery was a radio drama series about three friends who ran a detective agency and traveled the world in search of adventure. Distinguished by the high octane scripting of Carlton E...
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 TheaterCBS Radio Mystery Theater was a radio drama series created by Himan Brown that was broadcast on CBS affiliates from 1974 to 1982....
, 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 CrawfordBroderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...
in the 1949 film
All the King's MenAll the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.-Plot:...
. McCambridge won the 1949
Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for her role in the film, which won Best Picture for that year. McCambridge also won the
Golden Globe AwardThe Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
s for Best Supporting Actress and
New Star of the Year - ActressThe Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress originated in 1948. Between 1954 and 1965, multiple winners were announced. The category was discontinued following the 1983 ceremonies.-Winners:*1948: Lois Maxwell*1950: Mercedes McCambridge...
for her performance.
In 1954, the actress co-starred with
Joan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
and
Sterling HaydenSterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
in the offbeat western drama,
Johnny GuitarJohnny Guitar is a 1954 Republic Pictures Western film starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, and Scott Brady.The screenplay was based upon a novel by Roy Chanslor. Though credited to Philip Yordan, he was merely a front for the actual screenwriter, blacklistee Ben Maddow. ...
, 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 1956
George StevensGeorge Stevens was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer.Among his most notable films were Diary of Anne Frank , nominated for Best Director, Giant , winner of Oscar for Best Director, Shane , Oscar nominated, and A Place in the Sun , winner of Oscar for Best...
classic
Giant, which starred
Elizabeth TaylorDame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
,
Rock HudsonRoy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
and
James DeanJames Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
. She was nominated for another Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress but lost to
Dorothy MaloneDorothy Malone is an American actress. Her film career began in 1943, and in her early years she played small roles, mainly in B-movies. After a decade in films, she began to acquire a more glamorous image, particularly after her performance in Written on the Wind , for which she won the Academy...
in
Written on the WindWritten on the Wind is a 1956 American drama film directed by Douglas Sirk. It stars Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone....
. In 1959, McCambridge appeared opposite
Katharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
,
Montgomery CliftEdward Montgomery Clift was an American film and stage actor. The New York Times’ obituary noted his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men"....
and Elizabeth Taylor in
Joseph L. MankiewiczJoseph Leo Mankiewicz was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career and is best known as the writer-director of All About Eve , which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. He was brother to screenwriter and drama critic Herman J...
' film adaptation of
Tennessee WilliamsThomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
'
Suddenly, Last SummerSuddenly, Last Summer is a one-act play by Tennessee Williams. It opened off Broadway on January 7, 1958, as part of a double bill with another of Williams's one-acts, Something Unspoken. The presentation of the two plays was given the overall title Garden District, but Suddenly, Last Summer is...
.
McCambridge was well-known for providing the dubbed-in voice of the
demonically possessedDemonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...
character in
The ExorcistThe Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
, acted by
Linda BlairLinda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography: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 FriedkinWilliam Friedkin is an American film director, producer and screenwriter best known for directing The French Connection in 1971 and The Exorcist in 1973; for the former, he won the Academy Award for Best Director...
and the
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
brass over her exclusion ended when, with the help of the
Screen Actors GuildThe Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
, 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 RoofCat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
as Big Mama, opposite
John CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
as Big Daddy. She appeared as a guest artist in college productions such as
El Centro CollegeEl Centro College is a community college of the Dallas County Community College District , located at 801 Main Street in downtown Dallas, Texas across Lamar Street from the Bank of America Plaza...
's 1979
The MousetrapThe Mousetrap is a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap opened in the West End of London in 1952, and has been running continuously since then. It has the longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far. It is the longest running show of the modern...
, in which she received top billing despite her character being murdered (by actor
Jim BeaverJames Norman "Jim" Beaver, Jr. is an American stage, film, and television actor, playwright, screenwriter, and film historian...
) less than 15 minutes into the play. El Centro brought her back the following year in the title role of
The Madwoman of ChaillotThe Madwoman of Chaillot is a play, a poetic satire, by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, written in 1943 and first performed in 1945, after his death. The play has two acts and follows the convention of the classical unities...
. 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 MarkleFletcher Markle was a Canadian actor, screenwriter, television producer and director.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Markle began his career in the early 1940s in Vancouver, British Columbia doing radio dramas with a group whose members included John Drainie, Lister Sinclair, Bernie Braden and Alan...
, 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 being 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. Markle killed his family, wife Christine and daughters Amy (age 13) and Suzanne (age 9), and then himself in a murder/suicide in 1987. He left a note taking responsibility for his crimes as well as a long, bitter letter to his mother.
Death
McCambridge died on March 2, 2004 in La Jolla, California, of natural causes.
For her contribution to television and motion picture industry, Mercedes McCambridge has
two stars on the
Hollywood Walk of FameThe Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
: one for
motion picturesA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, located at 1722 Vine Street, and one for
televisionTelevision is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
located at 6243 Hollywood Boulevard.
Filmography
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Notes |
| 1949 |
All the King's MenAll the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.-Plot:...
|
Sadie Burke |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
Golden Globe |
| 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 Johnny Guitar is a 1954 Republic Pictures Western film starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, and Scott Brady.The screenplay was based upon a novel by Roy Chanslor. Though credited to Philip Yordan, he was merely a front for the actual screenwriter, blacklistee Ben Maddow. ...
|
Emma Small |
|
| 1956 |
Giant |
Luz Benedict |
Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
|
| 1957 |
A Farewell to Arms A Farewell to Arms is a 1957 American drama film directed by Charles Vidor. The screenplay by Ben Hecht, based in part on a 1930 play by Laurence Stallings, was the second feature film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1929 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. It was the last film produced...
|
Miss Van Campen |
|
| 1958 |
Touch of Evil Touch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...
|
Gang leader |
Uncredited |
| 1959 |
Suddenly, Last Summer Suddenly, Last Summer is a 1959 American Southern Gothic mystery film based on the play of the same title by Tennessee Williams. The film was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Sam Spiegel from a screenplay by Gore Vidal and Williams. The music score was by Buxton Orr using themes by...
|
Mrs. Grace Holly |
|
| 1959 |
Rawhide Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
|
Mrs Miller |
Episode: "Incident of the Curious Street" |
| 1960 |
Cimarron Cimarron is a 1960 western film based on the Edna Ferber novel Cimarron, featuring Glenn Ford and Maria Schell. It was directed by Anthony Mann, known for his westerns and film noirs....
|
Mrs. Sarah Wyatt |
|
| 1961 |
Angel Baby |
Sarah Strand |
|
| 1962 |
BonanzaBonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
|
Melinda Banning |
Episode: "Lady From Baltimore" |
| 1965 |
Run Home Slow |
Nell Hagen |
|
| 1966 |
Lost in SpaceLost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
|
Cybilla |
Episode: "The Space Croppers" |
| 1968 |
The Counterfeit Killer |
Frances |
|
| 1969 |
99 Women |
Thelma D |
|
| 1969 |
Justine Marquis de Sade: Justine is a 1969 Italian drama film, directed by Jesús Franco and starring Klaus Kinski. It is based on the novel Justine by Marquis de Sade.-Plot:...
|
Madame Dusbois |
|
| 1971 |
The Last Generation |
|
Archive footage |
| 1972 |
The Other Side of the Wind The Other Side of the Wind is an unfinished film directed by Orson Welles, shot between 1969 and 1976, and starring John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Oja Kodar.-Summary:...
|
Maggie |
Unreleased |
| 1973 |
Sixteen |
Ma Irtley |
|
| 1973 |
The ExorcistThe Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...
|
Pazuzu |
Voice only |
| 1977 |
Thieves |
Street Lady |
|
| 1978 |
Charlie's AngelsCharlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
|
Norma |
Episode: "Angels in Springtime" |
| 1979 |
The Concorde ... Airport '79 |
Nelli |
|
| 1983 |
Echoes |
Lillian Gerben |
|
| 1986 |
Amazing Stories Amazing Stories is a fantasy, horror, and science fiction television anthology series created by Steven Spielberg. It ran on NBC from 1985 to 1987, and was somewhat erratically screened in Britain by BBC1 and BBC2 - billed in the Radio Times as "Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories" - with episodes...
|
Miss Lestrange (Voice) |
Episode: "Family Dog" |
Further reading
- Lackmann, Ronald W. Mercedes Mccambridge: A Biography And Career Record. McFarland & Company. 2005. ISBN 0786419792.
- 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