- Born
- Died
- Birth nameCarlotta Mercedes Agnes McCambridge
- Nickname
- Mercy
- Height5′ 3″ (1.60 m)
- Mercedes McCambridge was a highly talented radio performer who won a best supporting Actress Oscar for her film debut.
Mercedes McCambridge was born in Joliet, Illinois, to Marie (Mahaffry) and John Patrick McCambridge, a farmer. She was of mostly Irish (with a small amount of English and German) ancestry. Despite a career full of supporting roles, she later became something of a cult figure. Her memorable voice-over for the demon child in The Exorcist (1973) has secured her place in movie history. Ironically, she took Warner Bros. to court over her being uncredited for the role, which was probably the most important in the film.
Mercedes enjoyed a quiet retirement starting from the early 1980s. She was a special guest star at the 70th Annual Anniversary Academy Awards in 1998 along with many other Oscar winners. Mercedes also made special television appearances to discuss her role in The Exorcist (1973) at the 30th Anniversary of the film's release.
She died in La Jolla in California on 2nd March 2004 from natural causes.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bobby G
- SpousesFletcher Markle(February 19, 1950 - June 7, 1962) (divorced, 1 child)William Leroy Fifield(August 18, 1939 - April 5, 1949) (divorced, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsJohn Patrick McCambridgeMarie Mahaffry
- RelativesSuzanne Markle(Grandchild)Amy Markle(Grandchild)
- Strong and sometimes fierce voice
- Often played manly, cruelly-disposed women
- During filming of Johnny Guitar (1954) she and Joan Crawford' fought both on and off the set. One night, in a drunken rage, Crawford scattered the costumes worn by McCambridge along an Arizona highway. Cast and crew had to collect the outfits.
- Suffered from bronchitis for the most part of her life. She later revealed she was able to use this to her advantage for the chilling, unearthly breathing of the demon in The Exorcist (1973).
- She was originally not credited for her voice work on The Exorcist (1973) after director William Friedkin assured her that she would be. An appeal by her to the Screen Actors Guild rectified this matter, and a new print of the film was made with her name in the credits.
- The hat she wore in Giant (1956) was given to her by Gary Cooper.
- Although she passed away in 2004, she is listed in the 2018 film The Other Side of the Wind. The filming of this movie was begun in the seventies and shelved for many years, after which it was completed.
- One of the most destructive things in my life was the kind of parts I played in pictures. I studied Shakespeare and the classics, and I end up shooting Joan Crawford and killing a horse that Elizabeth Taylor was in love with. I'm serious. I played the worst harridans, the most hard-bitten women, the absolute heavies, and it just about did me in.
- [on Nicholas Ray]: I think his films probably showed his great restlessness, his moroseness, his vulnerability, the rawness of his nature, the occasional tenderness, which was very profound - but that that's just my observation of watching a man walk around the set.
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