In Remembrance: Mercedes McCambridge

     Mercedes McCambridge, the actress whose career spanned from an Academy Award winning film debut in 1949’s All The King’s Men to providing the voice of the demon Pazuzu in the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist, has passed away on March 2, 2004. She was 85.

     Born March 17, 1918 in Joliet, Illinois, McCambridge first gained fame as a versatile radio actress in the 1940s, appearing on such shows as “Inner Sanctum Mysteries,” “The Guiding Light,” “I Love A Mystery” and others. Such was her vocal skill that Orson Wells once described her as “the world’s greatest living radio actress.”

     She transitioned to film in 1949 with All The King’s Men, winning her role after yelling at the producers for keeping her and several actresses waiting during auditions. Impressed, the producers cast her in the role of the fiery secretary Sadie, for which she would win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

     McCambridge followed up this with a decade’s worth of notable film appearances. In 1954 she starred opposite Joan Collins in the psychological western Johnny Guitar. She earned a second Academy Award nomination for her role as Rock Hudson’s sister in 1956’s Giant. She also appeared in such films as A Farewell To Arms (1956), Touch Of Evil (1957), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and the dramatic western Cimarron (1961).

     Moving into the 1960s, McCambridge spent more time working in televisions, appearing in guest roles on a wide range of series including Bonanza, Rawhide, Dr. Kildare, Lost In Space and Bewitched.

     In 1973, director William Friedkin picked McCambridge to provide the voice of the demon possessing a twelve-year old girl in the horror masterpiece The Exorcist. Unfortunately, Friedkin wanted to keep McCambridge’s contribution a secret and she was forced to sue Warner Brothers, the studio that produced the film, for credit.