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Cowboys, Creatures and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures
Academy Award winning actress Mercedes McCambridge portrayed Joan Crawford’s vindictive nemesis in Republic Pictures’ psychological Western Johnny Guitar. She was also Rock Hudson’s strong-willed older sister in Giant.
A versatile, radio-trained character actress with a strong resonant voice, McCambridge specialized in playing forceful, domineering characters on screen. Many film critics believed she outshined Crawford in Johnny Guitar. Crawford wanted Claire Trevor for the part of Emma in the film, but she wasn’t available. McCambridge had a way of commanding a scene and audience attention – less performance, more of a presence. Crawford immediately resented the kudos afforded McCambridge by the crew and consistently referred to her as ‘an actress who hadn’t worked in ten years – an excellent example of a rabble-rouser.’
When McCambridge delivered a stirring speech to the posse in the film, her performance received a round of applause from the crew. Crawford was watching the scene from a hilltop in the distance, grabbed McCambridge’s costumes out of her dressing room, and strewn them along a nearby road.
McCambridge was born in Joliet, Illinois, on St. Patrick’s Day in 1916 and grew up on a farm in Blackstone, Illinois, until attending Catholic high school in Chicago. While majoring in English and theatre in Mundelein College in Chicago in 1936, she caught the attention of NBC Radio’s Chicago program director and was signed to a five-year contract. From radio she made the leap to film.
In 1949 she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role of Sadie Burke in the film All the King’s Men. She nominated for the same award for work her work in the film Giant in 1956.
McCambridge success on screen didn’t translate to her personal life. She struggled desperately with alcoholism. She was married and divorced twice and in 1987, her son, John Lawrence Markle, 45, killed his wife and two daughters, then committed suicide.
McCambridge passed away on March 2, 2004. She was eighty-seven-years-old.
Cowboys, Creatures, and Classics 3
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To learn more about McCambridge and the movie Johnny Guitar read
Cowboys, Creatures and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures
