Carlotta Mercedes Agnes McCambridge (March 16, 1916 – March 2, 2004) was an American actress of radio, stage, film, and television. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress." She won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for All the King's Men (1949) and was nominated in the same category for Giant (1956). She also provided the voice of Pazuzu in The Exorcist (1973).

Biography

McCambridge married her first husband, William Fifield, in 1939 when she was 23 years old. The couple had a son, John Lawrence Fifield, born in December, 1941. The couple divorced in 1946 after seven years of marriage.

In 1950, when she was 34 years old, McCambridge married Canadian Fletcher Markle, an actor/producer/director who directed McCambridge in productions on Ford Theater and Studio One. 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 Ph.D. in Economics. He became a futures trader at Stephens and Company, but after a meteoric rise through the company's ranks, things began to unravel in the fall of 1987 when it was discovered he was engaging in fraud—essentially by charging all his losing trades to Stephens, while depositing the revenue from winning trades in a trust account in McCambridge's name. (Markle was later shown to have forged his mother's signature in opening this account.)

Markle was put on temporary leave, then fired from his position as a futures trader at Stephens and Company for mishandling funds. McCambridge refused to co-operate with Markle and the company in instituting a repayment scheme that would have kept the matter from becoming public. Shortly thereafter, in November 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 both a note taking responsibility for his crimes, and a long, bitter letter to his mother. A $5 million lawsuit was filed against Markle's estate and McCambridge claiming fraud and misappropriation of funds. Although some of the mishandled funds had been handled under McCambridge's name through Markle's power of attorney, she herself was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.

She was a staunch outspoken liberal Democrat who campaigned for Adlai Stevenson.

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