Want to know the best Mercedes McCambridge movies? How about the worst Mercedes McCambridge movies? Curious about Mercedes McCambridge box office grosses or which Mercedes McCambridge movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Mercedes McCambridge movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Mercedes McCambridge (1916-2004) was an Oscar® winning American actress. Orson Welles called her “the world’s greatest living radio actress.”[2] She won an Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress for 1949’s All the King’s Men and was nominated in the same category for Giant (1956). She also provided the voice of the demon Pazuzu in 1973’s The Exorcist . McCambridge’s IMDb page shows 66 acting credits from 1949 to 2018. This page will rank Mercedes McCambridge movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings. To do well in our overall rankings a movie has to do well at the box office, get good reviews by critics, be liked by audiences and get some award recognition.
Mercedes McCambridge Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Mercedes McCambridge Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Mercedes McCambridge movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Mercedes McCambridge movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Mercedes McCambridge movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Mercedes McCambridge movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort Mercedes McCambridge movies by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each movie received.
- Sort Mercedes McCambridge movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
The Best of IMDb Trivia on Mercedes McCambridge
1. Carlotta Mercedes Agnes McCambridge was born in Joliet, Illinois in 1916.
2. The hat Mercedes McCambridge wore in Giant (1956) was given to her by Gary Cooper.
3. Mercedes McCambridge was a member of Orson Welles’ Mercury Theater, together with Agnes Moorehead, with whom she appeared as Endora’s old nemesis, Carlotta, in an episode of Bewitched (1964).
4. Mercedes McCambridge 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).
5. Mercedes McCambridge 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.
Check out Mercedes McCambridge’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for feedback. For once I share top “have seen” billing with Flora – wow!
Hope you and W o C are soon fully recovered and have a good weekend. I’m being selfish there as I have nobody to argue with meantime – Steve simply won’t bite!
When you ARE back on your feet please have a look at your deletion button system – see my post today to Steve on Forums.
Hey Bob. Thanks for the good wishes….this has been a much nicer weekend. No hospital visits or doctor visits for either of us. I will figure out which comment to delete. Thanks again.
If you think Mercedes was going to be on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe you are sadly mistaken. These are the actors on the current list she has appeared with. Check out that film The Other Side of the Wind from last year, 14 years after she passed away. See some of those connections in the film have also passed on.
12 MAX VON SYDOW The Exorcist (1973)
14 ERNEST BORGNINE Johnny Guitar (1954)
19 DENNIS HOPPER Giant (1956)
19 DENNIS HOPPER THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
48 JOHN CARRADINE Johnny Guitar (1954)
49 GEORGE KENNEDY The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
57 ORSON WELLES Touch of Evil (1958)
73 BURT REYNOLDS Angel Baby (1961)
92 CHARLTON HESTON Touch of Evil (1958)
128 DAVID WARNER The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
168 ROBERT WAGNER The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
198 ELLEN BURSTYN The Exorcist (1973)
227 KEENAN WYNN Touch of Evil (1958)
241 AKIM TAMIROFF Touch of Evil (1958)
305 JOSEPH COTTEN Touch of Evil (1958)
308 GLENN FORD Cimarron (1960)
319 PETER JASON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
342 EDDIE ALBERT The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
379 JOHN IRELAND All the King’s Men (1949)
379 JOHN IRELAND The Scarf (1951)
452 JOHN HUSTON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
467 PAUL FIX Giant (1956)
467 PAUL FIX Johnny Guitar (1954)
516 ALAIN DELON The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
521 ROYAL DANO Cimarron (1960)
521 ROYAL DANO Johnny Guitar (1954)
566 LILLI PALMER THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
613 BRODERICK CRAWFORD All the King’s Men (1949)
616 SUSAN STRASBERG THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
625 ROD TAYLOR Giant (1956)
643 SHIRLEY KNIGHT The Counterfeit Killer (1968)
646 ELIZABETH TAYLOR Giant (1956)
646 ELIZABETH TAYLOR Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
656 CAMERON MITCHELL THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
681 ED BEGLEY JR. The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
725 BARRY SULLIVAN Inside Straight (1951)
745 HARRY SHEARER The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
827 GEORGE HAMILTON Angel Baby (1961)
863 LEOPOLDO TRIESTE A Farewell to Arms (1957)
883 MARIA SCHELL Cimarron (1960)
935 STERLING HAYDEN Johnny Guitar (1954)
942 RUSS TAMBLYN Cimarron (1960)
HM (863) EDMOND O’BRIEN THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
Mercedes appeared with 12 Oscar winners.
ANNE BAXTER Cimarron (1960)
BRODERICK CRAWFORD All the King’s Men (1949)
CHARLTON HESTON Touch of Evil (1958)
EDMOND O’BRIEN THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Giant (1956)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
ELLEN BURSTYN The Exorcist (1973)
ERNEST BORGNINE Johnny Guitar (1954)
GALE SONDERGAARD ECHOES (1982)
GEORGE KENNEDY The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)
JENNIFER JONES A Farewell to Arms (1957)
JOAN CRAWFORD Johnny Guitar (1954)
KATHARINE HEPBURN Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Hey Dan.
1. Thanks as always for sharing this information…..it is greatly appreciated.
2. Not surprised she is not on the Oracle list….a long long career….but very few movies.
3. I have not seen The Other Side of the Wind….but want to…..I suspect it might not be a very good movie….but so many legends…makes it must watch.
4. Both lists are not surprisingly on the short side compared to others.
5. A few people on the first list are still around……but only one on the second list is still around…Ellen Burstyn….who will be getting an UMR page in the near future.
Good stuff as always.
I have seen 8 Mercedes McCambridge movies. Seven of these are in the top 10.
The HIGHEST rated movie I have seen is Giant.
The highest rated movie I have NOT seen is The Exorcist.
The LOWEST rated movie I have seen is Angel Baby.
Favourite Mercedes McCambridge Movies:
Touch of Evil
Giant
Johnny Guitar
Cimarron
Other Mercedes McCambridge Movies I Have Seen:
All The King’s Men
Suddenly, Last Summer
A Farewell to Arms
Angel Baby
Good to see you feature another classic actress. You had several modern actresses in a row.
Hey Flora….thanks for sharing your thoughts on M.M. Tally count: Bob 8, Flora 8…me and Steve at 6. I have seen 3 of your 4 favorites….with Cimarron being the one I missed. I will see that one in the near future…as it has recently been added to my local library’s collection. I admit…I avoided The Exorcist for a very long time. I think I finally saw it about 6 or 7 years ago. Not generally a fan of horror movies…..but I have to say that is a very entertaining movie….but not one I want to rewatch regularly. I was on a run of current actresses for awhile…but then it was followed by two classic actresses. Good stuff as always.
Hi Bruce, looks like you missed my Penelope Cruise comment, maybe you’ll catch this one. 😉
As a kid I knew Mercedes best as the voice of the demon possessing Linda Blair in The Exorcist, one of my all time favorite movies. First time I saw that film ‘around 1974’ I took a tape recorder with me into the cinema and recorded all the demonic bits, so I could scare myself to sleep at night. Thats how weird I was.
I’ve seen 6 of the 16 films on the chart, favorites are – The Exorcist, Johnny Guitar, Giant, Touch of Evil and Airport 80 The Concorde (as it was titled here in the UK, a guilty pleasure bad movie)
Whoa The Exorcist grossed nearly a billion adjusted dollars in North America alone, it was huge back then and very controversial. There’s a scene in that film they would never allow in any new movie, somehow William Friedkin got away with it.
Good stuff Bruce. Vote Up!
“Steve Lensman
October 14, 2019 at 9:45 am
Hi Bruce, looks like you missed my Penelope Cruise comment, maybe you’ll catch this one.”
HI STEVE: Join the club. I’ve been in it for years. BOB
And we’re still in it. 😉
Hey Steve….I think I have done a decent job of keeping up with the comments since school started…..but…..this week has been rough….been sick….finalizing my school contract……taking certification tests….teaching 114 kids…..writing 3 new pages. After today….which features…school for 4 hours (teacher)….a certification test for another 4 hours….and then a 4 hour CPR certification class (student) I will be able to take “a breathe” tonight….granted it will be close to midnight…lol. Hoping to finish the M.M. comments before work starts. So…Better Late Than Never?
Hey Bob….at least it is a group filled with awesome movie loving people…lol.
Hey Steve. Sorry I missed your Cruz comment…..responded back a few days ago. I am right there with you on M.M. and The Exorcist. I heard the trivia about an actress who provided the voice…..just took awhile to realize who M.M. was in the movie world. That is a great memory of your “pirating youth days”. I can picture little Stevie and his tape recorder. Can’t imagine the sound quality was too impressive…..but I am sure as a kid you did not care. Tally count….Bob 8, Flora 8…me and Steve at 6. The Exorcist was huge back then….and when looking at tickets sold…it is still in the Top 10…sitting in 9th place…pretty impressive. I actually avoided The Exorcist for years…..I have since seen it twice….with the first time being with the director’s commentary……so you are not the only weird one….lol.
I have seen 8 of the 16 movies listed in the above table. I saw most of them in my formative young years as a movie buff and ‘Merc’ has since most emblazoned herself on my memory for her powerhouse performance in 1954’s Johnny Guitar – probably the fading Crawford’s last stand-alone major hit – even all good things must come to an end! Certainly Joan’s Cogerson stats page shows that the only two subsequent films of hers that crashed the Cogerson adjusted $100 million barrier were 1959’s Best of Everything, in which Joan had just a supporting role, and 1962’s Whatever Happened to Baby Myrna? where Crawford shared the stardom with her rival Davis.
The confrontations between my Joan and Merc in the Johnny Guitar were of such power that probably in Hollywood classic era history only two males had squared off to each other with such ferocity, with critics describing their feud in the movie as “butch” [and indeed Joan wore trousers as the posters for the film demonstrate -see reproduction on Wikipedia]. There’s even a “man gotta do what a man’s gotta do” shootout between the two women at the end, which MY girl wins of course! and Joan’s “Vienna” and Johnny “ride off into the sunset” very much as often did Randy or The Duke with their leading ladies.
Although Johnny Guitar is the title character and the male lead Crawford, was undoubtedly THE star of the film and is billed ALONE in massive letters above the title as, again, the posters demonstrate. That was a concession that few other Hollywood actresses in the classic era were seldom considered entitled to – take Myrna Loy for instance.
So Johnny although given much screen time was in effect a supporting character. It is said that Joan demanded Sterling Hayden for the role of Johnny because her rival Bette had secured him as her leading man in 1952’s The Star [with Bette’s name too alone in big letters above the title there]; and the theme song for Johnny Guitar makes it clear that Johnny belonged to VIENNA, as I have indicated above the character played by Joan-
“No matter whether he’s dead and buried,
No matter whether he’s near or far.
I know there is no other like my Johnny
The one they call Johnny Guitar.
As WH says above Merc has on IMDB, 66 credits to her name for the period 1949-2018; and as Bruce’s table suggests her movie input was sporadic, her last significant acting APPEARANCES probably being in Liz Taylor’s 1959 Suddenly Last Summer and Charlie Bill Stuart’s 1960 Cimarron.
Nevertheless her overall career spanned over 70 years according to Wikipedia from the early 1930’s in radio until her death in 2004 and in that time she was in not just radio productions and movies but also appeared on TV and stage [including Broadway]. Wikipedia lists many of her radio productions. The Other Side of the Wind mentioned in WH’s table was her final film, but until 2018 remained it unreleased for years after her death. At the time of her death she had a reported net worth of $1.6 million in today’s money. All-in-all, in my opinion she richly deserves her Cogerson page.
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on M.M.
2. Tally count….Bob 8, Flora 8…me and Steve at 6. I am pretty sure I saw Airport 79….but remember very little about the movie…that I did not count it in my tally.
3. Concerning Johnny Guitar…there were some “trivia nuggets” out there about the feud between M.M. and Joan….but in the end….I left them out….as we generally try and say positive here at UMR.
4. I agree….Johnny Guitar was one of Joan’s last starring role hits…..it is a movie that still holds up very well….and looks pretty amazing….as the colors pop off the screen.
5. She had a very long career…..just did not make many movies……but her Top 5 is a nice Top 5 to have…..an Oscar Best Picture winning movie, a classic epic movie, a monster box office hit, a cult classic and a Suddenly, Last Summer….ok 4 of 5…..lol….never been a fan of that last movie.
Good stuff as always.