- 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.
- Had one son, John Lawrence Fifield (DOB: December 25, 1941, in Hollywood, California), who was later adopted by his stepfather Fletcher Markle and took his last name. On November 16, 1987 he killed his wife, both of his children and then himself in Little Rock, Arkansas after being fired from his job on November 13, 1987 for an embezzlement scheme involving accounts belonging to his mother.
- 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.
- She has appeared in five films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: All the King's Men (1949), Johnny Guitar (1954), Giant (1956), Touch of Evil (1958) and The Exorcist (1973).
- 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).
- Was the 33rd actress to win an Academy Award; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for All the King's Men (1949) at The 22nd Academy Awards on March 23, 1950.
- Was nominated for Broadway's 1972 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracks."
- Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" bu Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).
- Gave birth to her only child at age 25, a son John Lawrence Fifield (later Markle) on December 25, 1941. Child's father was her 1st ex-husband, William Fifield.
- Her father was of Irish descent, and her mother was of three quarters Irish ancestry (with her mother's other roots being English and German). From a Catholic background, Mercedes was educated at Catholic schools.
- Grandmother of Suzanne Marie Markle (February 8, 1978-November 16, 1987).
- Is one of 13 actresses who won their Best Supporting Actress Oscars in a movie that also won the Best Picture Oscar (she won for All the King's Men (1949)). The others are Hattie McDaniel for Gone with the Wind (1939), Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver (1942), Celeste Holm for Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Donna Reed for From Here to Eternity (1953), Eva Marie Saint for On the Waterfront (1954), Rita Moreno for West Side Story (1961), Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Juliette Binoche for The English Patient (1996), Judi Dench for Shakespeare in Love (1998), Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind (2001), Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago (2002) and Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave (2013).
- She was awarded the 1992 Drama Logue Award for Performance in "Lost in Yonkers" in presented by the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson at the James A. Doolittle (University of California) Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 342-343. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
- On film, Mercedes McCambridge was twice related to Elizabeth Taylor: her sister-in-law in "Giant" (1956) and her mother in "Suddenly, last summer" (1959).
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