During her film career, Ms. McCambridge acquired a reputation as a strong-willed, outspoken woman on and off the screen. When she was hired to play the enemy of Joan Crawford in a 1954 Western, "Johnny Guitar," the pair feuded on the set. In her memoir, Ms. McCambridge called Crawford "a mean, tipsy, powerful, rotten-egg lady."
Because of her great vocal skills, Ms. McCambridge was hired to portray The Demon in William Friedkin's 1973 smash hit "The Exorcist." After weeks of what she called the hardest work she had done for a film, she had been promised prominent mention in the credits.
But when she attended the preview, her name was missing. As she left the theater in tears, Friedkin tried to explain that there had been no time to insert her credit. The Screen Actors Guild intervened and forced her inclusion in the credits.
Despite the celebrity that followed her Academy Award for "All the King's Men," Ms. McCambridge's film career did not flourish. Because she did not fit the glamour girl image that was prevalent in postwar films, her movie work was sporadic.
Among the later films: "Giant" (1956 -- her second Oscar nomination as supporting actress), "A Farewell to Arms" (1957), "Touch of Evil" (1958 -- with Welles), "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959), "Cimarron" (1960), "99 Women" (1969), "Thieves" (1977), "The Concorde -- Airport '79" (1979).
In the early 1990s, Neil Simon called with an offer to play the grandmother in "Lost in Yonkers" on Broadway. Ms. McCambridge's return to the New York theater proved to be triumphant.
In her later years, Ms. McCambridge also appeared in "Magnum, P.I." and other television series, but her movie work was sparse.
"I don't think the Hollywood community is interested in what I can do," she said in a 1981 interview. "That's all right. I've never looked for a job in my life, and I'm not going to start now. I have plenty to keep me busy."
