One of the cruelest judgments sustained against me is that I have spoken out as a recovered alcoholic to stimulate my acting career.

During the marriage and afterward McCambridge battled alcoholism often being hospitalized after episodes of heavy drinking. In the mid-1970s McCambridge briefly took a position as director of Livingrin a Pennsylvania rehabilitation center for alcoholics. In 1954 the actress co-starred with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden in the offbeat western drama Johnny Guitar now regarded as a cult classic.

Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress. Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge (March 16 1916 – March 2 2004) was an Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe-winning American actress of radio stage film and television.