WOMAN OF THE WEEK: Mercedes McCambridge

As a part of the ongoing "Come on Feel Tha Illinoiz" series here on Day of the Woman, the return of Woman of the Week, and included with the Women In Horror Recognition Month festivities, I intend to shed some light on an actress who has made one of the largest impacts in horror.  

Mercedes McCambridge was a popular radio voice in the 1940's and constantly played the rough and tumble, butch female leads in films throughout the 1940's and 1950's, but it was her work in quite possibly the biggest horror film from the 1970's (if not, all time) that has made her truly an unsung horror hero.

Ms. Mercedes McCambridge was the voice of Pazuzu, the demon that posessed little Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist. What? You didn't think a woman could voice the horrifying male demon?  Well, think again.  One of the scariest, most horrific, traumatizing, haunting, and creepy voices in all of horror history belongs to a woman. 

Thank-you Mercedes McCambridge for not only being a 40's-50's cult film sweetheart, but for giving a voice to a character that has surely instilled quite the nightmares in all of us.