Would Linda Blair Have Won The Oscar Had It Not Been For The Eileen Dietz/Mercedes McCambridge Controversy?

I'd say she probably wouldn't have won since Burstyn didn't win lead actress and loss to an underdog like Glenda Jackson. Seems like that shows soft support for the film.

No.

She did win the Golden Globe though surprisingly. I think Sylvia Sydney probably was second. She was a vet and they were awarding older actors a lot in those years.

Blair is sort of affected in the pre-Exorcist scenes. The way she says stuff like "What's wrong with my mother?" is a bit odd sounding. Plus the calling her mother didn't help either. Most kids don't address their mother as mother.

She wouldn’t have even been nominated. They considered revoking her nomination because it didn’t come out that she wasn’t the voice for the Devil scenes until after she was nominated.

I should have won, damn it!

I'm confused. It was obvious that couldn't have been her voice. Did they at first say it was mechanically altered and not dubbed by McCambridge?

She should have. Linda Blair's performance is one of the iconic greats of American cinema. Nobody remembers Tatum Fucking O'Neal.

I saw William Friedkin speak at a screening a few years ago. He said McCambridge insisted on being really restrained and tied down just like Blair was and also that she started drinking again during the film after being sober because she thought it would make for a better performance.

[quote] She wouldn’t have even been nominated.

Huh? You’re saying that she was nominated thanks to the stories about Eileen and Mercedes?

R5, the question was, had the stories about the voice and the double not come to light, would Linda have won? Read next time. We know she probably wouldn’t have gotten nominated if those stories broke beforehand. That was the question.

Sorry, R8, but it's Tatum for the win! She was great in Paper Moon. Paper Moon is (still) awesome.

Tatum O’Neal had the advantage of being a clear lead in the supporting actress category; she would have been hard to beat regardless.

Fellow nominee Madeline Kahn said she thought Sylvia Sidney deserved the Oscar that year. She may have been the beneficiary had Tatum been in the correct category, as suggested above.

Tatum is still known, but for all the wrong reasons.

She is also still the youngest Oscar winner, which is brought up every awards season.

R13, what's so wrong with a lead winning a supporting Oscar? GFY!

Mercedes McCambridge ditched sobriety to do this film and give an “authentic” performance. She also would swallow raw eggs and chain smoke to alter her vocalizations. She drank a lot of whiskey for even more drastic vocal changes, and to create the manic, crazed state of mind the character had.

Because she gave up sobriety she made sure her Priest remained on set at all times for her to speak to when needed.

She also had herself tied to a wheelchair, with her legs, arms, hands and neck tied down to create a real struggling sound.

This scared the Director so much that he didn’t ask her back to record the TV edit, and instead did the voice work for the devil himself.

Linda Blair received her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination before it was widely known that previous Supporting Actress winner Mercedes McCambridge had actually provided the voice of the demon. By Academy rules once Blair was given the nomination it could not be withdrawn, but the controversy about Blair being given credit for another actress' work ruined her chances of winning the award. If they knew Blair did not do the demon voice beforehand, she would not have been nominated.

R13, I suppose it’s not as egregious as a supporting performance winning a Lead Oscar.

Tatum was a supporting performance, and the Oscar was deserved.

R18, exactly!

R16, everyone knows that. Enough.

R21 go take your meds

Friedkin was the one that really fucked everything up.

[quote] Linda Blair received her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination before it was widely known that previous Supporting Actress winner Mercedes McCambridge had actually provided the voice of the demon.

I'm sure if Linda had drunk 18 egg yolks chased with a fifth of whiskey, she could have emitted that gargling mess of a demon voice too.

R22 will next reveal that Linda injured her back in the film. Gasp!

Timmy, why you do this to me Timmy??

Blair was irritating in act one.

r12 Do you know what she did? My cunting daughter?!

OP is probably the same person who thinks Jamie Lee fucking Curtis should have won an Oscar for her debut in "Halloween".

Give it a rest for god'a sake.

Why wasn't Jason Bateman nominated for his breakout performance in TEEN WOLF TOO????

R30 I've never heard of that film.

But I heard that Bateman didn't actually transform himself into a wolf, it was all special effects and make up. Isn't that cheating, kind of like Deborah Kerr not doing her own singing in The King and I?

R29, was she nominated? Did she win a Golden Globe? Shut the fuck up.

R21 I did not.

Tatum was the lead, but I guess they have a problem with nominating a kid for lead actress. I would have given it to Kahn, based on the scene with Tatum on the hill where she tries to convince her to get back in the car.

"Let ol' big tits sit up front."