But she was best known for her role as a ruthless secretary and lover of Broderick Crawford Huey P. Long-like politician in 1949's "All the King's Men." It was her first film role and she won an Oscar for her work. Hollywood would use her infrequently, however, uncertain how to cast her outsized personality and hard-edged looks. She played a rough-riding, jealous relation of Rock Hudson's cattle baron in George Steven's "Giant," and gave as good as she got opposite Joan Crawford in the famously over-the-top 1954 Nicholas Ray western "Johnny Guitar." She and Crawford, another strong woman, famously loathed each other on first sight, and their rivalry charged their scenes on screen. (The movie, converted into a musical, is currently playing Off-Broadway.) Always, she was best at playing characters who lived at a high emotional pitch.