Louise Fletcher obit

Louise Fletcher Dies: Oscar-Winning ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ Actor Was 88

 

 She was not on the list.

Louise Fletcher, whose Oscar-winning performance as the sadistic Nurse Ratched in 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gave Hollywood one of its greatest all-time villains and provided the culture with a portrait of bureaucratic evil so indelible that the character’s last name could carry a TV series 45 years later, died Friday at her home in Montdurausse, France. She was 88.

Her death was announced to Deadline by her family through agent David Shaul. Although no cause was specified, Shaul said she passed away in her sleep at the home she had built from a 300-year-old farmhouse, surrounded by family. Earlier today, she said to her family about her beloved home, “I can’t believe I created something so meaningful to my well-being.”

Although forever linked with her most famous character, Fletcher enjoyed an acting career that spanned more than 60 years and included numerous performances in both television and on film. She had a recurring role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn Adami, and guest-starring roles on Picket Fences and Joan of Arcadia brought Emmy nominations in 1996 and 2004, respectively.

Born July 22, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama to deaf parents — she used sign language in her Academy Award acceptance speech, one of Oscar’s most memorable moments (watch it below) — Fletcher began her acting career in the late 1950s on such episodic TV series as Lawman, Bat Masterson, Maverick, The Untouchables and 77 Sunset Strip.

Similar roles followed at a steady clip throughout the 1960s, with appearances on Sugarfoot, Perry Mason and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. She appeared on film in 1963’s A Gathering of Eagles and, more fortuitously, in 1974’s Thieves Like Us, directed by Robert Altman. It was her performance in the latter film that drew the interest of director Miloš Forman, who was in the process of casting his film adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the 1962 Ken Kesey novel set in a mental institution and focusing on the conflict between a man feigning insanity to avoid prison and the domineering head nurse who demands conformity and obedience at all costs.

With Jack Nicholson set to star as the headstrong anti-hero patient Randle McMurphy, Forman spent the better part of a year looking for a potential co-star who could hold her own against the actor, then riding high from the success of Chinatown. The director reportedly made offers to, among others, Colleen Dewhurst, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft and Geraldine Page before deciding he had found his tyrannical Mildred Ratched in Fletcher.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was an immediate critical and box office hit, and would sweep the year’s Oscars by winning the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress and, for the work of Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, Best Screenplay.

In winning her Oscar, Fletcher became only the third woman to win the Academy Award, the BAFTA Award and the Golden Globe Award for a single performance. So indelible was her portrayal that in 2020, the Ryan Murphy-Evan Romansky Netflix series Ratched — a prequel of sorts to the novel and film, with Sarah Paulson in the starring role — would need only the single-word title to evoke the sense of dread and cruelty conveyed by Fletcher decades earlier.

The impact of the Oscar win was, she later recalled, exhilarating but fleeting. In a 1995 interview with The New York Times, she advised that year’s winners to “Just enjoy it; it’ll make you wonderfully happy for a night. But don’t expect that it’ll do anything for your career.”

“I got the Oscar when I was 41,” said Fletcher, then 60. “If I was 23, it would have been hard to deal with. Hell, at my age it was hard to deal with. It was like being thrown an explosive.”

In the same interview, she recalled a prophetic comment made backstage on Oscar night by the Czech-born Forman. “Milos said, ‘Now we’re all going to make flops.’ It was true. I made The Heretic — the second Exorcist — and it was a huge flop. Milos did Ragtime. And Jack did [The] Missouri Breaks. That’s Czech prophecy.”

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) ushered in a string of high-profile but less-than-successful films for Fletcher: The Cheap Detective (1978), The Lady in Red (1979), Brainstorm (1983), Blue Steel (1990) and Cruel Intentions (1999), among others. In a more memorable role, she played the Ratched-esque mother of Karen and Richard Carpenter in the 1989 TV-movie The Karen Carpenter Story.

A career revival began just a few years later when, in 1993, she landed the recurring role of the devious Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn Adami on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In 1996 she guested on Picket Fences as yet another cold-as-ice character, playing the estranged mother of the town mayor (portrayed by deaf actor Marlee Matlin). As a woman who rejected her deaf daughter, Fletcher earned an Emmy nomination.

Fletcher was nominated for another Emmy for her 2004 guest appearance as an elderly music teacher on Joan of Arcadia.

Subsequent TV roles included appearances on 7th Heaven, Private Practice and, from 2011-12, Shameless, in which she memorably recurred as the meth-cooking jailbird mother of William H. Macy’s Frank Gallagher. Her final TV credit was in the 2017 Netflix comedy Girlboss.

Fletcher was married to film producer Jerry Bick from 1959 until their divorce in 1977. She is survived by sons John and Andrew Bick; granddaughter Emilee Kaya Bick; sister Roberta Ray and brother-in-law Edward Ray; and 10 nieces and nephews.

Actress (137 credits)

  Everbrook (announced)

 2017 Girlboss (TV Series)

Rosie

- The Launch (2017) ... Rosie

- Sophia (2017) ... Rosie

 2013 A Perfect Man

Abbie

 2012 And Out, Into the Bright Blue Sky (Short) (voice)

 2012 Bad Girls (TV Movie)

 2012 Of Two Minds (TV Movie)

Aunt Will

 2011-2012 Shameless (TV Series)

Peg Gallagher

- Parenthood (2012) ... Peg Gallagher

- A Bottle of Jean Nate (2012) ... Peg Gallagher

- Can I Have a Mother (2012) ... Peg Gallagher

- Daddyz Girl (2011) ... Peg Gallagher

 2011/I Mistaken Identity (Short)

 2011 Rewired (Short)

 2011 Cassadaga

Claire

 2010-2011 Private Practice (TV Series)

Frances Wilder

- The Hardest Part (2011) ... Frances Wilder

- Can't Find My Way Back Home (2010) ... Frances Wilder

 2010 The Genesis Code

Ellen Taylor

 2009 Heroes (TV Series)

Dr. Coolidge

- Chapter Four 'Hysterical Blindness' (2009) ... Dr. Coolidge

- Chapter Two 'Ink' (2009) ... Dr. Coolidge

 2007 The Last Sin Eater

Miz Elda

 2006 Fat Rose and Squeaky

Bonnie

 2006 A Dennis the Menace Christmas (Video)

Martha Wilson

 2005 ER (TV Series)

Roberta 'Birdie' Chadwick

- Carter est Amoureux (2005) ... Roberta 'Birdie' Chadwick

- Ruby Redux (2005) ... Roberta 'Birdie' Chadwick

- Refusal of Care (2005) ... Roberta 'Birdie' Chadwick

 2005 7th Heaven (TV Series)

Mrs. Wagner

- Honor Thy Mother (2005) ... Mrs. Wagner

 2005 Aurora Borealis

Ruth Shorter

 2005 A Dad for Christmas (TV Movie)

Glennie

 2004 Wonderfalls (TV Series)

Vivian Caldwell

- Barrel Bear (2004) ... Vivian Caldwell

 2004 Clipping Adam

Grammy

 2004 Joan of Arcadia (TV Series)

Eva Garrison

- Do the Math (2004) ... Eva Garrison

 2004 The Planet Terror

Evelyn

 2004 It's All Relative (TV Series)

ER Nurse

- Oscar Interruptus (2004) ... ER Nurse

 2003 A Time to Remember (TV Movie)

Billy Calhoun

 2003 Finding Home

Esther

 2003 Silver Man

Val

 2002 Manna from Heaven

Mother Superior

 2001 Touched by a Killer

Judge Erica Robertson

 2001 After Image

Aunt Cora

 2000 Any Day Now (TV Series)

Tillie Simms

- Three Lucky Ladies on the Line (2000) ... Tillie Simms

 2000 More Dogs Than Bones

Iva Doll

 2000 Very Mean Men

Katherine Mulroney

 2000 Big Eden

Grace Cornwell

 1999/II The Contract

Grandma Collins

 1999 A Map of the World

Nellie Goodwin

 1999 Time Served (TV Movie)

Warden Mildred Reinecke

 1993-1999 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series)

Kai Winn / Vedek Winn

- What You Leave Behind (1999) ... Kai Winn

- When It Rains... (1999) ... Kai Winn

- The Changing Face of Evil (1999) ... Kai Winn

- Strange Bedfellows (1999) ... Kai Winn

- 'Til Death Do Us Part (1999) ... Kai Winn

Show all 14 episodes

 1999 The Devil's Arithmetic (TV Movie)

Aunt Eva

 1999 Cruel Intentions

Helen Rosemond

 1998 Brimstone (TV Series)

Evelyn McNabb

- Encore (1998) ... Evelyn McNabb

 1998 Fantasy Island (TV Series)

Doris Leeman

- Dying to Dance (1998) ... Doris Leeman

 1998 Love Kills

Alena Heiss

 1998 The Practice (TV Series)

Judge N. Swanson

- Rhyme and Reason (1998) ... Judge N. Swanson

 1998 Johnny 316

Sally's Mother

 1998 Profiler (TV Series)

Miriam Newquay, Jack's Mother

- Victims of Victims (1998) ... Miriam Newquay, Jack's Mother

- Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick (1998) ... Miriam Newquay, Jack's Mother (uncredited)

 1997 Breast Men (TV Movie)

Mrs. Saunders

 1997 Heartless (TV Movie)

Aunt Lydia McGuffy

 1997 Married to a Stranger (TV Movie)

Nana, Megan's Mother

 1997 Sins of the Mind (TV Movie)

Dr. Anna Bingham

 1997 The Girl Gets Moe

Gloria

 1997 Gone Fishin'

Restaurant Owner (uncredited)

 1995-1997 VR.5 (TV Series)

Mrs. Nora Bloom

- Send Me an Angel (1997) ... Mrs. Nora Bloom

- Reunion (1995) ... Mrs. Nora Bloom

- 5D (1995) ... Mrs. Nora Bloom

- Love and Death (1995) ... Mrs. Nora Bloom

- Dr. Strangechild (1995) ... Mrs. Nora Bloom

Show all 6 episodes

 1996 High School High

Principal Evelyn Doyle

 1996 2 Days in the Valley

Evelyn

 1996 Frankenstein and Me

Mrs. Perdue

 1996 The Stepford Husbands (TV Movie)

Miriam Benton

 1996 Edie & Pen

Judge

 1996 Picket Fences (TV Series)

Christine Bey

- Three Weddings and a Meltdown (1996) ... Christine Bey

- Bye-Bye, Bey-Bey (1996) ... Christine Bey

 1996 Mulholland Falls

Esther (uncredited)

 1995 Return to Two Moon Junction

Belle Delongpre

 1995 Virtuosity

Elizabeth Deane

 1995 Dream On (TV Series)

Joanna

- Try Not to Remember (1995) ... Joanna

 1994 Someone Else's Child (TV Movie)

Faye Maddox

 1994 Tollbooth

Lillian

 1994 Tryst

Maggie

 1994 Giorgino

Innkeeper

 1994 The Haunting of Seacliff Inn (TV Movie)

Dorothy O'Hara

 1994 On Deadly Ground

Bartender (uncredited)

 1993 The Fire Next Time (TV Mini Series)

Sarge

- Episode #1.2 (1993) ... Sarge

 1992 Civil Wars (TV Series)

Judge Frances Wyler

- The Triumph of DeVille (1992) ... Judge Frances Wyler

 1992 The Ray Bradbury Theater (TV Series)

Miss Weldon

- The Dead Man (1992) ... Miss Weldon

 1992 Blind Vision

Miss Taylor

 1992 The Player

Louise Fletcher

 1992 The Boys of Twilight (TV Series)

Genelva McPherson

- A Wing and a Prayer (1992) ... Genelva McPherson

- The Road Back (1992) ... Genelva McPherson

- A Bend in the River (1992) ... Genelva McPherson

- Hand Grenades and Horseshoes (1992) ... Genelva McPherson

- Pilot (1992) ... Genelva McPherson

 1991 In a Child's Name (TV Mini Series)

Jean Taylor

- Episode #1.2 (1991) ... Jean Taylor

- Episode #1.1 (1991) ... Jean Taylor

 1991 Tales from the Crypt (TV Series)

Agent

- Top Billing (1991) ... Agent

 1991 The Hitchhiker (TV Series)

Mother Birch

- Offspring (1991) ... Mother Birch

 1990 Nightmare on the 13th Floor (TV Movie)

Letti Gordon

 1990 In the Heat of the Night (TV Series)

Catherine Tyler

- December Days (1990) ... Catherine Tyler

 1990 Blue Steel

Shirley Turner

 1990 Shadowzone

Dr. Erhardt

 1989 Final Notice (TV Movie)

Mrs. Lord

 1989 Best of the Best

Mrs. Grady

 1989 The Karen Carpenter Story (TV Movie)

Agnes Carpenter

 1988 The Twilight Zone (TV Series)

Dr. Cline

- The Hunters (1988) ... Dr. Cline

 1988 Worlds Beyond (TV Series)

Karen Earl

- Home (1988) ... Karen Earl

 1988 Two Moon Junction

Belle Delongpre

 1987 Flowers in the Attic

Grandmother

 1987 J. Edgar Hoover (TV Movie)

Annie M. Hoover

 1986 Nobody's Fool

Pearl

 1986 The Boy Who Could Fly

Dr. Granada

 1986 Invaders from Mars

Mrs. McKeltch

 1986 Second Serve (TV Movie)

Dr. Sadie M. Bishop

 1986 Last Waltz on a Tightrope (TV Movie)

Cynthia Damond

 1985 A Summer to Remember (TV Movie)

Dr. Dolly McKeever

 1984 Islands (TV Movie)

Maureen Davis

 1984 Overnight Sensation (Short)

Evie Peregrine

 1984 Once Upon a Time in America

The Cemetery Directress (Extended Cut)

 1984 Firestarter

Norma Manders

 1983 Grizzly II: Revenge

Eileene Draygon

 1983 Brainstorm

Lillian Reynolds

 1983 Strange Invaders

Mrs. Benjamin

 1982 Talk to Me

Richard's mother

 1981 Strange Behavior

Barbara Moorehead

 1980 Mama Dracula

Mama Dracula

 1980 The Lucky Star

Loes Bakker

 1979 Natural Enemies

Miriam Steward

 1979 The Magician of Lublin

Emilia

 1979 The Lady in Red

Anna Sage

 1978 Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (TV Movie)

Sally Kimball

 1978 The Cheap Detective

Marlene DuChard

 1977 Exorcist II: The Heretic

Dr. Gene Tuskin

 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Nurse Ratched

 1975 Russian Roulette

Midge

 1974 Thieves Like Us

Mattie

 1974 Can Ellen Be Saved? (TV Movie)

Bea Lindsey

 1973 Medical Center (TV Series)

- Child of Violence (1973)

 1963 A Gathering of Eagles

Mrs. Kemler

 1961 The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (TV Series)

Aithra McLowery

- The Law Must Be Fair (1961) ... Aithra McLowery

 1961 The Best of the Post (TV Series)

- Groper in the Dark (1961)

 1960 Perry Mason (TV Series)

Susan Connolly / Gladys Doyle

- The Case of the Larcenous Lady (1960) ... Susan Connolly

- The Case of the Mythical Monkeys (1960) ... Gladys Doyle

 1960 Tate (TV Series)

Mrs. McConnell

- The Bounty Hunter (1960) ... Mrs. McConnell

 1960 Sugarfoot (TV Series)

Julie Frazer

- Funeral at Forty Mile (1960) ... Julie Frazer

 1960 The Millionaire (TV Series)

Holly

- Millionaire Vance Ludlow (1960) ... Holly

 1959-1960 Wagon Train (TV Series)

Elizabeth / Martha English

- The Tom Tuckett Story (1960) ... Elizabeth

- The Andrew Hale Story (1959) ... Martha English

 1959 Markham (TV Series)

Ellen Amery

- Strange Visitor (1959) ... Ellen Amery

 1959 One Step Beyond (TV Series)

Jeannie

- The Open Window (1959) ... Jeannie

 1959 The Untouchables (TV Series)

Eloise

- Ma Barker and Her Boys (1959) ... Eloise

 1959 77 Sunset Strip (TV Series)

Julia Maltby

- A Bargain in Tombs (1959) ... Julia Maltby

 1959 Maverick (TV Series)

Kathy Bent

- The Saga of Waco Williams (1959) ... Kathy Bent

 1959 Lawman (TV Series)

Betty Horgan

- The Encounter (1959) ... Betty Horgan

 1958 Yancy Derringer (TV Series)

Miss Nellie / Alithea

- Old Dixie (1958) ... Miss Nellie / Alithea

 1958 Bat Masterson (TV Series)

Sarah Lou Conant

- Cheyenne Club (1958) ... Sarah Lou Conant

 1958 Playhouse 90 (TV Series)

Pete's Girl

- Seven Against the Wall (1958) ... Pete's Girl

- The Last Man (1958)

 1958 Flight (TV Series)

- Red China Rescue