Louise Fletcher, 88, Dies; Oscar Winner for ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’
Louise Fletcher, the tough-eyed, sculpted actress who won an Academy Award for her role as Dictator Nurse Ratch in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” died Friday at her home in New York. town of Montdurausse, southern France. She is 88 years old.
The death was confirmed by her agent, David Shaul, who did not state the reason. Miss Fletcher also has a house in Los Angeles.
Miss Fletcher was 40 years old and barely known to the public when she was cast as an administrative nurse at an Oregon mental institution in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The film, directed by Milos Forman and based on the popular novel by Ken Kesey, won the Best Actress trophy for Miss Fletcher and four other Oscars: best picture, best director, best actor (Jack Nicholson, who plays the rebellious psychopath McMurphy) and best adapted screenplay (Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauber).
Miss Fletcher’s acceptance speech was outstanding that night – not only because she teased thanked voters who hated her, but also because she used American Sign Language to thank her parents, both deaf, for being “teach me to dream”.
The American Film Institute later named Nurse Ratch as one of the most memorable villains in film history and the second most notable female villain, surpassed only by the Witch of the West in “The Wizard”. of Oz”.
But by the time “Cuckoo’s Nest” was released, Ms. Fletcher was frustrated by her character’s button-up personality. “I am extremely jealous of the other actors,” she said in a 1975 interview with The New York Times, referring to her co-stars, most of whom play mental patients. “They are very free, and I have to be controlled as such.”
Estelle Louise Fletcher was born on 22 July 1934 in Birmingham, Ala., one of four hearing children of Robert Capers Fletcher, an Episcopal minister, and Estelle (Caldwell) Fletcher; Both her father and mother were deaf from an early age. She studied drama at the University of North Carolina and moved to Los Angeles after graduation.
She later told journalists that because she was so tall – 5 feet 10 inches – she had trouble finding work in any industry except the West, where her height is a advantage. Of her first 20 screen roles in the late 1950s and early 60s, about half were in westerns, including “Wagon Train,” “Maverick,” and “Bat Masterson.”
Mrs. Fletcher married Jerry Bick, a film producer, in 1959. They had two sons, John and Andrew, and she took more than a decade off work to raise them.
Mrs. Fletcher and Mr. Bick divorced in 1977. Her survivors include her sons; her sister, Roberta Ray; and a granddaughter.
She returned to film in 1974 in Robert Altman of “Thieves Like Us,” as a cold-hearted woman who surrenders her brother to the police. It was her appearance in that film that led Mr. Forman to offer her the role in “Cuckoo’s Nest”.
“I was taken by surprise when Louise appeared on screen,” Mr. Forman recalls while watching “Thieves Like Us.” “I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She has a certain mystery, which I think is very, very important to Nurse Ratch. “
Reviewing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in The New Yorker, Pauline Kael stated that Miss Fletcher was “a great performance”.
Kael writes: “We can see how virginity – chastity – has turned into a self-image of puffy eyes. “She thinks she’s doing people good, and she’s hurt – she feels abused – if her powers are questioned.”
Ms. Fletcher is often cited as an example of the Oscar curse – the phenomenon where winning an Oscar for acting doesn’t always lead to a sustained movie star – but she has maintained a busy career in the industry. films and television in his late 70s.
She played the lead role of Linda Blair’s soft-spoken psychiatrist in “Exorcist II: The Heretic” (1977) and notably in the syndicated comedy “The Cheap Detective” (1978). appeared on Ingrid Bergman’s films. She also co-starred with Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood as a workaholic scientist in “Brainstorm” (1983). But she’s largely been left out of limited screen time roles, especially since her character is so different from her Nurse Rised character.
After becoming a puzzling UFO bigwig in “Strange Invaders” (1983), she appeared in “Firestarter” (1984) as a fearsome peasant wife; the police drama “Blue Steel” (1990) as Jamie Lee Curtis’ dull mother; “2 Days in the Valley” (1996) as a benevolent landlady in Los Angeles; and “Cruel Intentions” (1999) as Ryan Phillippe’s tender aunt.
Only when she transforms into a villain – as in “Flowers in the Attic” (1987), as an evil matriarchal woman who poisons her four careless grandchildren – she just found herself in the lead role. And that movie, she told the audience Dragoncon in 2009, was “the worst experience I’ve had to make a movie”,
Later in her career, she played recurring characters on several television series, including “Star Trek: Deep Space 9” (she was an alien cult leader from 1993 to 1999). and “Shameless” (as the mother of William H. Macy’s foul convict). She also appeared as Liev Schreiber’s loving mother in the romantic drama “A Perfect Man” (2013). She most recently appeared in two episodes of the Netflix comedy series “Girlboss”.
Although Mrs. Fletcher’s most famous character is a portrait of strictness, she often smiles constantly and pretends that everything was perfect growing up, in an effort to protect her unheard parents. from bad news.
“Its price is too high for me,” she said in a 1977 interview with The Ladies’ Home Journal. “Because I don’t just pretend that everything is fine. I came to feel it must be. “
Pretending isn’t bad, however, she admits, at least in terms of her profession. That same year, she told journalist Rex Reed, “I feel like I know the real joy that comes from believing.”
Mike Ives contribution report.