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In Los Angeles Louise Fletcher, a late-blooming star who earned an Academy Award for her compelling portrayal of the cold-blooded Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” has passed away at age 88.
Fletcher passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in Montdurausse, France, according to her agent David Shaul, who spoke to The Associated Press on Friday. The reason wasn’t stated.
Filmmaker Milos Forman chose Fletcher, who had put her career on hiatus for years to raise her children, for the role opposite Jack Nicholson in the 1975 movie when she was in her early 40s and poorly known. Forman had appreciated her work in director Robert Altman’s “Thieves Like Us” the year before. She was unaware that several other notable actors, like Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, and Angela Lansbury, had declined to take part at the time.
“I was the last person cast,” she recalled in a 2004 interview. “It wasn’t until we were halfway through shooting that I realized the part had been offered to other actresses who didn’t want to appear so horrible on the screen.”
After “It Happened One Night” in 1934, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” went on to become the first movie to win best picture, best director, best actor, best actress, and best screenplay.
“It looks as though you all hated me.”, Fletcher said to the audience while clutching her Oscar during the 1976 ceremony.
She continued by speaking to and signing to her deaf parents in Birmingham, Alabama: “I want to thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true.”
There was silence for a moment, then roaring applause.
Later that evening, Forman made the sardonic remark, “Now we will all make tremendous flops,” to Fletcher and her co-star, Jack Nicholson.
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He was correct—at least in the near term.
Next, Forman helmed the film adaptation of the popular Broadway musical “Hair,” but it fell short of the stage production in terms of appeal. One of Nicholson’s poorest movies, “Goin’ South,” was both his directorial debut and his acting debut. Fletcher agreed to work on the poorly thought out sequel to the iconic first film, “Exorcist II: The Heretic.”
Fletcher’s age made it far more difficult for her to land significant jobs in Hollywood than it did for her male peers. She continued to work nonstop for the majority of the rest of her life. She starred in “Mama Dracula,” “Dead Kids,” and “The Boy Who Could Fly” after “Cuckoo’s Nest.”
She received Emmy nominations for her appearances in the TV shows “Joan of Arcadia” and “Picket Fences” as well as for her recurrent part as Kai Winn Adami, the leader of the Bajoran faith in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” In 1989’s “The Karen Carpenter Story,” she portrayed the mother of the musical group Carpenters.
Her height also hindered Fletcher’s career. She was frequently turned down from auditions because she was too short compared to her starring male at 5-feet-10.
Fletcher relocated to Los Angeles as soon as she received her degree from North Carolina State University in order to begin her acting career.
She started obtaining one-day roles on TV shows like “Wagon Train,” “77 Sunset Strip,” and “The Untouchables” while working as a doctor’s receptionist during the day and training at night with renowned actor and teacher Jeff Corey.
Early in the 1960s, Fletcher married the producer Jerry Bick, and she quickly had two kids. She made the decision to postpone her career to stay at home with her children, and she didn’t work for 11 years.
“I made the choice to stop working, but I didn’t see it as a choice,” she said in the 2004 interview. “I felt compelled to stay at home.”
Bick passed away in 2004 after she divorced him in 1977.
In the movie “Cuckoo’s Nest,” based on the book by Ken Kesey that he wrote while participating in an experimental LSD programme, Nicholson plays a brazen, small-time criminal named R.P. McMurphy who poses as insane in order to be moved from prison to a mental institution where he won’t have to put in as much effort.
After being imprisoned, McMurphy learns that Fletcher’s stern, commanding Nurse Mildred Ratched, who strictly controls her patients, runs the mental ward. Ratched and the institution, where she restores order, impose harsh punishment on McMurphy as the two clash, giving him the upper hand in the ward.
The character was so well-known that 45 years later, “Ratched,” a Netflix comedy, would be based on her.
On July 22, 1934, in Birmingham, Estelle Louise Fletcher, the second of four children, was born. Her father was a travelling Episcopal clergyman who lost his hearing at the age of four after being struck by lightning, and her mother was born deaf.
“It was like having parents who are immigrants who don’t speak your language,” she said in 1982.
The Fletcher kids resided in Bryant, Texas, with their aunt for a year, and she assisted out. She also taught them how to sing and dance, as well as read, write, and speak.
These more recent research persuaded Fletcher that she should take action. She once claimed that watching the Ginger Rogers film “Lady in the Dark” further fueled her creative fire.
Fletcher claimed that this and other movies had taught her that “if you wanted something bad enough, your dream might become a reality.”
She would remark, “I knew from the movies, I wouldn’t have to stay in Birmingham and be like everyone else.
Deadline was the first to report on Fletcher’s passing.
She is survived by her two sons, John and Andrew Bick.
