Louise Fletcher Dies – Was ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ Nurse

At the age of 88, the actress Louise Fletcher, who became known all over the world for the role of Nurse Ratched in “The Cuckoo’s Nest”, has passed away. For this role, she won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1976. In recent years, she lived permanently in France.

Louise Fletcher was born in Birmingham, Alabama on July 22, 1934 to deaf parents (her father was a bishop) and graduated from the University of North Carolina. In her teens she moved to Los Angeles and worked occasionally as a receptionist while taking acting lessons. Her work on television began in the late 1950s, but in 1963 she stopped appearing in order to raise the two children she had with her husband, producer Jerry Brick (they divorced in 1978).

A decade later, in her 40s, Fletcher returned to the scene and thanks to her performance in Robert Altman’s period gangster film Thieves Like Us (1974), she caught the attention of Czech M. Forman, who cast her in the role nurse in “The Cuckoo’s Nest”. However, after her triumph in this film, Fletcher never managed to find herself in anything of similar value. Among her notable films are the thrillers Brainstorm (1983), Flowers in the Attic (1987), The Player and Star Trek: Space Station 9 (1993).

Her most important work remained in television. In 1996 she was nominated for an Emmy for the series “Picket fences” and in 2004 the series “Joan of Arcadia” led her to the Emmys again.

Finally, it should be noted that at the 1976 Oscars, Fletcher closing her acceptance speech spoke in sign language saying: “To my mother and father, I want to say thank you for teaching me to dream. You see my dream come true. Thanks.”

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