Louise Fletcher, the imposing, beautiful-eyed actress who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Dictator Nurse Ratch in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” died Friday at her home in New York. Montdurausse, France. She is 88 years old.
The death was confirmed by her agent, David Shaul. He did not state the reason.
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 the 1975 movie version of “Cuckoo’s Nest.” The film, directed by Milos Forman and based on the novel by Ken Kesey, won the best actress trophy for Miss Fletcher. and four other Oscarsincluded for the best picture, for Mr. Forman is best director and Jack Nicholson is best actor.
Miss Fletcher’s acceptance speech was outstanding That night, not only because she teasingly thanked voters who hated her, but also because she used American Sign Language to thank her parents for “teaching me to have a dream.”
The American Film Institute later named Nurse Raised 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 disappointed by her character’s button-down personality. “I am extremely jealous of the other actors,” she said in a 1975 interview with The New York Timesreferring to her fellow members, many some of them have played the role of 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 audible children of Robert Capers Fletcher, a former Episcopal Secretary, and Estelle Caldwell, both deaf since childhood. small. She studied drama at the University of North Carolina and moved to Los Angeles after graduation.
She later told journalists that she had trouble finding work because she was so tall – 5 feet 10 inches – and was often cast as Western, where her height is an 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, and she took more than a decade off work to raise them.
“I was taken aback when Louise appeared on screen,” he recalls 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 “Cuckoo’s Nest” in The New Yorker, Pauline Kael stated that Miss Fletcher was “a great performer”.
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.”
Mrs. Fletcher is often cited as an example of the Oscar curse – the phenomenon it has been observed that winning an Oscar for acting does not always lead to a sustained movie star – but she has maintained a Busy career in film 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 seems to be left out of limited screen time roles, especially since the character is so different from her Nurse Rised character.
After becoming a confusing 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 if she plays the role of a stereotype, as she did in “Flowers in the Attic” (1987), as an evil matriarchal woman who poisons her four illegitimate grandchildren. her reign, she has just started taking on leading roles. That movie was “the worst experience I’ve ever made a movie” she told the audience Dragoncon in 2009. She told the director that she didn’t want her character to be heavy.
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).
Her survivors include her two sons, John and Andrew Bick; her sister, Roberta Ray; and a granddaughter. Mrs. Fletcher and Mr. Bick divorced in 1977.
In addition to her home in Montdurausse, a town in the south of France, Ms. Fletcher also has a home in Los Angeles.
Miss Fletcher, whose character is best known as a portrait of stoicism, often smiles constantly and pretends that everything was perfect as she grew up, in an effort to protect her unheard parents. from bad news.
“Its price is too high for me,” Ms. Fletcher 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 should 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.
