Louise Fletcher, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ Actress, Dies at 88

Louise Fletcher, who was famously known for her Oscar-winning performance as Nurse Ratched in 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has died at the age of 88 in her home in France. She is survived by her two sons.

In addition to her most popular role, Fletcher appeared in many other film and TV projects, including the Star Trek franchise where she portrayed the manipulative and conniving Kai Winn in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Fletcher was born the child of two deaf adults and was introduced to the theater by a hearing aunt who also helped her learn to speak. She moved to Los Angeles after college where she began picking up roles in TV, often in Westerns such as Bat Masterson and Lawman. In an interview in the New York Times in 1975, Fletcher noted that she had an easier time getting cast in Westerns because the leads were taller, and, at 5’10”, she was often deemed too tall to play a love interest for Hollywood’s leading men.

In 1960, she married film producer Jerry Bick and had two children, after which she retired from acting for 11 years to raise them.

She returned to acting in 1973 for a small role in Thieves Like Us. She later divorced her husband Bick in 1977.

Fletcher’s career continued much as it had before, working steadily right up through her final roles in 2017. Along the way, she appeared in everything from The Exorcist II (in a very Ratched-like role) to Shameless, where she played the tough-as-nails and profane mother to William H. Macy’s Frank – another memorable role to say the least.

In 2012, Fletcher told StarTrek.com that “my granddaughter cannot, ever, watch this show,” referring to the crass nature of her Shameless character.