- Born
- Died
- Birth nameEstelle Louise Fletcher
- Height5′ 9¾″ (1.77 m)
- Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Episcopal minister Robert Fletcher and his wife Estelle, both of whom were deaf, Louise Fletcher was introduced to performing at a young age by the aunt who taught her to speak. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, she took a trip out west with her roommates, finding herself in Los Angeles without enough money to return home. She took a temporary job as a receptionist and signed up for acting classes at night. Soon she was working regularly in television and film, but after marrying producer Jerry Bick and having two sons, the actress took a long hiatus to raise her children.
Returning to work in 1974 in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (1974), Fletcher came to the attention of director Miloš Forman, who was casting the difficult role of the nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). She won the role -- and then the Academy Award -- portraying deadly, inflexible Nurse Ratched, who has since become a cultural icon. Numerous film roles followed, including co-starring turns with Peter Falk in The Cheap Detective (1978) and with Richard Burton in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). Fletcher has appeared in a number of science fiction and horror classics such as Firestarter (1984), Brainstorm (1983), and Flowers in the Attic (1987).
Though she earned an Emmy Award nomination for her recurring role on Picket Fences (1992), Fletcher is perhaps best known to recent television audiences as Kai Winn from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) and as Nora Bloom from the cult classic VR.5 (1995).
- IMDb mini biography by: GL <goddesslouise@writeme.com>
- SpouseJerry Bick(July 18, 1959 - November 30, 1978) (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenJohn R BickAndrew Wilson Bick
- ParentsRobert FletcherEstelle Fletcher
- RelativesGeorgianna Fletcher(Sibling)John Fletcher(Sibling)Roberta Fletcher(Sibling)
- Learned sign language at a very young age, as both of her parents were deaf. When Fletcher neared the end of her (spoken) Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), she finished with a unique (unspoken) touch in American Sign Language: "For my mother and my father, I want to say thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true. Thank you." (29 March 1976).
- Her Oscar-winning role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) was ranked #5 in the American Film Institute's Villains list in their 100 years of The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains.
- After her divorce from producer Jerry Bick in the late 1970s she caused a stir when she, then in her 40s, began dating 21-year-old Morgan Mason, the son of actor James Mason.
- Her role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) had been turned down by Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Colleen Dewhurst and Jane Fonda. Bancroft and Dewhurst turned down the role because they found it anti-feminist and downright misogynistic.
- Was a leading choice to play the mother in Terms of Endearment (1983).
- Miloš Forman doesn't want to discuss anything with his actors.
- [In sign language to her deaf parents, upon winning the Oscar for Best Actress] I want to thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true.
- The Communist Party was my Nurse Ratched! [Miloš Forman, in Milos Forman: Co te nezabije... (2009)].
- That's the main reason I gave up my career after John was born and I was pregnant with Andrew. I could not handle going away day after day. The thought of going away before they got up and coming back after they were in bed was intolerable.
- Live television drama was like live theater, because you moved without thinking about the camera. It followed you around. In film you have to be more aware of what the camera is doing.
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