Actress Louise Fletcher passed away at her home in France on Friday at the age of 88. A representative announced her death and stated that she was surrounded by family and friends.
Fletcher gained widespread recognition for her acting role as Nurse Ratched in Milos Forman’s 1975 film ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.’ She was awarded an Academy Award for Best Actress due to her performance.
The Academy Awards gave the best picture award to the classic film in 1976. Based on Ken Kesey’s novel, the film explores the suppressive nature of authority through the story of patients and employees of a mental health facility.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was the first film in over 40 years to win all major Academy Awards. It was nominated for an additional four Oscars and was a box office success. Additionally, it won best picture, best actor, best actress and best screenplay.
The American Film Institute TV show “100 Years… 100 Heroes & Villains” listed Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched as the second-greatest female villain in film history. She was ranked fifth overall among villains in film history.
Fletcher’s Oscar-winning performance as Ratched definitely deserved recognition. Compared to Kesey’s original work, the script had softened the character, and Fletcher gave a subtle performance. She often communicated emotions and feelings through her facial expressions; this is why she was worthy of an Oscar. Through Fletcher’s acting, we were even able to pity Ratched on several occasions throughout the film.
Roger Ebert believes Fletcher’s performance as Nurse Ratched in “Cuckoo’s Nest” isn’t appreciated enough. This is because her performance was so detestable that people fear certain female authority figures that embody sexual and humane qualities subsumed in duty and righteousness. According to Ebert, this is likely because Fletcher’s Ratched was represented as a woman who has been taught to fear.
The actress earned an Oscar for her role as Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Some believed that this ultimately did more harm than good; a frustrated Washington Post writer even said Fletcher should talk to her agent about these ‘tedious’ stereotype roles. This was due to the savage review of 1987’s “Flowers in the Attic,” which Fletcher starred in. The writer said that Fletcher had become unsympathetic and frustrating.
Fletcher likely asked her agent for different acting roles without success.
In 2013’s “A Perfect Man”, starring Liev Schreiber and Jeanne Tripplehorn, she appeared as her most recent role.
TV shows have employed Fletcher’s acting talents in a variety of roles. She has played an amazingly cunning former convict trying to maintain a relationship with her grandchildren as Grammy on Shameless. Additionally, she portrayed the duplicitous and scheming spiritual leader Winn Adami on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine between 1993 and 1999. Additionally, Fletcher acted in the sci-fi TV show VR.5 from 1995 to 1997 and on ER in 2005.
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