Louise Fletcher, a famous actress from Birmingham, Jefferson County, began her career in films and television shows in the 1940s. Her most well-known role is Nurse Ratched in the 1975 film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Estelle Louise Fletcher was born in Birmingham on July 22, 1934 to deaf parents Robert and Estelle Fletcher. As an Episcopal priest, Robert Fletcher ministered to a congregation of hearing-impaired and auditory-competent people in Birmingham. However, neither he nor his wife were hearing impaired; their four children were also not deaf.
Estelle was so shy that her first teacher thought she was deaf and recommended that her parents send her to a school for the hearing impaired. Her father Robert was adamant about his children being successful in the hearing world; consequently, he was furious with the teacher’s recommendation.
Louise Fletcher grew up in two different worlds because of a decision made by her father. He sent each of his children to spend time with their mother’s hearing sister in Texas. When she was three years old, Louise spent a year with her hearing aunt in Texas. From then on, she would spend three months out of every year in Bryan, Texas.
Fletcher grew up in a humble home in Alabama; however, she learned to speak and act while spending time at her wealthy aunt’s house. On visits to minister at deaf asylums near her father’s home, Fletcher saw how different her lifestyle was from other members of her community.
Ruth Fletcher studied at the UNC Chapel Hill theater department after graduating from Ramsay High School in Birmingham. She moved to Los Angeles after college to begin a career in acting. While working as a receptionist during the day, Fletcher took acting classes in the evening.
She eventually became a successful actress and was even nominated for an Academy Award. The Hollywood producer Jerry Bick was Fletcher’s fiance in 1963. That year, she made her film debut with a small role in the war movie A Gathering of Eagles. Before that, she acted in multiple television shows; between 1958 and 1963, she acted in nearly every production.
These included episodes of The Untouchables and Bat Masterson. Fletcher retired from acting in 1964 to raise her two sons. Her first film after retirement was Thieves Like Us in 1974, which she only agreed to act in at the insistence of her husband and director Robert Altman.
The film’s director thought her southern upbringing made her the perfect choice for the role of a woman from 1930s Mississippi who betrays her brother to the law in order to protect her children. Altman acted out the law-abiding character who breaks the law in spite of her morals.
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