R.I.P. Louise Fletcher, from Star Trek and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Fletcher won an Oscar for her iconic portrayal of Nurse Ratched in the 1975 film
Aux News Louise Fletcher
Louise Fletcher has died. A veteran actor with more than 100 credits to her name, Fletcher was best known for her Oscar-wining performance as the calmly monstrous Nurse Ratched in 1975's One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, giving a turn as one of cinema’s great unlikely villains. In addition to that star-making performance, Fletcher appeared in a vast number of film and TV projects, including staking out a place for herself as one of the best antagonists in the entire Star Trek franchise as the manipulative and conniving Kai Winn in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Per Variety, Fletcher died at her home in France earlier today. She was 88.
Born the child of two deaf adults, Fletcher was introduced to the theater by a hearing aunt who also helped her learn to speak. Post-college, she migrated to Los Angeles, where she began picking up roles in TV, often in Westerns like 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; the birth of their two children saw Fletcher retire from acting for 11 years to raise them.
When she came back, one of her first projects was a film from one of Bick’s long-time associates: Robert Altman, who cast Fletcher in a small part in 1973's Thieves Like Us. Plans to cast Fletcher in Altman’s Nashville apparently fell through after the director and Bick had a falling out; Fletcher and Bick would themselves divorce in 1977.
But Nashville’s loss was another movie’s gain: Director Miloš Forman noticed Fletcher’s performance in Thieves, and added her to his list of potential Nurse Ratcheds for his upcoming adaptation of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Although many actors were considered for (and declined) the part, it was Fletcher who ended up securing it—and the Best Actress Oscar in the process.
Nearly 50 years later, Fletcher’s performance in the part remains chilling: A surface-sweet portrait of institutional evil, she carefully watches the patients in her charge, holds herself snake-still at key moments, and then strikes perfectly at their vulnerabilities. And, in Fletcher’s hands, she never gives anything less than the total impression that she believes that she’s doing what’s right, and what’s best for all involved. The film—which became a massive box office success, in addition to its critical reception—simply wouldn’t work without her.
After accepting her Oscar in 1975—taking a moment during her acceptance speech to sign a thank you message to her parents—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 part that had at least a whiff of Ratched about it, as many of her latter-day roles did) to Shameless, where she played the tough-as-nails and profane mother to William H. Macy’s Frank. (Fletcher in 2012: “My granddaughter cannot, ever, watch this show.”) Among the nerdier types, though, she was especially well-remembered for her multi-season role on Deep Space Nine, where she once again wielded “sweetness” and condescension as a weapon, creating a villain who couldn’t be so easily phasered or torpedoed, in the form of Bajoran spiritual leader Kai Winn.
Fletcher is survived by her two sons.
39 Comments
I loved her in ‘Brainstorm’. A fierce and brilliant female scientist. A role to look up to and admire for young girls.
That is a brilliant little film, and it’s a shame more people haven’t seen it. Walken was too hot for words, too….
Fantastic actress. I remember watching Deep Space Nine at a young age, and had never seen a villain as multifaceted, or at least frustratingly difficult to “defeat” easily, as Kai Winn. Lowkey the best antagonist Star Trek ever produced, and she was on the same show as Gul Dukat!
I always loved the way Avery Brooks and Nana Visitor made the choices to always tense up whenever Kai Wynn approached.Also, when she finally cut loose one time and called Kira out for thinking only resistance fighters suffered.
Winn (and a couple of the other DS9 antagonists) were so great because, while she was basically self-interested, she kinda just had a different, shittier vision of how Bajoran religion and society should be structured and wouldn’t be talked out of it. Until the very end of the show when she throws in with Bajoran Satan, she doesn’t really do anything illegal or objectionable enough to justify overthrowing her by force. She’s a great villain because she’s emblematic of how Star Fleet’s commitment to noninterference and respect for the rule of law will often result in a lot of crappy people oozing petty venality all over important institutions who can’t be easily removed, which is a problem real democracies face all the time.
Well, in S1 she actually conspires with a Bajoran engineer to blow up a school aboard DS9 and then later assassinate the man she was in the running for Kai with. But other than that, sure! Nothing illegal or objectionable lol. Though to be fair, the show seemed to want to sweep that right under the rug as soon as it was over too.
DS9 is great on so many levels but one level was making enemies that yes were evil, but weren’t evil. Wynn was never out to just be evil, it was that if her goals were met evil would come.
RIP to one of the baddest bitches in the Alpha Quadrant!
Nobody else could make “my child” the two most enraging words in the English language. Absolute legend.
RIP
I think the only way they weren’t alike is that Weyoun was comfortable with the way he was. The very fact that she completely denies any similarities just shows how uncomfortable she is with it.
Everyone knows a Kai Winn. That’s why she was a standout in a show of standouts. Farewell, Louise.
I’d never heard of Kai Winn until Louise Fletcher died.
Then, my child, you need to stop wallowing in self-inflicted ignorance, go out and binge watch DS9 now.
Yeah, nah. Star Trek’s boring. I understand the appeal for people of a certain…mindset…but I like a bit more complexity to my characters, and, more importantly, their interactions.
“I haven’t seen this thing that everyone says is smart and good, but I know for a fact that it’s dumb and bad”
“Youtube,” mused WowBOBWow, “how the fuck does such a thing exist?”I’ve had numerous people send me these “awesome” or “epic” or whatever scenes from various Treks – I’m just not so presumptuous as to think that counts as having actually watched it.It’s always left me, at best, meh, and at worse slightly embarrassed. I get it, it’s written for those who have trouble with social cues, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s not for me.
“but I like a bit more complexity to my characters”This was a large part of the DNA of the show, funnily enough.
It’s Star Trek. If the entire show didn’t consist of paragons of virtue loudly and clearly declaring and spelling their thoughts and actions to each other, they wouldn’t have the fanbase they do.
As I’ve said before, you middle-aged blokes really lean into being crusty for some reason.
Don’t feed the troll, man. Just let it starve.
I don’t think they’re a troll. Looking at their posts they seem like someone who glommed on to an idea…
In
their case ‘cultural capital” which is one of those things YouTube man-o-sphere
types misuse to explain how awesome they are. To Maul’s credit they
keep it on the downlow so there’s no telling if the rot runs deep or if
it’s just triggered when the subject of geek culture comes up.
…and decided to narrowly define themselves and the rest of the world by it. As you can see from their posts in this thread alone their criticism stems from the starting point of Star Trek being lame because lameoids like it.
To be fair though, if you’re unwilling to suspend your
disbelief enough to accept a universe of hyper-competent people in
pajamas speaking what amounts to gibberish, Trek can leave you confused
and disinterested.
Ah, nothing like calling someone who doesn’t share you opinions of – checks notes – a TV show a troll, because, as I said, you’re not exactly great at relating to others who are different to you. Your arguments would go better if you didn’t keep proving me right.
…says the guy defending a TV series that launched in the sixties. Why you watchin’ BOOMER TV, zoomer?We get what you’re trying to do: you base your personality around the pop culture you consume, so people who don’t share your tastes are insulting you personally.
DS9 is a 90s show, my dude :)“you base your personality around the pop culture you consume, so people
who don’t share your tastes are insulting you personally.”Even were that true I’d still take that over “needing to inform as many people as possible how much you dislike something”.
I think it has more to do with saying cunty things like “Star Trek is written for those who have trouble with social cues” that gives off the impression that you’re insulting us personally. Obviously not liking Star Trek is fine, but trying to pull the whole “lol this show if for nerds lololol” routine – in the comment thread of an actress who just died, no less – there’s really no way to read that other than you being a colossal tool.
You actually are insulting people personally, though. You’re not just commenting on the show, but on the people who enjoy it.
Fire up your Netflix or wherever Deep Space Nine is at the moment.
I think it’s on… Paramount+. *shudders*
I hope Louise Fletcher found peace and is in a better place. By contrast, Kai Winn is literally burning in hell from being fried by the Pa’Wriaths. Deserved it too!
I probably shouldn’t remember her mostly for her role in Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake of Invaders From Mars where she at one point eats a frog for no good reason, but damn if she didn’t sell the Hell out of that role too.
She scared me absolutely shitless as a kid in that. Just an absolute nightmare of a character.
I didn’t see One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest until I was well into my adulthood, but Fletcher absolutely TERRIFIED me as a child in Tobe Hooper’s version of Invaders From Mars.
She played an absolutely realistic mental health nurse and people thought it was the villain of the century.Epic badass.
I remember when she gave her acceptance speech at the Oscars she
took the time to speak in sign language to her parents watching at
home (both of them were hearing impaired).She always seemed to accept her typecasted roles with
graciousness and the gratitude that she could make a living as an actor that is
always the hallmark of a class act. I read an interview with her some years
back wherein she said that working on “Deep Space Nine” was actually her
favorite gig. She said that it was such a professional, close-knit crew that it
was like working at a golden age Hollywood studio.
She deserved a much bigger career than she got, but fell victim to Hollywood’s impossible beauty standards. She even made a guest appearance in Wonderfalls referencing this, as a woman who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel but had her spotlight stolen by a more conventionally attractive woman who claimed to have done it (played by the also awesome Rue McClanahan).
Rue McLanahan? Who was the casting director on this?
Takes one hell of an actor to square off against Nicholson in his prime. Rest in peace.
I’ll always remember her from OF.