Louise Fletcher, who won an Oscar for her memorable role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has died at the age of 88.
The US actress died at her home in the south of France, her agent said.
Although she is best known for her role as Ratchet Nurse, Fletcher’s career spanned six decades, including television and film.
Fletcher was relatively unknown when she was cast as Nurse Ratched in 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She began her career as an actress in the 1950s, but took a hiatus for more than a decade to raise her children. Leading actresses, including Angela Lansbury and Ellen Burstyn, all turned down the part. Set in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon, USA, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is directed by Milos Forman and based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel of the same name. The film was hugely popular, won numerous awards, and made many lists of the greatest American films of all time. At the heart of the film’s appeal was Fletcher’s cruel, calculating Nurse Ratched, a formidable symbol of institutional authority against Jack Nicholson’s Randall McMurphy individualism.
