Louise Fletcher
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Louise Fletcher (born July 22, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, to a minister and his wife, both deaf, she was taught to speak by a hearing aunt, who also introduced her to acting.
After attending the University of North Carolina, she traveled to Los Angeles, California, where she found work as a secretary by day and took acting lessons by night.
She began appearing in several television productions, including the highest-rated episode of Maverick, entitled "The Saga of Waco Williams," but married Jerry Bick and took time off to raise her 2 children; she eventually divorced Bick, who died in 2004.
In 1974, she returned to film in Thieves Like Us. Miloš Forman saw her, and cast her (possibly because of her height and bearing) as McMurphy's nemesis Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress. She also appeared in such films as The Cheap Detective, Exorcist II: The Heretic, Firestarter, Brainstorm, Flowers in the Attic, Big Eden, and as Sebastian's aunt in Cruel Intentions.
Fletcher was nominated for an Emmy Award for her recurring role on the television series Picket Fences. She also had a continuing role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the scheming Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn Adami.
She stands at 5'9 1/2" (1.77 m).
Fletcher played the character of Ruth Shorter, a supporting role, in the 2005 film, Aurora Borealis alongside Joshua Jackson and Donald Sutherland.
[edit] Deep Space Nine appearances
- "The Circle"
- "The Siege"
- "The Collaborator"
- "Life Support"
- "Shakaar"*
- "Rapture"
- "In the Cards"
- "The Reckoning"
- "'Til Death Do Us Part"
- "Strange Bedfellows"
- "The Changing Face of Evil"
- "When It Rains..."
- "What You Leave Behind"
[edit] Premature obituary
In early January 2006, IMDb issued a premature obituary alleging that Fletcher had died in Las Vegas of a heart attack, however there was no other evidence from any source or in any news reporting agency that she had died. It seems IMDb jumped the gun, and it was another person of the same name who had died. The premature obituary was removed from Fletcher's IMDb page shortly thereafter.
| Preceded by: Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore |
Academy Award for Best Actress 1975 for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
Succeeded by: Faye Dunaway for Network |
[edit] External links
- Louise Fletcher at the Internet Movie Database
- Louise Fletcher article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
- Louise Fletcher Appreciation Page
Categories: 1934 births | Living people | ER actors | American actors | Best Actress Academy Award winners | American film actors | Joan of Arcadia actors | People from Birmingham, Alabama | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actors | American television actors | Tales from the Crypt actors | Film actors | Hollywood Squares panelists | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
