Louise Fletcher

Estelle Louise Fletcher (born July 22, 1934), known professionally as Louise Fletcher, is an American actress. She had her acting debut in the television series 77 Sunset Strip in the 1957/58 season. She guest starred in the television series Bat Masterson (episode “Cheyenne Club”) as well as Wagon Train in 1959 before making her film debut in A Gathering of Eagles in 1963. In 1974, after a decade-long hiatus from acting in which she raised a family, Fletcher appeared in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us.

Louise Fletcher
Fletcher in 1961
Born	Estelle Louise Fletcher July 22, 1934 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1958–present
Known for	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Spouse(s)	Jerry Bick ​ ​ (m. 1960; div. 1977)​
Children	2

The following year, Fletcher gained international recognition for her performance as Nurse Ratched in the drama film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She became only the third actress to ever win an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for a single performance, after Audrey Hepburn and Liza Minnelli. Other notable film roles include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Brainstorm (1983), Firestarter (1984), Flowers in the Attic (1987), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), and Cruel Intentions (1999).

Later in her career, Fletcher returned to television, appearing as Winn Adami in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999), as well as receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her guest-starring roles in the television series Picket Fences (1996) and Joan of Arcadia (2004). In 2011–2012, she appeared in a recurring role on the Showtime television series Shameless as Frank Gallagher's foul-mouthed and hard-living mother who is serving a prison sentence for manslaughter. She portrayed the recurring role of Rosie on the Netflix series Girlboss (2017).

Early life

Fletcher was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the second of four children of Estelle Caldwell and the Reverend Robert Capers Fletcher, an Episcopal missionary from Arab, Alabama. Both of her parents were deaf and worked with the deaf and hard-of-hearing.[1][2]

Fletcher's father founded more than forty churches for the deaf in Alabama.[3] Fletcher and her siblings, Roberta, John and Georgianna,[3] were all born without any hearing loss[4] so she was taught to speak by a hearing aunt[5] 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 received acting lessons by night.

Career

James Garner and Fletcher in Maverick (1959)

Fletcher at the National Film Society convention in May 1979.

Fletcher began appearing in several television series including Lawman (1958) and Maverick (1959). (The Maverick episode, "The Saga of Waco Williams", was the series' highest-rated episode.) Also in 1959, she appeared in the second episode of the original Untouchables TV series, (starring Robert Stack), "Ma Barker and Her Boys" as Elouise.[6] Fletcher recalled having greater success being cast in Westerns due to her height: "I was 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall, and no television producer thought a tall woman could be sexually attractive to anybody. I was able to get jobs on westerns because the actors were even taller than I was."[1]

In 1960, Fletcher made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, as defendant Gladys Doyle in "The Case of the Mythical Monkeys," and Susan Connolly in "The Case of the Larcenous Lady." In the summer of 1960, she was cast as Roberta McConnell in the episode "The Bounty Hunter" of NBC's western television series Tate, starring David McLean.

In 1974, she returned to film in Thieves Like Us, co-produced by her husband and Robert Altman, who also directed. When the two had a falling out on Altman's next project, (Nashville (1975)), Altman decided to cast Lily Tomlin for the role of Linnea Reese, initially created for and by Fletcher. Meanwhile, director Miloš Forman saw Fletcher in Thieves and consequently cast her as McMurphy's nemesis Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975).[5] Fletcher gained international recognition and fame for the role, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe. When Fletcher accepted her Oscar, she used sign language to thank her parents.[7]

After Cuckoo's Nest, Fletcher had mixed success in film. She made several financially and critically successful films, while others were box office failures. Fletcher's film roles were in such features as Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Cheap Detective (1978), The Lady in Red (1979), The Magician of Lublin (1979), Brainstorm (1983), Firestarter (1984), Invaders From Mars (1986), Flowers in the Attic (1987), Two Moon Junction (1988), Best of the Best (1989), Blue Steel (1990), Virtuosity (1995), High School High (1996), and Cruel Intentions (1999, as Sebastian's aunt). Additionally, she played the character Ruth Shorter, a supporting role, in Aurora Borealis (2005), alongside Joshua Jackson and Donald Sutherland, and appeared in the Fox Faith film The Last Sin Eater (2007).

Fletcher co-starred in such made-for-TV movies as The Karen Carpenter Story (1989) (as Karen and Richard Carpenter's mother, Agnes), Nightmare on the 13th Floor (1990), The Haunting of Seacliff Inn (1994), and The Stepford Husbands (1996). From 1993 to 1999, she held a recurring role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the scheming Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn Adami. She also earned Emmy Award nominations for her guest roles on Tom Skerritt's CBS television series, Picket Fences (1996), and later on Joan of Arcadia (2004). In 2009, Fletcher appeared in the NBC series Heroes as the physician mother of character Emma Coolidge. In 2011, she appeared in the Showtime series Shameless as Grammy Gallagher, Frank Gallagher's foul-mouthed and hard-living mother who is serving a prison sentence for manslaughter related to a meth lab explosion.

Personal life

Fletcher married literary agent and producer Jerry Bick in 1960, divorcing in 1977.[7] The couple had two sons, John Dashiell Bick and Andrew Wilson Bick:[8] Fletcher took an 11-year break from acting to raise them.[7] Fletcher received an honorary degree from Gallaudet University in 1982.[9]

In 1998, Fletcher was charged with reckless driving after she allegedly struck a police officer who was removing a deer carcass from a roadway.[10]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1963	A Gathering of Eagles	Mrs. Kemler	Uncredited
1974	Thieves Like Us	Mattie
1975	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest	Nurse Ratched	Academy Award for Best Actress BAFTA Award for Best Film Actress in a Leading Role Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress
1975	Russian Roulette	Midge
1977	Exorcist II: The Heretic	Dr. Gene Tuskin
1978	The Cheap Detective	Marlene DuChard
1979	Natural Enemies	Miriam Steward
1979	The Magician of Lublin	Emilia
1979	The Lady in Red	Anna Sage
1980	Mama Dracula	Mama Dracula
1980	The Lucky Star	Loes Bakker
1981	Strange Behavior	Barbara Moorehead
1983	Brainstorm	Dr. Lillian Reynolds	Saturn Award for Best Film Lead Actress
1983	Strange Invaders	Mrs. Benjamin
1983	Overnight Sensation	Eve Peregrine – "E. K. Hamilton"
1984	Firestarter	Norma Manders
1984	Talk to Me	Mrs. Patterson
1984	Once Upon a Time in America	Cemetery Directress	Appears only in the 2012 Extended Director's Cut
1986	Nobody's Fool	Pearl
1986	The Boy Who Could Fly	Dr. Grenader
1986	Invaders from Mars	Mrs. McKeltch
1987	Flowers in the Attic	Olivia Foxworth	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Film Supporting Actress
1987	Grizzly II: Revenge	Park Supervisor
1988	Two Moon Junction	Belle Delongpre
1989	Best of the Best	Mrs. Grady
1989	The Karen Carpenter Story	Agnes Carpenter
1990	Blue Steel	Shirley Turner
1990	Shadowzone	Dr. Erhardt
1991	In A Child's Name	Jean Taylor
1992	The Player	Herself
1994	Giorgino	Innkeeper
1994	Tryst	Maggie
1994	Tollbooth	Lillian
1994	Someone Else's Child	Faye
1995	Return to Two Moon Junction	Belle Delongpre
1995	Virtuosity	Elizabeth Deane
1996	The Stepford Husbands	Miriam Benton
1996	Edie & Pen	Judge
1996	Mulholland Falls	Esther	Uncredited
1996	Frankenstein and Me	Mrs. Perdue
1996	High School High	Principal Evelyn Doyle
1996	2 Days in the Valley	Evelyn
1997	Breast Men	Mrs. Saunders	Television movie Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
1997	The Girl Gets Moe	Gloria
1997	Gone Fishin'	Suzy	Uncredited
1998	Love Kills	Alena Heiss
1999	A Map of the World	Nellie Goodwin
1999	Cruel Intentions	Helen Rosemond
1999	The Devil's Arithmetic	Aunt Eva
1999	The Contract	Grandma Collins
1999	Time Served	Warden Mildred Reinecke[11]
2000	More Dogs Than Bones	Iva Doll
2000	Very Mean Men	Katherine Mulroney
2000	Big Eden	Grace Cornwell
2000	Silver Man	Val
2001	After Image	Aunt Cora
2001	Touched by a Killer	Judge Erica Robertson
2001	Dial 9 for Love	Abbie
2002	Manna from Heaven	Mother Superior
2003	Finding Home	Esther
2004	Clipping Adam	Grammy
2005	Aurora Borealis	Ruth Shorter
2005	Dancing in Twilight	Evelyn
2006	Fat Rose and Squeaky	Bonnie
2006	Me and Luke	Grandmother Glennie
2007	A Dennis the Menace Christmas	Martha Wilson
2007	The Last Sin Eater	Miz Elda
2011	Cassadaga	Claire
2013	A Perfect Man	Abbie

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Playhouse 90	Pete's Girl	Episode: "Seven Against the Wall"
1958	Bat Masterson	Sarah Lou Conant	Episode: "Cheyenne Club"
1958	Yancy Derringer	Miss Nellie and Miss Alithia	Episode: "Old Dixie"
1959	Lawman	Betty Horgan, sister of outlaw	Episode: "The Encounter"
1959	Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond	Jeannie	Episode: "The Open Window"
1959	Maverick	Kathy Bent	Episode: "The Saga of Waco Williams"
1959	Wagon Train	Martha English	Episode: "The Andrew Hale Story"
1960	Perry Mason	Gladys Doyle	Episode: "The Case of the Mythical Monkeys", s3e17
1960	Wagon Train	Elizabeth	Episode: “The Tom Tuckett Story”
1960	Perry Mason	Susan Connolly	Episode: "The Case of the Larcenous Lady"
1961	The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp	Aithra McLowery	Episode: "The Law Must Be Fair"
1990	In the Heat of the Night	Catherine Tyler	Episode: "December Days"
1991	Tales from the Crypt	Agent	Episode: "Top Billing"
1992	The Ray Bradbury Theater	Miss Weldon	Episode: "The Dead Man"
1993–1999	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Winn Adami	14 episodes
1995–1997	VR.5	Mrs. Nora Bloom	6 episodes
1996	Picket Fences	Christine Bey	2 episodes Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
1998	The Practice	Judge N. Swanson	Episode: "Rhyme and Reason"
2004	Joan of Arcadia	Eva Garrison	Episode: "Do the Math" Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
2004	Wonderfalls	Vivian Caldwell	Episode: "Barrel Bear"
2005	7th Heaven	Mrs. Wagner	Episode: "Honor Thy Mother"
2005	ER	Roberta "Birdie" Chadwick	3 episodes
2009	Heroes	Doctor Coolidge	2 episodes
2010–2011	Private Practice	Frances Wilder	2 episodes
2011–2012	Shameless	Peggy Gallagher	5 episodes
2017	Girlboss	Rosie	2 episodes

References

1. Hametz, Aljean (November 30, 1975). "Louise Fletcher: The Nurse Who Rules the 'Cuckoo's Nest'". The New York Times. Best Pictures. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
2. "Louise Fletcher". Yahoo Movies. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011.
3. "Rev. John Fletcher, 87; Ministered to the Deaf". The New York Times. March 16, 1988. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
4. Robertson, Nan (April 1976). "The Fletchers: Family That Heard The Silent Thanks". The New York Times. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
5. Harmetz, Aljean (November 1975). "The Nurse Who Rules the Cuckoo's Nest". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
6. Video on YouTube
7. Weinraub, Bernard (March 27, 1995). "Oscar's Glory is Fleeting. Ask One Who Knows". The New York Times. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
8. "Jerry Bick: Literary agent, producer". Variety. November 22, 2004. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
9. "Honorary Degree Recipients" (PDF). Gallaudet University. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
10. "Louise Fletcher Charged with Driving into a Cop". Chicago Tribune. May 27, 1998. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
11. Martin, Mick; Porter, Marsha (2001). The Video Movie Guide 2002. p. 1132. ISBN 9780345421005.

External links

• Louise Fletcher at IMDb