One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Oscar winner Louise Fletcher dies

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Louise Fletcher, Jack Nicholson on the set of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Photo: mptv / ddp

Oscar winner Louise Fletcher is dead. The US actress, who won the 1976 Oscar for best actress for her role as the nasty head nurse Ratched in the New Hollywood classic »One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest«, died at the age of 88 years in her home in southern France, as reported by US media on Friday, citing her agent.

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Newcomer Fletcher with her Oscar (1976): Stars of that time had rejected the diabolical role

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Fletcher's acting career spanned more than six decades.

She has acted in numerous films and television series, had a recurring role in the sci-fi series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Kai Winn Adami, and was recognized for guest starring in the series Picket Fences and Die heavenly Joan« in 1996 and 2004 for an Emmy nomination.

Her biggest role, however, remained that nurse in a psychiatric hospital called Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," which director Milos Forman brought to the cinema in 1975.

Based on Ken Kesey's counterculture bestseller of the same name, Fletcher's Ratched engages in a fierce battle for obedience and compliance with rebellious psychiatric inmate McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) as he tries to incite resistance from the other patients.

Ratched has him electroshock therapy and ultimately a lobotomy.

The Czech director Milos Forman, who gave his career a decisive boost with the system-critical drama and later directed successful films such as »Amadeus« and »Larry Flynt«, had previously attracted stars such as Anne Bancroft, Geraldine Page and Ellen Burstyn to the role wanted, but everyone declined: they thought the role of the ice-cold nurse was too diabolical.

In a supporting role in Robert Altman's »Thieves Like Us«, Forman then discovered the still unknown Fletcher - and made her one of the most striking cinema villains in his film.

In its 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Movie Villains, the American Film Institute ranked Sister Ratched fifth, behind Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, Darth Vader and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.

Sarah Paulson recently resurrected the iconic character in a Ryan Murphy-directed Netflix series that tells Mildred Ratched's backstory.

Fletcher was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1934 to deaf parents.

In her 1976 Oscar acceptance speech, she thanked her parents in sign language for their support.

After being called on stage by Charles Bronson and receiving her Oscar trophy, Fletcher said, "Well, it seems you all hated me so much that you gave me this award for it - and I enjoy every minute.

All I can say is I loved being hated by you."

According to the film database IMDB, her last role was in the Netflix series »Girlboss« in 2017.

mwo/AFP