CNN
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Louise Fletcher, the actress who won an Oscar for playing the evil nurse Ratched in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ died Friday in France, according to her agent David Shaul. She was 88 years old.
Shaul said Fletcher died of “natural causes,” without providing further details. She was surrounded by her family at her home in Montdurausse.
Shaul, who said she has worked with Fletcher for decades, said she lives in a 300-year-old converted farmhouse and also has a residence in Los Angeles.
“France was his favorite place on the planet; she built a house in a beautiful place that she loved,” he said. “She was a wonderful woman – what a career.”
Fletcher’s Oscar winner came for her second film after a long hiatus to raise her children.
“Flight Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” starred Jack Nicholson as a new patient in a mental institution, where Mildred Ratched – played by Fletcher – rules as an overbearing and controlling nurse.
In his Oscar speech, Fletcher kindly thanked his “Cuckoo’s Nest” co-workers, then, using sign language, recognized his deaf parents watching at home.
“I mean thank you for teaching me to dream. You see my dream come true,” she told them.
The film won the best five Oscars of 1975 – for best picture, director Milos Forman, adapted screenplay, actor Nicholson and actress Fletcher.
His role became one of the greatest villains in movie history, #5 on the list compiled by the American Film Institute, behind Hannibal Lecter and the Wicked Witch of the West.
In 2020, Fletcher’s role inspired a spin-off, Ryan Murphy’s TV series “Ratched.”
Fletcher also had an ongoing role in the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” series and played Helen Rosemond in the 1999 film “Cruel Intentions,” among many other film and television credits. More recently, she appeared in the Netflix comedy series “Girl Boss” and the series “Shameless”.
Fletcher is survived by his two sons, John and Andrew Bick; his sister, Roberta Ray; and a granddaughter. Fletcher was married to Jerry Bick in 1959 and the couple divorced in 1977.