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, 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, The Heretic, Firestarter, Brainstorm, Flowers in the Attic 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 Deep Space Nine as the scheming double-faced Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn Adami.

She stands at 5'9 1/2" (1.77 m).

Premature obituary

In early January 2006, IMDB issued a premature obituary alleging that Louise 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.

External links

• Louise Fletcher Appreciation Page

1934 births | Living people | ER actors | American actors | Best Actress Oscar | American film actors | Joan of Arcadia actors | People from Birmingham, Alabama | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actors | American television actors | Worst Supporting Actress Razzie nominees | Tales from the Crypt actors | Film actors

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