Louise Fletcher
| Louise Fletcher | |
|---|---|
 Fletcher on the set of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, 1961 | |
| Born |
Estelle Louise Fletcher July 22, 1934 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1958–2012 |
| Spouse(s) | Jerry Bick (1960–1977; divorced; 2 sons) |
Estelle Louise Fletcher (born July 22, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning, American film and television actress. She initially debuted in the television series Maverick in 1959 before being cast in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us (1974). The following year, Fletcher gained international recognition for her performance as Nurse Ratched in the 1975 film One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, 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 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 into her career, Fletcher returned to television, appearing as Kai Winn Adami in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as well as receiving Emmy nominations for her guest-starring roles in Picket Fences and Joan of Arcadia. Most recently, Fletcher has appeared in a recurring role on the Showtime television series Shameless in 2011 and 2012, as Frank Gallagher's foul-mouthed and hard-living mother who is serving a prison sentence for manslaughter.
Early life
Fletcher was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the second of four children to 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 40 churches for the deaf in Alabama.[3] Fletcher and her siblings, Roberta, John and Georgianna,[3] were all born without any hearing loss;[4] she was taught to speak by a hearing aunt,[1] 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
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Fletcher began appearing in several television series, including Lawman in 1958 and Maverick in 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.[5] In 1960 Fletcher made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, both times as the 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 the NBC 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).[1] Fletcher gained international recognition and fame for the role, winning 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.[6]
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 the 2005 film Aurora Borealis 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 the 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.[6] The couple had two sons, John Dashiell Bick and Andrew Wilson Bick.[7] Fletcher took an 11-year hiatus from acting to raise her sons.[6]
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 Actress in a Leading Role Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – 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 Actress |
| 1983 | Strange Invaders | Mrs. Benjamin | |
| 1983 | Overnight Sensation | Eve Peregrine – 'E. K. Hamilton' | |
| 1984 | Firestarter | Norma Manders | |
| 1984 | Talk to Me | Mrs. Patterson | |
| 1986 | Nobody's Fool | Pearl | |
| 1986 | The Boy Who Could Fly | Psychiatrist | |
| 1986 | Invaders from Mars | Mrs. McKeltch | Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress |
| 1987 | Flowers in the Attic | Olivia Foxworth | Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1987 | Grizzly II: The Predator | 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 | |
| 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, Miniseries or Television Film |
| 1997 | The Girl Gets Moe | Gloria | |
| 1997 | Gone Fishin' | Restaurant Owner | 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 | |
| 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" |
| 1959 | Maverick | Kathy Bent | Episode: "The Saga of Waco Williams" |
| 1960 | Perry Mason | Gladys Doyle | Episode: "The Case of the Mythical Monkeys" |
| 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" |
| 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 |
| 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 | 4 episodes |
References
- 1 2 3 Harmetz, Aljean (November 1975). "The Nurse Who Rules the Cuckoo's Nest". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
- ↑ Louise Fletcher. Yahoo Movies.
- 1 2 "Rev. John Fletcher, 87; Ministered to the Deaf". The New York Times. 16 March 1988.
- ↑ Robertson, Nan (5 April 1976). "The Fletchers: Family That Heard The Silent Thanks". The New York Times.
- ↑ Video on YouTube
- 1 2 3 Weinraub, Bernard (27 March 1995). "Oscar's Glory is Fleeting. Ask One Who Knows". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
- ↑ "Jerry Bick, Literary agent, producer", Variety, 22 November 2004.
External links
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