Louise Fletcher, a late-blooming star whose compelling portrayal as the ruthless and cunning Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” set a new bar for movie villains and earned her an Oscar, died at the age of 88. Fletcher died in her sleep, surrounded by family, at her home in Montdurausse, France, according to her agent, David Shaul, on Friday. There was no explanation. After putting her career on hiatus for years to raise her children, Fletcher was in her early 40s and poorly known when director Milos Forman cast her opposite Jack Nicholson in the 1975 film, which he had admired the year before in filmmaker Robert Altman’s “Thieves Like Us.”
She had no idea that several other notable stars, like Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, and Angela Lansbury, had turned it down at the time. In a 2004 interview, she said, “I was the last person cast.” “I didn’t realise the part had been offered to other women who didn’t want to look so bad on screen until we were halfway through shooting.” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” went on to become the first film to win best picture, best director, best actor, best actress, and best screenplay since 1934’s “It Happened One Night.”
(source : AP)
