Oscar-winning actress Louise Fletcher has died

American actress Louise Fletcher, an Oscar winner for her portrayal of a chilling nurse in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” died Friday in France at the age of 88, American media reported.

Louise Fletcher, who had two sons, died at her home in Montdurousse, southern France, according to Variety and Deadline, citing sources in her entourage.

“In competition with French Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele, she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Milos Forman’s multi-award-winning film (1975), inspired by the Ken Kesey novel and set in a psychiatric hospital. H.”

The film won her a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for Best Actress, Louise Fletcher Mildred Ratched, “Nurse Ratched”, Head Nurse. She is played by Jack Nicholson, Randall P. Confronts McMurphy, who feigns insanity and commits to escaping prison.

The film, almost a documentary in its depiction of the hospital’s brutal practices, chronicles the rebellion of an unholy fake patient, a role that also won an Oscar for Jack Nicholson.

With her starched white blouse, her irrepressibly puffy hairstyle, her cold blue gaze and her unforgivingly soft voice, Louise Fletcher embodies all the brutality of the psychiatric institution.

In 2003, the American Film Institute ranked Nurse as one of the most hated “bad guy” or “villain” characters in film, along with Hannibal Lecter (“The Silence of the Lambs”), Norman Bates (“Psychosis”), Darth Vader (“Star Wars”). and The Wicked Witch of the West (“The Wizard of Oz”).

“You hate me so much you reward me for it,” she joked as she accepted her idol.

However, not for this joke, his short acceptance speech went down in Oscar ceremony history, replete with tears and all kinds of outrage.

The daughter of deaf parents, Louise Fletcher thanked them by doubling down on these comments in sign language, saying in a strained voice: “Thank you for teaching me to dream”.

In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2018, the actress said that when she accompanied her mother to a movie, she explained the plot in this language.

In the same interview, Milos eventually convinced Forman that she wanted him to give her a more complex interpretation of “Nurse Ratched” by pushing her hard.

Louise Fletcher saw in her a nurse who was all the more formidable because she believed her profession was noble and her actions righteous. She also imagined a woman who would be strongly attracted to the character played by Jack Nicholson.

“She (she) takes care of patients and pretends they are happy to take medicine or listen to this music (played for them). So that she can be as happy as she is”, explains Louise Fletcher.

An almost unknown actress during the shooting of the film, she married a producer and left the sets to take care of her children for several years.

Without finding a role on the same level, she then starred in Robert Altman’s films such as “The Player” or “The Exorcist 2” and was depicted in series such as “The Incorruptibles” or “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”.

Louise Fletcher starred in two episodes of Netflix’s “Girlboss” again in 2017, according to IMDb.com.