Louise Fletcher

Estelle Louise Fletcher, born on July 22, 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama was an accomplished American actress known for her portrayals in film and television. Most notably, she played the role of Nurse Ratched in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), a performance that earned her the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Not confined to film alone, she also had a recurring role in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from 1993 to 1999 and was nominated for two Emmy Awards for her roles in the TV series Picket Fences (1996) and Joan of Arcadia (2004). Her final role was as Rosie in the Netflix series Girlboss (2017).

Fletcher, the second of four children, was born to parents who were deaf and actively worked with the deaf and hard-of-hearing. She battled against industry norms and biases due to her height to carve a successful acting career for herself. Louise started in several television series such as Lawman (1958) and Maverick (1959) and then returned to film with a role in Thieves Like Us (1974), a crime drama co-produced by her then-husband Jerry Bick and Robert Altman. Fletcher's later roles varied in success, with several box-office hits and misses. She continued to act in TV movies and secured recurring roles in popular TV series, displaying a range that extended across various genres, from crime dramas to sci-fi.