Estelle Louise Fletcher is an American film and television actress.
She initially debuted in television series such as Maverick in 1959 before being cast
in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us.
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.
Other notable film roles include Brainstorm, Firestarter, Flowers in the Attic, 2 Days
in the Valley, and Cruel Intentions.
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 priest from Arab, Alabama.
Both of her parents were deaf and worked with the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Fletcher's father founded more than 40 churches for the deaf in Alabama.
Fletcher and her siblings, Roberta, John and Georgianna, were all born without any hearing
loss; 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 received acting lessons by night.
Career
Fletcher began appearing in several television series, including Lawman in 1958 and Maverick
in 1959.
Also in 1959, she appeared in the second episode of the original Untouchables TV series, "Ma
Barker and Her Boys" as Elouise.
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,), 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.
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.
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, The Cheap Detective,
The Lady in Red, The Magician of Lublin, Brainstorm, Firestarter, Invaders From Mars, Flowers in
the Attic, Two Moon Junction, Best of the Best, Blue Steel, Virtuosity, High School
High, and Cruel Intentions.
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.
Fletcher co-starred in such made-for-TV movies as The Karen Carpenter Story, Nightmare on
the 13th Floor, The Haunting of Seacliff Inn, and The Stepford Husbands.
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, and later on Joan of Arcadia.
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 1959, divorcing in 1978.
The couple had two sons, John Dashiell Bick and Andrew Wilson Bick.
Fletcher took an 11-year hiatus from acting to raise her sons.
Filmography Film
Television References
External links Louise Fletcher at the Internet Movie Database