Louise Fletcher, Who Played Nurse Ratched In "One Flew Over the...", Dies

Louise Fletcher, the US actress who won an Oscar in 1976 for her performance as villain Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," has died, her family said in a statement to AFP Saturday.

Louise Fletcher, winner of an Academy Award for her memorable role as a nurse practitioner in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has died at the age of 88.

The American actress's agent said that the American actress died at her home in southern France.

While best known for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched, Fletcher's career spanned six decades, including television and film.

Colleagues and former fans have praised the actress as an "absolute great".

Fletcher was relatively unknown when he was cast as Nurse Ratched in 1975's He Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. She started her acting career in the 1950s but stopped for more than a decade to raise her children.

Leading actresses including Angela Lansbury and Ellen Burstyn turned down the part.

Filmed and filmed in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon, United States, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was directed by Milos Forman and based on Ken Kesey's 1962 novel of the same name.

The film was hugely popular, winning an array of awards and making it to many lists of the greatest American films of all time.

Central to the film's appeal was Fletcher's cruelty to Nurse Ratched, a fearsome symbol of institutional power that goes against the individualism of Jack Nicholson's Randall McMurphy.

The American Film Institute put Nurse Ratched behind The Wicked Witch of the West, Darth Vadar,

Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter in their ratings of the film's greatest villains.

Fletcher won an Academy Award in 1976 for her role, as part of a rare clean-up campaign that also saw the film bag Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenplay.

A child of deaf parents, she thanked them for using sign language in her acceptance speech.

While her career never again reached the same heights, Fletcher had a recurring role on the TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, earning Emmy Award nominations for starring roles in Picket Fences and Joan of Arcadia in 1996 and 2004 respectively.

She married producer Jerry Beck in the 1960s, before divorcing in 1977. She had two sons,

John and Andrew.

Friends and fans exchanged greetings on social media.

Marley Matlin, the deaf American actress who worked with Fletcher on Picket Fences, wrote on Twitter that she was a "terrific actress," and confirmed that she was the first to use sign language in her Oscar acceptance speech.

Robert Hewitt Wolf,

A writer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine said: "It has been an honor and a pleasure to write for Louise Fletcher, one of the greatest incendiary talents and competitors."

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