Estelle Louise Fletcher (1934 - 2022)

Born 22 Jul 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Jerome Bick — married 18 Jul 1959 (to 30 Nov 1978) in San Francisco, California, United States

Died 23 Sep 2022 at age 88 in Montdurausse, Tarn, Occitanie, France

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Biography

Louise Fletcher is Notable.

Louise Fletcher was an American actress who appeared in a large number of television and film roles. She is perhaps best remembered for her portrayal of Nurse Ratched in the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Estelle Louise Fletcher was born 22 Jul 1934 in Birmingham, Alabama. She was the daughter of Robert Fletcher and Estelle Caldwell, who were both deaf. Louise's father was an Episcopal minister who was known for preaching to both the hearing capable and the hearing impaired. Her mother was also considered a pioneer in deaf ministry, accompanying her husband as he preached at asylums for the deaf for more than forty years. Together, the couple founded more than 40 churches for the deaf across Alabama.^[1]

Louise was baptized by her father, 12 Apr 1935, at St. John's Episcopal Church for the Deaf in Birmingham.^[2]

In 1940, five-year-old Estelle Louise was residing at 1416 Thirteenth Street in Birmingham, Alabama, with her parents and three siblings, John (age 8), Roberta (age 2), and Georgiana (age 1).^[3]

As a child, Louise was so shy that her first teacher thought she was deaf and recommended that her parents send her to a school for the hearing impaired. Her father Robert was adamant about his children being successful in the hearing world and he was furious with the teacher’s recommendation. In fact, every summer her would send his children to reside with his wife's hearing sister and other prosperous relatives in Bryan, Texas, where they learned to speak and act. Louise idolized her "Aunt Beezie" Long, Uncle George, and her mother's father, swashbuckling John Seeley Caldwell.^[4]

On 20 Apr 1947, Louise received her Confirmation at The Cathedral Church of the Advent, minister C.C.J. Carpenter, Bishop of Alabama.^[5]Italic text

In 1950, Louise was living with her parents and younger sisters in Baltimore, where she was a 15-year-old student at Ramsey High School. In 1957, she graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with a B.A. degree in Dramatics. Louise would later receive an honorary degree from Gallaudet University in 1982.^[6]

After college, Louise moved to California, where she worked as a receptionist during the day, and took acting classes in the evening.

On 18 Jul 1959, Louise married literary agent and producer Jerry Bick at the Grace Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California.^[7] The couple settled in Los Angeles, where Louise appeared in several television productions, including episodes of Maverick, The Untouchables, and Perry Mason. In 1963, Louise made her film debut with a small role in the war movie A Gathering of Eagles. The following year, she temporarily retired from acting to raise her two sons, John Dashiell and Andrew Wilson.

Louis' first film after retirement was Thieves Like Us, produced by her husband and directed by Robert Altman in 1974. The following year, Miloš Forman cast her as Nurse Ratched in his film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Louise gained international recognition and fame for the role, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe.

After Cuckoo's Nest, Louise made several financially and critically successful films, as well as some box-office failures, including: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Cheap Detective (1978), The Lady in Red (1979), The Magician of Lublin (1979), Brainstorm (1983), Firestarter (1984), Invaders From Mars (1986), Flowers in the Attic (1987), Two Moon Junction (1988), Best of the Best (1989), Blue Steel (1990), Virtuosity (1995), High School High (1996), Cruel Intentions (1999), Aurora Borealis (2005), and The Last Sin Eater (2007).

Louise also co-starred in several TV movies such as The Karen Carpenter Story (1989), Nightmare on the 13th Floor (1990), The Haunting of Seacliff Inn (1994), and The Stepford Husbands (1996). From 1993 to 1999, she held a recurring role on 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 Picket Fences (1996), and later on Joan of Arcadia (2004). In 2009, Fletcher appeared on Heroes as the physician mother of character Emma Coolidge. In 2011 and 2012, she appeared on four episodes of 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. She also portrayed the recurring role of Rosie on the series Girlboss (2017).

Louise died 23 Sep 2022, at her home in Montdurausse, France.

Sources

1. ↑ Obituary: Dr Robert Capers Fletcher, Washington (DC) Post, 05 Mar 1988. Available online at GenealogyBank.com.
2. ↑ Episcopal Diocese of Alabama Church Records, 1837-1970, Birmingham, St. John's for the Deaf, 1935, Baptisms, page 68, #12, Estelle Louise Fletcher. Image available online at Ancestry.com $$.
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V15Y-PCY : accessed 18 November 2016), Estelle Louise Fletcher in household of Robert C Fletcher, Tract 49, Birmingham, Election Precinct 37, Jefferson, Alabama, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 68-227, sheet 2A, line 1, family 23, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 96.
4. ↑ http://www.littlereview.com/goddesslouise/articles/nyt0476.htm
5. ↑ Alabama Episcopal Church Registers Index, 1832-1972, Birmingham, Cathedral Church of the Advent, 1947, Confirmations, Estelle Louise Fletcher. Abstract available online at Ancestry.com $$.
6. ↑ 1950 U.S. Federal Census, Alabama, Jefferson County, Birmingham, ED 68-290, page 10, dwelling 130, household of Robert C. Fletcher. Available online at Ancestry.com $$ (image 110).
7. ↑ Marriage Announcement: Louise Fletcher weds Mr. Bick, The Birmingham (AL) News, 3 Aug 1959, page 17.

See also:

• Internet Movie Database: Louise Fletcher

• Variety.com: Louise Fletcher Obituary.

• Wikipedia: Louise Fletcher.