Louise Fletcher Movies
Louise Fletcher's acting career can be divided into two stages. She started out appearing on television shows such as Wagon Train and The Untouchables during the late '50s, but left acting in 1964, two years after marrying movie producer Jerry Bick, to raise a family. She did not return to her craft until appearing in Robert Altman's well-regarded feature film Thieves Like Us in 1974. Fletcher then appeared in the spy thriller Russian Roulette (1975) before Milos Forman cast her in what was to become her signature role, that of the iron-willed, sadistic Nurse Ratched who tormented Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Her believable portrayal won her a Best Actress Oscar and a Golden Globe. Perhaps the highest honor is that her Ratched has become a movie icon, one that has been frequently emulated and parodied in numerous subsequent films.Fletcher was born in Birmingham, AL, to a deaf Episcopalian minister and a deaf mother. She started acting in summer stock following her graduation from the University of North Carolina. Fletcher next moved to Los Angeles and found work as a receptionist before breaking into television. Standing 5'10", the strikingly beautiful Fletcher was often taller than her leading men, something that hindered her first bid at stardom.
Since her success with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Fletcher has found steady employment as a supporting and character actress on television -- where she received a 1996 Emmy nomination for a guest-star appearance on the highly acclaimed CBS series Picket Fences -- and in feature films. She also has a busy stage career. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A variety of crooks, losers, and working stiffs living in the shadow of Hollywood find their various personal crises overlapping in this intricately woven melodrama. Lee Woods (James Spader) is a cold-blooded hit man and Dosmo Pizzo (Danny Aiello) a soft-at-heart gangster; they've been sent to murder Roy Foxx (Peter Horton), the former husband of also-ran Olympic skier Becky Foxx (Teri Hatcher). Lee's girlfriend Helga (Charlize Theron) is unhappy about his habit of killing people, and she attracts the attention of Alvin (Jeff Daniels) and Wes (Eric Stoltz), two cops who've been put on vice detail but don't have the heart to bust the prostitute they've been trailing. Alvin dreams of becoming a homicide detective, so when he discovers that he might be on the trail of a murder, it's like Santa Claus showed up in mid-July to hand him a present. Dosmo manages to escape the crime scene, only to foil a murder attempt by Lee, forcing him to hide out in the home of Hopper, a pretentious English art dealer (Greg Cruttwell), whom Dosmo holds hostage along with Hopper's long-suffering assistant, Susan (Glenne Headly). In the midst of all this, a down-on-his-luck television director (Paul Mazursky) contemplates suicide (the main stumbling block is finding someone to take care of his dog) while also being pestered by an actor with equally bad luck (Austin Pendleton) and meeting a compassionate nurse (Marsha Mason) on a visit to a cemetery. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Aiello, Greg Cruttwell, (more)
In this contemporary drama, Sigourney Weaver plays a woman out of her element and at the end of her rope. Alice Goodwin is a wife and mother who finds that the pressures of her life are starting to become more than she can bear. Alice works part-time as a school nurse while her husband Howard (David Strathairn) runs the family farm; they both look after their two daughters. Alice, who wasn't raised in farm country, still feels like an outsider, and she embraces a cynical, sarcastic humor as a defense mechanism. Alice's only real friends in town are Dan and Theresa Collins (Ron Lea and Julianne Moore), who live nearby and often babysit Alice's kids; Alice does the same for the Collins children as well. One day, while watching Theresa's two-year-old daughter Lizzie, Alice has to step away for a few minutes, and she returns to discover Lizzie has fallen into a pond near the house; the child falls into a coma and dies several days later. Lizzie's death puts a permanent wedge between Alice and Theresa, and most people in the community believe Alice is to blame for the girl's death. Any support she might have had is driven away when Robbie (Marc Donato), a boy who lives nearby, claims Alice molested him. Alice is sent to jail while awaiting trial, and Howard (who can't afford her $100,000 bail) must watch over their daughters and keep house by himself as he tries to keep the farm afloat. As Alice falls into a deep depression behind bars, Howard and Theresa begin edging into a romance. Based on the best-selling novel by Jane Hamilton, A Map of the World was adapted for the screen by Peter Hedges and Polly Platt and director Scott Elliott. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore, (more)
- 1984
The friendship between a deaf boy and an orangutan skilled in sign language provides the basis of this heartwarming made-for-TV drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
As the "black sheep" of her wealthy family, struggling artist and single mother Britt Calhoun (Dana Delany) is reluctant to return home for the Christmas holidays. Finally persuaded to do so, Britt finds that her imperious mother Maggie (Doris Roberts) is still more concerned about "what people will think" than what people may be like inside. Even so, Britt is determined to mend fences with Maggie, if for no other reason than to convince the father of her child that she can lead a stable home life. But a dark cloud hangs over the Yuletide proceedings: Maggie is in the first stages of Alzheimer's, and it may never be possible to stage a reconciliation. Produced for the Hallmark channel, A Time to Remember debuted November 23, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Roberts, Dana Delany, (more)
A man tries to get away from a violent madman, only to discover that the madman is following him in this thriller. Joe (John Mellencamp) is a police photographer who is buckling under the strain of his job as he documents the work of a serial killer preying on young women in Rochester, NY. The killer, an introverted loner named Rye (Michael Zelnicker), trails Joe, convinced they share a spiritual bond, since both are obsessed with Rye's grisly handiwork. Joe takes a leave of absence to get away from the killings, but his home life is stressful enough as he helps care for his aging aunt (Louise Fletcher), whose health is failing, and his brother Sammy (Billy Burke), who is mentally handicapped. Lora (Terrylene) is a woman who works around the house; she can't hear or speak, but that doesn't prevent a romance from growing between her and Joe. But as Lora and Joe grow closer, she begins having nightmares that bear a striking resemblance to Rye's latest crimes, which have been carefully arranged so that Joe will be likely to find them first. Afterimage marked the first screen role for musician John Mellencamp since the 1990 feature Falling From Grace, which he also directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mellencamp, Terrylene, (more)
Duncan (Joshua Jackson), a depressed twentysomething living in a rundown section of Minneapolis, has just lost another job. He has another source of income, letting his brother use his apartment for extramarital trysts. On a rare visit to his grandparents, Ronald (Donald Sutherland) and Ruth (Louise Fletcher), Duncan meets Kate (Juliette Lewis), Ronald's spirited home health-care worker. Later, when Duncan learns that there's an opening for a handyman in the building, he takes the job. He begins to spend more time with his grandparents, hanging out with Ronald, who, among his many health problems, suffers from Parkinson's disease. He also has occasion to see Kate, and the two cautiously begin a romantic relationship. Kate is "one of those people," as Duncan puts it, who moved to Minneapolis because of the Replacements. Unlike Duncan, who has never left Minneapolis, Kate has never stayed in any one place for too long. She's anxious to get out and explore the world, while Duncan seems immobilized. Yet they connect, if only for a time. As Duncan reconnects with his grandparents and grows more intimate with Kate, he begins to deal with his grief over the sudden death of his father. Meanwhile, with his health deteriorating, Ronald begins to think of ending his life, and turns to his grandson for help. Aurora Borealis was directed by James Burke from an original screenplay by Brent Boyd. The film had its world premiere at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joshua Jackson, Donald Sutherland, (more)
Learning the value of teamwork, the racially diverse U.S. karate team must work through their personal troubles to successfully participate in the upcoming international competition. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones, (more)
Arye Gross plays an up-and-coming artist who foregoes the convenience of big-city life for the charms of Montana in this drama, writer-director Thomas Bezucha's debut feature. On the eve of his first show at the Whitney Museum, Henry (Gross) hears news that his grandfather back home has had a stroke. Upon returning to his idyllic birthplace, however, Henry realizes that the old man isn't the only thing he has to tend to: There's the semi-closeted issue of his sexuality, which he longs to reveal to his clan -- as well as to his old high-school crush, Dean (Tim DeKay). Amidst all the angst, Henry fails to notice the advances of the sensitive Pike (Eric Schweig), an espresso-brewing outdoorsman who owns the town's general store and cooks meals for the stroke-addled grandpa Sam (George Coe). ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arye Gross, Eric Schweig, (more)
Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a rookie cop who witnesses a robbery in progress on her first night on the job. With her more experienced partner using the men's room, Megan decides to take action on her own. She creeps into the supermarket where a man (Tom Sizemore in a small role) is holding the clerk at gunpoint. Megan gets close enough to shoot the gunman, and calls out for him to drop his weapon. He spins the gun toward her, and she unloads her service revolver into his chest. His gun goes flying, and a bystander, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver), surreptitiously picks it up and takes it home. Megan's superiors, unable to confirm that the man she shot was armed, suspend her. Eugene, a wealthy commodities broker, becomes obsessed with Megan. He sets up an "accidental" meeting between them and begins dating her, romancing her with fancy restaurants and helicopter rides over Manhattan. He also carves her name into the bullets he uses to gun down strangers in the street. A tough homicide detective, Nick Mann (Clancy Brown of The Shawshank Redemption), gets Megan's gun and badge back so she can help him track down the psycho killer. Eventually, Megan realizes that Eugene is the killer, but he uses his money and influence to elude the law, and he starts coming after Megan's friends and family. Megan's determination to bring Eugene to justice quickly becomes a very personal obsession. This intense cop drama, Blue Steel, was director Kathryn Bigelow's major studio follow-up to her well-received indie vampire flick, Near Dark. Bigelow co-wrote both films with Eric Red (The Hitcher). ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron Silver, (more)
Natalie Wood made her last screen appearance in Brainstorm; in fact, she died before the film was completed, necessitating extensive rewrites. Wood's character is secondary to the one played by Christopher Walken. A research scientist, Walken has been experimenting with a revolutionary brain-reading device. This wondrous machine is able to read a person's thought processes and translate these to videotape. When Walken wants to study the brainwaves of his late partner Louise Fletcher, he finds himself seriously at odds with his superiors-not to mention several ominous-looking government types, headed by Cliff Robertson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, (more)
This docudrama recaps the history of silicone breast implants, beginning in 1962 when idealistic Houston medical resident Kevin Saunders (David Schwimmer) gets an idea after seeing how women pad their bras. After he shares his notion with cosmetic pro Dr. William Larson (Chris Cooper), the two create a prosthetic breast from Dow-Corning's silicone gel. Approaching women on the street fails to bring volunteers, but a classified newspaper ad does the trick. As breast sizes increase, so do the doctors' bank accounts. However, physical problems emerge, followed by lawsuits, and the high life soon turns sour and grim. Filmed in LA, and Texas (Galveston, Houston), this TV movie premiered December 13, 1997 on HBO. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Schwimmer, Chris Cooper, (more)
- 1974
This 1974 TV movie was based upon recent news stories about brainwashing techniques practiced by certain religious communes. Ellen (Kathy Cannon) is a confused teenager who falls in with a group of fanatics, who promise that they'll purge the "Devil" from her soul. Her anguished parents (Leslie Nielsen, Louise Fletcher) hire John Saxon to kidnap Ellen from the commune, and to exorcise the fanatics' influence from her psyche. This film was outdated within a year, but would come back in fashion during the height of the "Moonie" activity in the late 1970s. The original title of Can Ellen Be Saved?, understandably rejected by the network, was Children of God. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A kid who is still struggling with the loss of a parent has an unexpected challenge thrown in his path in this coming-of-age drama. Adam (Evan Peters) has just wrapped up his last year in middle school, and is waiting out the summer before he enters high school. Adam is still dealing with the death of his mother and younger sister in a car wreck two years earlier. In tribute to them, Adam hasn't cut his hair since the accident, while Adam's father (Chris Eigeman) prefers to blunt his own sorrows by drinking and giving his son bad advice. Given to angry outbursts of violence, Adam finds he's better off turning to his grandmother (Louise Fletcher) or Father Dan (Kevin Sorbo), an open-minded priest who prefers talking to kids on the basketball court rather than in the church rectory. Over the summer, Adam makes friends with Johnny (Bryan Burke), but he also gains an enemy -- Jerry (Donato Mario Alleva), an older student with a bullying personality and a hatred of long hair. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Evan Peters, Christopher Eigeman, (more)
In an adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' novel, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) are step-brother and step-sister living in Manhattan. With their absent parents travelling in Europe, the wealthy pair have the family penthouse to themselves as they while away their summer break before beginning senior year at a private high school. Sebastian, bad-boy lothario, has apparently slept with all the girls in town and appears numb to it all. Kathryn, who appears to be the good girl class president, is actually far more amoral and malicious than Sebastian, but maintains appearances to the contrary. When she is dumped by her boyfriend, Court Reynolds (Charlie O'Connell), for the innocent Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair), she schemes revenge by destroying Cecile's reputation. She challenges Sebastian to deflower Cecile and transform her into a tramp to humiliate Court. Sebastian isn't as interested as Cecile -- she's spent her whole life in a Catholic girl's school and presents no challenge. The girl who has caught his attention is Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon), the new headmaster's daughter. Annette had written an article for Seventeen Magazine on her plans to stay a virgin until she finds her one true love. Kathryn makes a wager. If Sebastian fails to lure Annette into bed before the summer is over, Kathryn gets his car. If he succeeds, Sebastian gets Kathryn, whom he wants anyway. Sebastian accepts the bet, but Annette turns out to be more than either of them bargained for. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, (more)
Erick Avari, Mimi Rogers, Louise Fletcher, and Kal Penn star in director Bob Roe's heartfelt tale of devastating loss, unfading love, and the courage that it takes to carry on despite being consumed by grief. The living embodiment of the American Dream, Indian immigrant Madhav Singh (Avari) was a successful businessman, loving father, and happily married husband until a sudden tragedy claimed the life of his beloved wife Jaishree. These days the shattered widower wanders through a series of meaningless routines by day, and spends sleepless nights attempting to ward off the mournful nightmares that lie just on the other side of consciousness. When Madhav's son Samir (Penn) and his girlfriend Nicole (Sheetal Sheth) arrive in town for the weekend to celebrate the engagement of a close friend, the shattered father is surprised to find himself becoming reacquainted with his old friend April (Rogers). April always had a special place in her heart for Madhav despite the vocal objections of her mother (Fletcher), and now it feels like the connection between the longtime friends has grown stronger than ever before. But Madhav isn't quite sure he's ready to let go of the past just yet, a fact that becomes painfully obvious as the difficulty of balancing his grief with his will to carry on starts to take a heavy emotional toll as he is faced with one of the most important decisions of his entire life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erick Avari, Kal Penn, (more)
In this comedy, two women head for Reno to get simultaneous quicky divorces and end up becoming friends. Edie was married years ago, but her husband abandoned her two weeks after the wedding. Pen spent nine years married to an ice-cold businessman who neglected her. Edie and Pen meet while leaving the courtroom. They immediately head for a bar where they encounter Harry, who is despondent that his wife took his beloved dog when she left him. As the three grow increasingly inebriated, they begin having long conversations about their pasts, presents and futures. Now that ditzy Edie is divorced, she plans to marry her new love in Acapulco. Meanwhile, womanizing Harry attempts to bed the vulnerable Pen. Dramatic tension rises when Pen discovers that Edie's fiancé is her ex-husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stockard Channing, Jennifer Tilly, (more)
Four years after her bout of demonic possession, Regan MacNeil seems at peace as she enjoys a privileged but lonely adolescence. Her actress mother, absent on-location, leaves her in the care of her childhood nanny, Sharon, who feels inextricably bound to her young charge despite the terror she endured during the girl's possession. Regan attends frequent counseling sessions with Dr. Gene Tuskin, an unorthodox psychologist who believes Regan remembers more of her ordeal than she admits. Meanwhile, Father Lamont, a protégé of the priest who died exorcising Regan, is called to investigate the death of his mentor. The Church is divided over the teachings of Father Merrin and wants to gather documentation of his views about demonic existence. Father Lamont himself is conflicted -- haunted by images of a possessed woman he could not save. As he and Dr. Tuskin become convinced that the demon still exhibits a hold on Regan, the priest sojourns to Africa in search of Kokuma, who as a boy was possessed by the same demon and exorcised by Father Merrin. Learning the true name and ancient origins of his supernatural foe, Lamont returns to America to stage a climactic battle for Regan's soul. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Richard Burton, (more)
- 1989
In this thriller, a cool detective and a fussy librarian team up to solve the mystery of a killer who hacks up both art books and his beautiful victims. The story is based on a novel by Jonathan Valin and was made as a cable television pilot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Director Lawrence D. Foldes teams with producer Victoria Page Meyerink to weave a haunting tale of family tragedy and painful memories starring Geneviève Bujold, Louise Fletcher, and Lisa Brenner. Troubled by traumatic memories of being forcefully removed from her grandmother's serine New England bed and breakfast, Amanda is forced to return to the house of her childhood as the fragmented memories of her past slowly begin to come together. With past secrets relating to the events that simultaneously shaped her childhood and destroyed her family gradually rising to the surface, the betrayal of the past and her inexplicable hesitance towards the inn's young caretaker lead to a startling revelation that will bring three generations of blurred memories into sharp focus. As Exorcist star Jason Miller's last film, this was released posthumously. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Brenner, Geneviève Bujold, (more)
This ecological drama, set in 2017, presents a world where pollution has generated ever more unpredictable weather and rendered large chunks of the planet into disaster zones. After a hurricane destroys everything they've built for themselves, Louisiana shrimp fisherman Drew Morgan (Craig T. Nelson) and his family, including wife Suzanne (Bonnie Bedelia), flee through a series of refugee camps to upstate New York, where Drew's estranged former business partner Larry Richter (Jurgen Prochnow) -- who has designs on Suzanne -- lives in comfort and affluence. Along the way, Drew loses his daughter, Linnie (Ashley Jones), to an agrarian doomsday cult; watches his elderly father (Richard Farnsworth) suffer a stroke; and almost drives away his confused oldest son, Paul (Justin Whalin). When Larry offers to shelter Drew's family if Drew himself will leave, Suzanne and the kids rally behind him. Things go awry, however, when an attempt to smuggle themselves across the border ends with Craig washed up on Canadian shores and the rest of the family stranded and penniless back in America. Originally presented as a two-part miniseries, The Fire Next Time premiered on CBS on April 18 and 20, 1993. The movie has no connection to the James Baldwin book of the same name. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig T. Nelson, Bonnie Bedelia, (more)
- 1984
- R
Firestarter is based on a bone-chilling novel by Steven King. Drew Barrymore plays Charlie McGee the young daughter of Andrew (David Keith) and Vicky (Heather Locklear) McGee, who years earlier had been guinea pigs for a top secret experiment. As a result, Charlie has acquired the unenviable ability to start fires simply by thinking about fires. Charlie is pursued over hill and dale by The Shop, a secret government organization bent upon using her skills for nefarious purposes. The special effects are undeniably startling, even when the script and dialogue are straight out of the funny papers (it's hard to keep a straight face during the New York Times final shot!) The high-priced cast--including George C. Scott, Art Carney, Louise Fletcher--seems to be having a grand ole time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Keith, George C. Scott, (more)
Based on the popular novel by V. C. Andrews, Flowers in the Attic centers on such chancy topics as incest and misguided religiosity. When their father is killed, teenagers Cathy (Kristy Swanson) and Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams), together with their preteen siblings Cory (Ben Ganger) and Carrie (Lindsay Parker), are put in the care of their religious-zealot grandmother (Louise Fletcher). Grandma has never approved of the wanton lifestyle of the kids' mother Corinne (Victoria Tennant), and she has no intention of extending her love to the children. Even worse, Corinne is anxious to win back the love of her estranged father, who, knowing that Corinne and her late husband were cousins and thus incestuously linked, would never approve of any children from this union. Thus, the four children are locked in their grandmother's attic, far from the view of their unforgiving grandfather. How the kids cope with their imprisonment is the heart of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, (more)
- 1996
- PG
Set in a tiny Mojave desert town, this Canadian children's tale centers on Earl Williams, a 12-year-old boy obsessed with the notion of bringing back Frankenstein from the dead. Earl loves horror and frequently draws chilling pictures in class, something that gets him in trouble with his super-strict teacher Mrs. Perdue. Earl's father is a failed Hollywood actor and much of the boy's dreaminess comes from him. Earl gets a chance to enact his dream on Halloween night just after the police bring him and his buddy back home after catching them trying to sneak in to the drive-in to watch Night of the Living Dead. As soon as they can, the boys sneak out to a traveling carnival where they try to break into the House of Mysteries to investigate the "actual authentic Frankenstein's Monster" said to reside within. The next day the carnival heads to a new town, but as one truck pulls away, the monster falls out and is left in the road. Earl finds it and spends the rest of the picture trying to bring it back to life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamieson Boulanger, Burt Reynolds, (more)
- 1994
This lush French melodrama set in post World War I Europe was filmed on location in remote areas of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The film is set in October 1918 and follows the return of Giorgino, a French lieutenant, as he searches a strange and spooky village for the retarded children he looked after before the war. The children have mysteriously disappeared and the only suspect is an enigmatic, but beautiful redhead. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Dahlgren, Mylene Farmer, (more)
