Louise Fletcher Biography

Fast Facts

• Both parents were deaf; her father, an Episcopal priest, founded more than 40 churches for people with hearing difficulties
• Learned to speak from her aunt, who also introduced her to acting
• Made her feature-film debut in 1974's Thieves Like Us
• Thanked her parents in sign language during her Oscar acceptance speech in 1976
• Claims that she has a harder time watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) as she gets older because Nurse Ratched, the role that earned her the Academy Award, is too cruel