Star Trek icon and Oscar winning One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest actress Louise Fletcher has died aged 88.
The American actress won the Best Actress award for her role as the sadistic Nurse Ratched in the iconic 1975 psychological comedy drama which saw her torment Jack Nicholson's Randle Patrick "R.P." McMurphy.
For Sci-Fi fans, Louise was also an ultimate villain as power hunger religious figure Kai Winn Adami in the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine.
And Millenial fans will know the late actress for her role as Helen Rosemond in the 1999 film Cruel Intentions alongside Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon.
Deadline broke news of her death on Friday, reporting: "[Louise] died Friday at her home in Montdurausse, France. She was 88."
They added that her agent, David Shaul, explained: "she passed away in her sleep at the home she had built from a 300-year-old farmhouse, surrounded by family."
Deadline also declared that her performance as Nurse Ratched cemented the character as one of Hollywood's "greatest all-time villains."
Nurse Ratched remained a pop culture icon for decades - inspiring American Horror Stories creator, Ryan Murphy, to create a TV show about the character, titled Ratched, and streamed via Netflix in 2020.
Star Trek fans will know Louise for her scene stealing role as Kai Winn - the religious leader of Bajor - on '90s Trek series Deep Space Nine which is regarded by many as the best Star Trek series of them all.
Deep Space Nine writer, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, paid tribute to the actress online, tweeting: "It was an honor and a pleasure to write for Louise Fletcher, one of the absolute greats. A blazing talent and a compete class act. May she rest with the Prophets."
Louise was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in the USA on 22 July 1934.
Born to deaf parents, Louise learned sign language - and made Oscar's history when she used ASL as part of her Academy Award acceptance speech.
Discussing her Oscar in 1995, Louise, then 60, told the New York Times: “Just enjoy it; it’ll make you wonderfully happy for a night. But don’t expect that it’ll do anything for your career.
“I got the Oscar when I was 41. If I was 23, it would have been hard to deal with. Hell, at my age it was hard to deal with. It was like being thrown an explosive.”
She went on to reflect on the unfortunate turn her, Jack and director Miloš Forman's careers took following their Oscar's success with One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
She recalled: “Milos said, ‘Now we’re all going to make flops.’ It was true.
"I made The Heretic — the second Exorcist — and it was a huge flop. Milos did Ragtime. And Jack did [The] Missouri Breaks. That’s Czech prophecy.”
Louise's career spanned 60 years - with her first role being in a 1958 show titled Flight and her final appearance being on the Netflix show Girlboss in 2017.
While other recent TV roles included playing the mother of William H. Macy’s Frank Gallagher in the USA version of Shameless.
Louise was married to film producer Jerry Bick in 1959 – and they divorced in 1977.
She is survived by sons John and Andrew Bick; granddaughter Emilee Kaya Bick; sister Roberta Ray and brother-in-law Edward Ray; and - Deadline notes : "10 nieces and nephews."
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