Louise Fletcher, Oscar-winning actress and ‘Deep Space Nine’ guest star, is dead at 88.
Paramount
Louise Fletcher as Kai Winn in « What You Leave Behind. »
Oscar-winning actress and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” recurring guest star Louise Fletcher is dead at age 88, according to The New York Times. The newspaper, citing her agent, reported that Fletcher died on Friday, September 23, 2022, at her home in Montdurausse, a town in Southern France. A cause of death was not provided.
Fletcher was born Estelle Louise Fletcher on July 22, 1934, in Birmingham, Ala., and, according to the New York Times, she was one of four hearing children of Robert Capers Fletcher, an Episcopal minister, and Estelle (Caldwell) Fletcher, both of whom were deaf since birth. Fletcher studied drama at the University of North Carolina and relocated to Los Angeles upon graduation in order to pursue acting. She studied acting with teacher and actor Jeff Corey, who, according to Memory Alpha, was also one of Leonard Nimoy’s acting coaches and later played Plasus in the “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode, “The Cloud Minders.”
Starting in 1958, Fletcher became a regular presence in television shows and, later, in movies. She ultimately amassed nearly 140 screen credits, according to the Internet Movie Database. Those credits include “Playhouse 90,” “Maverick,” “The Untouchables,” “A Gathering of Eagles,” “Thieves Like Us,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Lady in Red,” “Firestarter,” “Brainstorm,” “Blue Steel,” “The Player,” “Virtuosity,” “VR.
