ululate!

Louise Fletcher, probably best known for her roles as Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Next" and Kai Winn in the Star Trek TV series "Deep Space Nine," has died in her home in France at the age of 88. Fletcher was a CODA—a child of deaf adults. Her father, an Episcopalian reverend, established 40-some churches for the deaf, and Fletcher herself advocated for the deaf and the hearing-impaired. 

Fletcher also played a crucial role in the spooky film "Brainstorm," where her character, Dr. Lillian Reynolds, uses a special device that records sensory and emotional experiences to record her experience of death by heart attack. The record of this experience is sought by various agencies, with Christopher Walken's character, Dr. Michael Brace, finally undergoing the experience of someone else's death. Lillian's consciousness continues after her physical body has died, and Michael is thus able to experience Lillian's afterlife. I saw "Brainstorm" when I was just a kid, and its imagery has stayed with me all of these years. I didn't see "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" until I was in college, and I never watched enough "Deep Space Nine" to get into the character of Kai Winn, an evil Bajoran priestess with dark political ambitions. So "Brainstorm" is the film I most associate with Louise Fletcher.

Fletcher, with her striking eyes, flashing teeth, and somewhat strict, unpleasant-looking face, was often typecast in baddie roles, but if you visit Wikipedia, you'll see that her filmography is, in reality, pretty long and varied. While I can't quite call myself a Fletcher fan since I never followed her career that closely, I've always been impressed by Fletcher when I've seen her. She had presence. Finding out about her advocacy for deaf people makes her passing all the more poignant. She tried to do some good in the world.

RIP, Louise.