10 Incredible Actors Who Went Bad To Win An Oscar
3. Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Notice how these days any bitchy woman of some authority is always referred to as a Nurse Ratched? In Milos Formans 1975 classic One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Mildred Ratched is the head nurse at a mental institution where Jack Nicholson and a few other famous faces are patients. While she doesnt much physically hurt her patients, she abuses them psychologically and mentally. As played with precise menace by Louise Fletcher, Ratched meets her match with Randal Patrick McMurphy (fellow Oscar winner Nicholson) and the two are in a constant battle for supremacy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGRD6JBnHrU Fletcher gives an unflinching portrayal of a scary authority figure and created an iconic movie villainess. And before you could say lobotomy, Fletcher was walking onstage to receive her Best Actress Oscar.