20 Actors Who Had To Wait DECADES Before Hitting Big

Louise Fletcher began her acting career in the late 1950s on TV shows such as Lawman, Maverick, and The Untouchables, though her career momentum stalled when she took a decade-long acting hiatus between 1963 and 1973 to raise her two sons.

But a few years after returning to the fold, Fletcher was cast in the life-changing role of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, an iconic role that not only made her globally recognised, but bestowed her with the honour of being just the third actress in history to win the Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for a single performance.

Nurse Ratched well and truly struck a chord with both the industry and general audiences, then, enough that Fletcher became a hugely busy actor for basically the next four decades of her career.

Though the part made it feel like Fletcher had always been in the mix, she was already in her early forties when this opportunity arrived.