35 Star Trek Actors Who Died In 2022
1. Louise Fletcher
Born Estelle Louise Fletcher, this Oscar-winning actress is of course immediately recognizable as the grand high Space Karen herself, Kai Winn. Appearing in only fourteen episodes of Deep Space Nine, her impact was incredible. She was one of the ultimate love-to-hate characters, walking a fine line of morally ambiguous, albeit openly scheming. Quite frankly, she was one of the franchises best villains.
As mentioned, Fletcher was also an Academy Award-winning actress for her role in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, for which she also won a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe. During her speech, she demonstrated her aptitude for American Sign Language. Fletcher's parents were both deaf, and worked extensively with the hearing-impaired community. Her father, Reverend Robert Capers Fletcher, founded more than 40 churches for the deaf in their home state of Alabama.
She based her performance on the way she saw white people speaking to people of colour in her native Alabama. She got the part after director Miloš Forman saw her performance in Thieves, and in a slightly ironic yet fortuitous turn of events, she was dropped from Robert Altman's Nashville, and from a role that had been specifically created for her, due to a falling out with Altman himself.
She would continue working in film and television for years, including a memorable turn as a hard-drinking, straight-talking character in Shameless. Fletcher passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in France. She was 88 years old.