<Tr> <Th> Birthplace </Th> <Td> Salem, Oregon, United States </Td> </Tr> <P> Nurse Ratched (also known as "Big Nurse") is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as well as the 1975 film . A cold, heartless, passive - aggressive tyrant, Nurse Ratched became the stereotype of the nurse as a battleaxe . She has also become a popular metaphor for the corrupting influence of power and authority in bureaucracies such as the mental institution in which the novel is set . </P> <P> The role in the film version of the novel was turned down by Anne Bancroft, Angela Lansbury, Geraldine Page, Colleen Dewhurst, and Ellen Burstyn before Louise Fletcher received it . Fletcher had only acted once in the 13 years before appearing in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest . She was thought of for the role after Shelley Duvall was suggested for an alternative role and Miloš Forman saw Fletcher appear with her in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us . </P> <P> Nurse Ratched is the head administrative nurse at the Salem State Hospital, a mental institution where she exercises near - absolute power over the patients' access to medications, privileges, and basic necessities such as food and toiletries . She capriciously revokes these privileges whenever a patient displeases her . Her superiors turn a blind eye because she maintains order, keeping the patients from acting out, either through antipsychotic and anticonvulsant drugs or her own brand of psychotherapy, which consists mostly of humiliating patients into doing her bidding . </P>

Who played the nurse in one flew over cuckoo's nest