Did You Know?

Kirk Douglas possessed the movie rights for a long time, before his son Michael Douglas finally started the project.

Louise Fletcher was signed a week before filming began, after auditioning repeatedly over six months; director Milos Forman had told her each time that she just wasn't approaching the part correctly, but kept calling her back.

The cast and crew had to become accustomed to working with extras and supporting crew members who were inmates at the Oregon State Mental Hospital; each member of the professional cast and crew inevitably worked closely with at least two or three mental patients.

Before shooting began, director Milos Forman screened the film Titicut Follies for the cast to help them get a feel for life in a mental institution.

With the exception of the fishing segment (which was filmed last), the film was shot in sequence.

The script called for McMurphy to leap on a guard and kiss him when first arriving at the hospital. During filming, director Milos Forman decided that the guard's reaction wasn't strong enough and told Jack Nicholson to jump on the other guard instead. This surprised the actor playing the second guard greatly, and in some versions he can be seen punching Nicholson.

Film debuts of Brad Dourif (who received a "Best Supporting Actor" Academy Award nomination), Christopher Lloyd and Will Sampson, as well as Tom McCall (former governor of Oregon) and Dr. Dean R. Brooks, superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, the film's main shooting location.

Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Angela Lansbury were all offered the role of Nurse Ratched.

This story was based on author Ken Kesey's experiences while working at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, California.

Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were offered the McMurphy role before Jack Nicholson.

Though veteran cinematographer Haskell Wexler is credited here as DP, he was actually replaced by Bill Butler early in the shoot due to various creative differences with producer Michael Douglas.

During most of the film's shooting, William Redfield was ill. He died several years after the film was completed.

The musical theme by Jack Nitzsche played during the opening and closing was based on the chord structure of the song "Please Release Me".

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #33 Greatest Movie of All Time.

Rumors that production shut down because Jack Nicholson had hair plugs implanted are false (this can be verified by actually looking at his scalp). The story, as related by production designer Paul Sylbert, was that Nicholson and director Milos Forman had very different ideas about how the narrative should play out; for example, Forman thought that the ward should be in bedlam when McMurphy showed up and Nicholson posited that his character would have absolutely no effect on the mental patients if they were already riled up, which would have negated the purpose of his character and therefore much of the plot. Nicholson and Forman both refused to give an inch, each believing he was right and the other was wrong. The "two months" that Nicholson was supposed to have disappeared was actually closer to two weeks, and he didn't "disappear". In actuality, Nicholson spearheaded a coup among the other actors and refused to let Forman run rehearsals, running them himself instead. During production, Nicholson and Forman spoke to each other through the cinematographer, but faked a friendly relationship when the media and studio personnel would show up to the set. This is one explanation why Nicholson doesn't appear on any of the DVD special features.

Louise Fletcher was so upset with the fact that the other actors could laugh and be happy while she had to be so cold and heartless that near the end of production she removed her dress and stood in only her panties to prove to the actors she was not "a cold-hearted monster".

Kirk Douglas starred in the 1963 Broadway production after buying the film rights prior to publication; he later passed the film rights to his son Michael Douglas, but kept a percentage of the profits. Every major studio had declined to make the film during the period he was trying to star in it. Kirk had met Milos Forman in Prague while on a State Department tour and promised to send him the book after deciding he would be a good director for the film; the book never arrived, probably confiscated by censors of the Czech government, which was Communist at the time. Ken Kesey wrote a screenplay for the production, but Forman rejected it because Kesey insisted on keeping Chief Bromden's first-person narration.

Louise Fletcher was in preparation to begin filming Nashville while Lily Tomlin was set to play Nurse Ratched. Ultimately the two actresses switched their roles in the two films.

Co-producer Michael Douglas scouted various West Coast locations, and chose Oregon State Hospital because superintendent Dean R. Brooks, MD, agreed to give the filmmakers unlimited access.

Jack Nicholson took a percentage of the profits in lieu of a small salary for a modestly budgeted film. The move paid off when the picture went on to gross well over $120 million dollars.

Second of only three films to win every major Academy Award, including Best Picture.

Jack Nicholson and the film's composer Jack Nitzsche were both born on April 22, 1937.

When Louise Fletcher neared the end of her Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech, she finished with a unique touch (a first in American Sign Language): "For my mother and my father, I want to say thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true. Thank you."

Louise Fletcher got the part of Nurse Ratched mainly because she could embody evil without knowing it. She believes she's helping people even when she isn't.

The film crew looked over four mental institutions until they settled on the one in the film.

In the novel, Nurse Ratched's first name is never revealed. In the film, when the hospital committee meets to discuss McMurphy's behavior, Dr. Spivey calls her "Mildred".

The final scene was shot in one take, whereas the party scene took four nights.

In 1993, the movie was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Milos Forman said he directed the movie in a naturalistic style significantly contrasting with the "totally stupid socialist rallies and movies" which were common in his native Czechoslovakia. "I was fascinated just to see real faces on the screen," he said. "That's what cinema verite [like Titicut Follies taught me."

Anjelica Huston:  Jack Nicholson's one-time girlfriend appears as one of the crowd on the pier as the fishing excursion returns.

The character Ellis is shown to have had a lobotomy in a deleted scene, which is why he's withdrawn throughout the movie, foreshadowing McMurphy in the final scene.