Doctor who OK’d ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ hospital use dies

In this Oct. 16, 2012 file photo, former Oregon State Hospital superintendent Dr. Dean Brooks, center participates in a ribbon cutting ceremony for a museum about the hospital. Brooks, 96, died May 30, 2013 in Salem, Ore., his family said. AP Photo

GRANTS PASS, Oregon— The psychiatrist who opened the doors of the Oregon State Hospital to filming of the 1975 Academy Award-winning movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” has died.

Family members say Dr. Dean Brooks had been in declining health for several weeks when he died May 30 at a retirement home in Salem. He was 96.

Brooks’ daughter Dennie Brooks says the film’s producers had been turned down by all the other mental hospitals they approached. But she says her father, who was superintendent of the Salem hospital, saw the value of the movie in starting a national discussion about mental health and the responsibility of institutions to do no harm.

She says Dean Brooks also thought being part of a movie would be fun for him and for patients.