LONDON (AP) – Glenda Jackson, a two-time Academy Award-winning performer who had a second career in politics as a British lawmaker before an acclaimed return to the stage and screen, has died at 87.
Jackson’s agent, Lionel Larner, said he died Thursday at his home in London after a short illness. He said he had recently finished filming “‘The Great Escaper,” in which he co-starred with 90-year-old Michael Caine.
Born into a working-class family in 1936 in Birkhenhead, north-west England, Jackson trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he starred in the avant-garde drama “Marat/Sade” directed by Peter Brook, and became one of the biggest British stars of the 1960s and 1970s, winning two awards from the Academy for “Women in Love” in 1971 and “A Touch of Class” in 1974.
On television, she took home two Emmy Awards in 1972 for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in “Elizabeth R.”, and secured a place in British pop culture history playing Cleopatra in a classic sketch in “The Morecambe & Wise Show”. in 1971. “All men are fools,” he proclaimed in what became a famous line, “and what makes them so is seeing beauty like mine.”
In her 50s, Jackson turned to politics, winning election to Parliament in 1992. She spent 23 years as a Labor MP, serving as transport minister in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s first government in 1997.
She came to be at odds with Blair over the invasion of Iraq in 2003. She said Blair’s decision to enter the US-led war without UN authorization left her “deeply, deeply ashamed”.
“The victims will be as they always are, women, children, the elderly,” he told The Associated Press before the invasion.
Jackson’s forceful manner and outspokenness continued throughout her political career, and may have helped keep her in high government office. After the death of former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 2013, he eschewed education about the dead to report in Parliament “the appalling social, economic and spiritual damage done to this country” by the late leader.
Jackson returned to acting after leaving Parliament in 2015 and had some of his most acclaimed roles, including the title character in Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” It premiered at London’s Old Vic in 2016 and later played on Broadway.
She had her first film role in a quarter of a century in the 2019 film “Elizabeth is Missing.” Jackson won a BAFTA Award, Britain’s equivalent of an Oscar, for her performance as a woman with Alzheimer’s trying to solve a mystery.
Labor Party leader Keir Starmer said Jackson “leaves a gap in our cultural and political life that can never be filled”.
“He played many roles with great distinction, passion and commitment,” he said. “From award-winning actor to campaigner and campaigner to Labor MP and government minister, Glenda Jackson always fought for human rights and social justice.”
Tulip Siddiq, Jackson’s successor as Labor MP for the London seat of Hampstead and Kilburn, said she was “devastated to hear that my predecessor Glenda Jackson has died”.
“A formidable politician, an incredible actress and a very supportive mentor for me. Hampstead and Kilburn will miss you Glenda,” Siddiq wrote on Twitter.
Jackson is survived by his son, Dan Hodges.
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An earlier version of this story gave incorrect dates for Jackson’s Academy Award wins. It was 1971 and 1974, not 1970 and 1973.
