Glenda Jackson, a seasoned actress and former politician, has “died peacefully” at the age of 87 following a brief illness, her representative has revealed.
Both times she won the best actress Oscar—for 1970’s Women In Love and again three years later for A Touch Of Class—the movie star and former Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate chose not to attend the awards ceremony.
Her agent Lionel Larner said: “Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award winning actress and politician died peacefully at her home in Blackheath London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side.
“She recently completed filming The Great Escaper in which she co-starred with Michael Caine.”
Jackson previously said that she never had any interest in the social and glamorous side of the industry, despite having a stellar career that also included two Emmy Awards and a Tony.
The two-time Oscar winner transitioned from theater to politics more than 25 years ago and spent 23 years as a Labour MP.
She was chosen as the Labour Party’s candidate for Hampstead and Highgate in 1992, and during Sir Tony Blair’s administration, she worked as a junior transport minister from 1997 to 1999.
Jackson returned to acting after resigning as an MP following the general election in 2015.
For her performance in Elizabeth Is Missing, which followed the narrative of a woman with dementia, she was awarded a Bafta for best actress in 2019.
Jackson and Sir Michael Caine, a fellow double Oscar winner with whom she had previously worked on The Romantic Englishwoman 48 years prior, had just wrapped up filming The Great Escaper together.
A Second World War veteran who left his Hove, East Sussex, care facility to attend a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France is the subject of their new movie, which is based on actual events.
Jackson claimed that she didn’t begin acting until she was 16 years old, having been forced to do it after failing her high school diploma.
While working at her neighborhood Boots shop, she joined a friend at the YMCA amateur dramatics organization. She later attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) to further her studies.
In 1971, she also appeared in an episode of The Morecambe & Wise Show as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra opposite comedians Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise.
