Glenda Jackson, Feisty Two-Time Oscar Winner, Dies at 87

Frank Scheck
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Glenda Jackson, the two-time Oscar winner who walked away from a hugely successful acting career to spend nearly a quarter-century in the U.K. parliament, only to make a comeback on the stage, died Thursday. She was 87.

Jackson died peacefully after a brief illness at her home in Blackheath, London, and her family was at her side, her agent Lionel Larner said in a statement. “Today we lost one of the world’s greatest actresses, and I have lost a best friend of over 50 years,” he said.

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She recently completed filming The Great Escaper opposite Michael Caine, Larner noted.

The British actress collected a slew of honors that included best actress Academy Awards for Women in Love (1969) and A Touch of Class (1973); two Emmys for her performance as Elizabeth I in the BBC miniseries Elizabeth R (a role she also played in the 1971 film Mary, Queen of Scots); and a Tony for her triumphant return to Broadway in a 2018 revival of Edward Albee‘s Three Tall Women.

She also was known for her passionate leftist politics.

Jackson was born on May 9, 1936, to working-class parents and began performing in a drama troupe in her native Birkenhead when she was a teenager. She received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1954 and while studying there made her professional debut in a production of Terrence Rattigan’s Separate Tables in 1957.

After an uncredited turn in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life (1963), she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964. It was during her four-year stint there that she truly made a name for herself, particularly with her work as Charlotte Corday in Peter Brooks’ groundbreaking production of The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (generally shortened to Marat/Sade).

The production played in London’s West End and in New York, with Jackson receiving a Tony nomination in 1966 for her Broadway debut. Around that time, she also delivered a widely acclaimed performance as Ophelia in Peter Hall’s RSC production of Hamlet.

Her film career took off in earnest when she won the Oscar for director Ken Russell’s adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love, a film perhaps best remembered today for its nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed. Execs at United Artists was initially reluctant to approve her for the role of Gudrun, not only because she wasn’t a well-known cinematic name but also because they thought her unconventional looks not attractive enough.

She quickly won a second Oscar for A Touch of Class, an old-fashioned romantic comedy co-starring George Segal that showcased her sharp comedic chops.

Jackson would continue to alternate among theater, film and television throughout her career. She received two more Academy Award nominations for her work in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1972) and Hedda (1975), the latter an adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, a role she had played onstage the same year.

She also had a major box office hit with House Calls (1978), a romantic comedy in which she starred opposite Walter Matthau. The unlikely screen pairing proved so popular with audiences that they reunited for the comic thriller Hopscotch (1980). “Oh, God, did I enjoy working him!” enthused Jackson in a 2018 interview with THR.

Her other notable film credits included 1975’s The Romantic Englishwoman, 1976’s The Incredible Sarah (in which she played Sarah Bernhardt), 1978’s Stevie (as poet Stevie Smith) and 1985’s Turtle Diary. In addition to Women in Love, she worked with the iconoclastic Russell on the films The Music Lovers (1971), Salome’s Last Dance (1988) and The Rainbow (1989).

Jackson earned her first Olivier Award nomination in 1977 for her performance in Stevie. During the course of her career, she earned four more, for Antony and Cleopatra, Rose, Strange Interlude and King Lear.

She received Tony noms for each of her Broadway appearances (Marat/Sade, Rose, Strange Interlude and Macbeth) before finally winning for Three Tall Women.

Jackson also played Martha in a 1989 Los Angeles production of Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opposite John Lithgow and directed by the playwright himself. It was not a happy experience for her. “We didn’t get on,” she later recalled. “He is a very, very good writer. Terrible director in my opinion.”

She periodically appeared on television, garnering an Emmy nom in 1982 for her performance in the title role in CBS’ The Patricia Neal Story.

In 1992, Jackson retired from acting and ran for election to the House of Commons, representing the Labour Party. She became a member of Parliament, representing Hampstead and Highgate, and served for two years as a Junior Transport Minister under Tony Blair.

“Anything I could have done that was legal to get Margaret Thatcher and her government out, I was prepared to have a go at,” she later told THR about her dramatic career change. “My country had been destroyed! Every single shop doorway was a bedroom, bathroom and sitting room for some homeless person. And in many cases, they were also mentally ill. Everything had just fractured before your eyes. What I had been taught were vices, she said were virtues, such as greed. She said there’s no such thing as a society. That so infuriated me I walked into my closed French windows and almost broke my nose!”

Jackson’s acting skills served her well during her political career. Perhaps one of her greatest performances was a speech she delivered to the House of Commons in 2013 after the death of Thatcher, in which she bitterly decried the late prime minister’s policies even as many of her fellow MPs shouted “Shame!” at her.

Not that she didn’t continue to receive acting offers during her years in politics. Among the roles she refused was “M” (eventually played by Judi Dench) in the James Bond series. Asked years later why she turned down such a potentially lucrative recurring gig, Jackson said merely, “Because it was boring.”

In 2011, Jackson announced that she would retire from politics by the time of the next election four year later, citing her age. “We are talking about when I will be nearly 80,” she commented, adding, “Get a grip!”

She returned to acting after a 23-year absence, appearing in a series of radio plays based on novels by Émile Zola. That gentle re-entry was quickly followed by the far more formidable challenge of playing the title role of King Lear in a stage production directed by Deborah Warner.

“What was interesting to me was that nobody ever raised the issue of a woman playing a man’s part, not at all,” she recalled. “One of the things that I found useful was that the older we get, the more gender barriers begin to fray.”

She received an Evening Standard Award for her performance, though in typical self-deprecating fashion she chided the crowd for their boisterous reaction to her victory. “Oh, come on, we don’t do standing ovations in England!” she exclaimed.

That was followed by her Broadway appearance in Three Tall Women, for which she finally won a Tony. The following year, she returned to the Great White Way in a different production of King Lear, which received mixed reviews.

Jackson prided herself on her work ethic. When once asked about the challenges of doing eight performances a week onstage in her eighties, she snorted, “Oh, for God’s sake, we’re not digging coal! That’s par for the course, you do it eight times a week. My worst day is my day off.”

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