Glenda Jackson, Oscar-winning actress and former Labour Party MP, dies at 87

Glenda Jackson, the Oscar-winning actress and former politician, has died. She was 87.

According to her longtime agent, Lionel Larner, Jackson died Thursday at her home in London following a short illness. "Today we lost one of the world's greatest actresses and I have lost a best friend of over 50 years," Larner said in a statement to EW.

Jackson twice won the Best Actress Academy Award, for 1970's Women in Love and 1973's A Touch of Class. She was also nominated in the same category for 1971's Sunday Bloody Sunday and 1975's Hedda. In the early '90s, Jackson took an extended break from acting and entered the world of British politics, becoming a member of Parliament in 1992 and later serving as a minister for transport in Prime Minister Tony Blair's first government. She left Parliament in 2013.

Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Glenda Jackson in 1971

Prior to becoming an MP, Jackson acted in films like 1971's Mary, Queen of Scots and 1980's Hopscotch. She also won two Emmys for playing Queen Elizabeth I on the 1971 TV show Elizabeth R. In the U.K., she was beloved for her appearance on the 1972 special Christmas episode of The Morecambe & Wise Show.

After leaving Parliament, Jackson returned to acting. In 2018, she won a Tony Award for her performance in a revival of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women. She also recently played the title role in a Broadway production of King Lear alongside Ruth Wilson and Pedro Pascal. According to Larner, she had recently completed her work on upcoming film The Great Escaper, which also stars Michael Caine.

While Jackson was famous for having won a pair of Oscars, the actress was not overly impressed by that particular achievement.

"Well, I jib at the idea that I won them," she once told EW. "I did nothing apart from what the job I was given. If there was a winner, it was the people who voted for me. My sardonic view is that they're not as important as everyone thinks they are. I never went into a film thinking, 'Oh gosh, if I do this slightly differently I might win something.'"

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