LONDON: Glenda Jackson, a two-time Academy Award winner for her roles in 'Women in Love' and 'A Touch of Class,' who had a second career in politics as a British lawmaker before an acclaimed late-life return to stage and screen, has died at age 87.
Jackson's agent Lionel Larner said she died on Thursday at her home in London after a short illness. He said she had recently completed filming 'The Great Escaper,' in which co-starred with Michael Caine.
Born into a working-class family in 1936 in Birkenhead, northwest England, Jackson trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and became one of the biggest British stars of the 1960s and 70s.
She then went into politics, winning election to Parliament in 1992. She spent 23 years as a Labour Party lawmaker, serving as a minister for transport in Prime Minister Tony Blair's first government in 1997.
She came to be at odds with Blair over the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She said Blair's decision to enter the U.S.-led war without United Nations' authorization left her "deeply, deeply ashamed."
"The victims will be as they always are, women, children, the elderly," she told The Associated Press before the invasion.
Jackson's blunt manner and outspokenness continued throughout her political career and may have helped keep her from high government office. After former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, she eschewed politeness about the dead to rail in Parliament against the "heinous social, economic and spiritual damage wreaked upon this country" by the late leader.
That the vices we were taught - greed, selfishness, ignoring the needs of others who struggle - are instead virtues… “people knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing” The ethical plumb line by which all politics should be judged. RIP Glenda Jackson. https://t.co/ha86IhgvSH
— Cary on defending democracy (@this1littlebird) June 15, 2023Jackson returned to acting after leaving Parliament in 2015 and had some of her most acclaimed roles, including the title character in Shakespeare's 'King Lear.' It opened at London's Old Vic in 2016 and later played on Broadway.
She had her first film role in a quarter century in the 2019 movie '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.
Tulip Siddiq, Jackson's successor as Labour lawmaker for the London seat of Hampstead and Kilburn, said she was "devastated to hear that my predecessor Glenda Jackson has died."
Devastated to hear that my predecessor Glenda Jackson has died. A formidable politician, an amazing actress and a very supportive mentor to me. Hampstead and Kilburn will miss you Glenda. pic.twitter.com/X7JzgrzLDR
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) June 15, 2023"A formidable politician, an amazing actress and a very supportive mentor to me. Hampstead and Kilburn will miss you Glenda," Siddiq wrote on Twitter.
Jackson is survived by her son, Dan Hodges.
