Glenda Jackson Dies: Double Oscar-Winning British Actress Was 87

Glenda Jackson, the double Oscar-winning British actress and former Labour MP, has died. She was 87.

In a statement, her agent Lionel Larner said she died at her home in Blackheath, south-east London, following a “brief illness.”

Larner’s statement read: “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.”

Statement continued: “She recently completed filming The Great Escaper in which she co-starred with Michael Caine.”

Jackson was perhaps best known for her two Oscar-winning performances in Ken Russell’s 1970’s pic Women in Love, a D. H. Lawrence adaptation, where she starred alongside Alan Bates and Oliver Reed and 1973’s A Touch of Class. Jackson also won a BAFTA Best Actress gong for Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971).

Jackson was born in 1936 in North West England. She studied at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and made her stage debut in a 1966 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Marat/Sade. Across her stage career, she received five Laurence Olivier Award nominations for performances in classical productions such as Antony and Cleopatra (1979). She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in the revival of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women in 2018.

In 2016, she played King Lear in an acclaimed production mounted at London’s Old Vic. She played the role on Broadway in 2019.

Jackson’s onscreen credits are wide and distinct. Alongside her award-winning big screen turns in A Touch of Class and Women in Love, Jackson also had an extensive TV career. She played Queen Elizabeth I in the 1971 BBC series Elizabeth R. She received two Emmy noms for her performance. In 2019, she starred as a woman with dementia in the BBC drama Elizabeth Is Missing, for which she picked up a TV BAFTA.

In the early ’90s, Jackson left acting to take up a career in British politics. She entered the House of Commons after she was elected as the Labour Party MP for Hampstead and Highgate in the 1992 general election. The constituency was later re-named Hampstead and Kilburn. She served as a Junior Transport Minister from 1997 to 1999 in Tony Blair’s New Labour government. Jackson stood down at the 2015 general election and returned to acting.

In The Great Escaper, which will be her last onscreen performance, Jackson stars alongside Michael Caine in the story about British veteran Bernard Jordan’s escape from his care home to attend the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in France.

In a statement this afternoon, Caine said: “Glenda was one of our greatest movie actresses. It was a privilege to work with her on The Great Escaper recently, our second film together. It was as wonderful an experience this time as it was 50 years ago. I shall miss her.”

Oliver Parker, the film’s director added: “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the news of Glenda’s passing.  It was the privilege of a lifetime to work with her. She had such fierce intelligence, such passion, and fearlessness.  It is hard to believe that it was less than a month ago that we screened the finished film for her and Michael – she was as feisty and vibrant as ever and we will treasure the memory of that emotional and happy day.”