gLinda Jackson she died aged 87 at her home in London after a short illnesshis agent Lionel Larner communicated in a note in which he underlined that he had also lost a friend to whom he had been linked for 50 years. Tempered actress and one of the greatest ever, Glenda is also one of the few to have won the Academy Award twice: in 1971 for Women in love and in 1973 for A touch of class – a brilliant role rarely considered by the Academy. In both cases he did not show up to collect the statuettes.
Glenda Jackson with the Oscar won for “Women in love”. (Getty Images)
Retired career in 1992, she was elected on the Labor list in the House of Commons; the political commitment lasted more or less constantly until 2015. Soon after, Glenda Jackson surprised everyone back on stage with the role of Lear in a production of King Lear at the Old Vic in London, winning an Evening Standard Award. She had recently wrapped filming The Great Escaperalongside Michael Caine.
Glenda Jackson, two-time Oscar activist actress
Born on May 9, 1936 into a working-class family, Glenda studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she graduated in 1954. After her film debut in an uncredited role in the film I am a champion by Lindsay Anderson (1963), manages to emerge within the Royal Shakespeare Company. Especially in the production of Marat/Sade by Peter Brook, both in the West End and on Broadway (where it earned a Tony nomination).
The real glory comes with the adaptation of Women in love by Ken Russell (from the book by DH Lawrence)and the unexpected Oscar, a film remembered above all for the naked fight scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed. Basically unknown, her engagement does not arouse the enthusiasm of United Artists, reluctant to have her even for the unconventional beauty.
Not even two years later she still wins Best Actress for A touch of classdelightful romantic comedy played alongside George Segal. Memorable too Cursed Sunday Sundaytowhere she is a frustrated office worker third vertex of a queer three-way relationship (a milestone of gay cinema released in 1971 and its first Oscar nomination), and The other side of lovefrom the year before and still by Russell from a book by Lawrence: this time it’s the nymphomaniac wife Tchaikovsky.
Glenda Jackson with Cate Blanchett at the London Evening Standard Theater Awards in 2017. (Getty Images)
In 1978 he won the box office paired with Walter Matthau in Home visits. A duo so successful that Hollywood revived it in 1980 in Two under the sofa. Other titles include A romantic Englishwoman by Joseph Losey (1975), Sarah Bernhardt, the greatest actress of all time (1976), Stevie (1978) Tortoise I will love you with Ben Kingsley (1985). With Russell she worked again on The Last Salome (1988) and The Rainbow (1989).
Simultaneously working at the BBC as Queen Elizabeth I (1971), and to CBS for the miniseries The Patricia Neal Story, for which he obtained an Emmy nomination in 1982.
Glenda Jackson in 1990. (Getty Images)
career in politics
The love of England and its state of moral and social decay during the Thatcher era, push her towards politics, a long-standing love. “I did what I could do with art against this government,” she says about the decision to leave the scene. The experience as an actress, a great speaker and presence, came in handy for the electoral campaign in the ranks of Labor and the conquest of parliament in 1992.
And even when, on the death of her archenemy Margaret, in 2013 she lashed out against the former prime minister, deprecating the scope of his political contribution, indifferent to the «ashamed!» of the opposite side. In the 23 years she was away from the spotlight she turned down multiple roles, including that – very lucrative – of M of her in the James Bond saga. Why? “Because he was boring.”
Closed with amendments and bills, in the last queue of his life, at 80, Glenda Jackson begins to recover awards and applause returning to acting first on radio, and then at the Old Vic, in 2016. As well as on Broadway, in the play Three Tall Womenin which he gets a Tony, the only one of his career. He leaves after a lifetime of work and commitments for which he has always had sufficient words compared to those who work seriously breaking their backs: «For heaven’s sake, I’m not a miner. Acting at 80 8 times a week is part of the game.”
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