Double Oscar-winner and former Labour MP Glenda Jackson has died aged 87.
In a statement on Thursday (June 15), agent Lionel Larner said: “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. She recently completed filming The Great Escaper in which she co-starred with Michael Caine.”
Jackson was a star of stage and screen, winning Academy Awards for winning Oscars for Women In Love and A Touch of Class, before going into politics. She became MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 1992, and when constituency boundaries changed in 2010 she continued in Hampstead and Kilburn.
Labour’s Tulip Siddiq MP, who succeeded Jackson in the seat in 2015, tweeted today: “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.”
When Tony Blair swept to power in 1997, Jackson served for two years as a junior transport minister.
After she left Parliament, she returned to acting, collecting a Bafta in 2020 for her role in the television drama Elizabeth Is Missing
1. 1966
In her dressing room at the Martin Beck Theatre during the Broadway run of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Marat/Sade, in which Jackson played Charlotte Corday. (Photo by Harry Benson/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
2. 2010
Prime Minister Gordon Brown listens as Glenda Jackson MP speaks during a party meeting in a pub in Kilburn. (Photo by Andrew Winning - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
3. 1971
Glenda Jackson with the Oscar she won for Women In Love. (Photo by Jack Kay/Express/Getty Images)
4. 1971
Glenda Jackson dressed as Cleopatra, with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise rehearsing a sketch for The Morecambe And Wise Show. (Photo by Jack Kay/Getty Images)Glenda Jackson dressed as Cleopatra, with British comedians Eric Morecambe (right) and Ernie Wise rehearsing a sketch for their television programme ‘The Morecambe And Wise Show’. (Photo by Jack Kay/Getty Images)