Glenda Jackson has died aged 87

British actress and former politician Glenda Jackson has died.

Jackson was born on May 9, 1936, in England, with an acting career that has spanned several decades. She began her stage career in the 1950s, working in regional theatres and gradually making a name for herself in the West End, while also giving lauded performances on Broadway.

She gained critical acclaim for her performances in classics like Peter Hall’s production of Hamlet and Anthony and Cleopatra, working regularly with the RSC both in Stratford and London. She also collaborated closely with Peter Brook on several of his landmark shows, while also appearing in scores of revivals and new plays across London, on tour and in the West End.

Recently she took on the titular role of Lear at the Old Vic, repeating the turn in a new production on Broadway. She has received numerous awards, including two Academy Awards for Best Actress. She was one of the few artists to achieve the Triple Crown – an Academy Award, an Emmy and a Tony. The Tony came in 2018 for Three Tall Women. 

Jackson won a par of Oscars over the course of her career, first for Women in Love in 1970 and then for A Touch of Class in 1973. She received a pair of Emmys for the BBC film Elizabeth R, in which she played Queen Elizabeth I. Other films include Marat/Sade, Mary, Queen of Scots, and Hedda, as well as the television film The Patricia Neal Story, for which she received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

She made her Broadway debut in 1965 in The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, and went on to star in Rose (1981), Strange Interlude (1985), and Macbeth (1988), receiving a Tony Award nomination for each performance. She also appeared as Martha in Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf opposite John Lithgow, Cynthia Nixon, and Brian Kerwin at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

Alongside her acting career, Jackson spent 23 years in British politics, running on the Labour Party ticket and representing Hampstead and Highgate as an MP. She stopped running for office in 2011 after a narrow win the year before and retired from her position in 2015. She famously decried the policies of Margaret Thatcher in a fiery speech following her death in 2013.