Politicians might be well versed in acting but Glenda Jackson is the only one to have actually won an Oscar.
Jackson, the actress and former Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, has died at the age of 87. Known for her strong and prickly character, she retired from a glittering acting career to join the Commons in the 1992 general election at the age of 56 where she held her seat for over two decades before returning to the stage.
Born in Birkenhead, she worked in her local Boots before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and from there went on to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1963.
On her initial move into acting, she said: “I had no real ambition about acting, but I knew there had to be something better than the bloody chemist’s shop.”
She co-starred with Oliver Reed in Ken Russell’s adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women In Love. Reed, a tough man to spook, later compared acting with her to “being run over by a Bedford truck”.
She won her first Oscar for Women In Love and a second for Touch of Class in 1973.
After growing tired of acting, Jackson entered politics and won the seat for Hampstead and Highgate (Hampstead and Kilburn as of 2010) in 1992.
In 1997, she was made a junior transport minister in Blair’s government. Later, she was not afraid to speak out against Iraq and voiced her disapproval of what the New Labour movement had done to the party.
She also ran for Labour’s candidate for London mayor but lost to Frank Dobson.
Her most controversial political moment, however, came in 2013 when she criticised Margaret Thatcher rather than paying tribute to her. On Lady Thatcher’s death, she pulled no punches, and refused to respect a woman who “had inflicted heinous social, economic and spiritual damage upon the country”.
Jackson and the left were accused of being “petty”, “childish”, and “self-indulgent” by none other than her son, the political commentator Dan Hodges.
She stood down in 2015 and returned to acting at the age of 79 to play King Lear in a memorable performance. Before her death, she had just finished filming The Great Escaper with Michael Caine who called her “one of our greatest movie actresses”.
Sir Jonathan Pryce also weighed in, calling her no less than “the greatest actor that this country has ever produced”.
Her strength of character may be best summed up in one autobiographical line: “If I’m too strong for some people, that’s their problem”.
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