Glenda Jackson
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| Glenda Jackson | |
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| Birth name | Glenda May Jackson |
| Born | 9 May 1936, age 70 Birkenhead, Cheshire, England |
| Academy Awards | |
|---|---|
| Best Actress 1970 Women in Love 1973 A Touch of Class |
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Glenda May Jackson, CBE, (born 9 May 1936) is a two-time Academy Award-winning British actress and politician, currently Labour Member of Parliament for the constituency of Hampstead and Highgate in the London Borough of Camden.
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[edit] Personal life
She was born in Birkenhead, The Wirral, Cheshire, across the River Mersey from Liverpool, into a working-class family, and once worked in a Boots pharmacy store.
She has one son by her ex-husband, Roy Hodges.
[edit] Acting career
Having studied acting at RADA, Jackson made her professional stage debut in Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables in 1957, and her film debut in This Sporting Life in 1963.
Fame came with Jackson's starring role in the controversial Women in Love (1969) for which she won her first Academy Award for Best Actress, and another controversial role as Tchaikovsky's nymphomaniac wife in Ken Russell's The Music Lovers added to her image of being prepared to do almost anything for her art. She confirmed this by having her head shaved in order to play Queen Elizabeth I of England in the BBC's 1971 blockbuster serial, Elizabeth R. Her portrayal of Elizabeth I is considered unparalled in accuracy by Elizabethan scholars. In the same year, she also appeared in a BBC Morecambe and Wise Show, playing Cleopatra in a comedy sketch which is generally recognised as one the funniest sequences in British TV history.
Filmmaker Melvin Frank watched this and saw her comedic potential and offered her the lead female role in his next project. She earned a second Academy Award for Best Actress for this particular comic role in A Touch of Class (1973), and Eric and Ernie apparently sent her a telegram saying: 'Stick with us kid, and we'll get you a third!'. She also portrayed Queen Elizabeth on a film about the life of Mary, Queen of Scots and she has been recognised as one of Britain's leading actresses. In 1978, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Until recently, a theatre and arts academy in Borough Road, Birkenhead was named after her. It has been demolished by Wirral Council and replaced with flats.
[edit] Political career
She retired from acting in order to enter the House of Commons in the 1992 general election as the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate. After the 1997 general election, she was appointed a junior minister in the government of Prime Minister, Tony Blair, with responsibility for London Transport, a post she resigned before an attempt to be nominated as the Labour Party candidate for the election of the first Mayor of London in 2000. The nomination was eventually won by Frank Dobson, who lost the election to Ken Livingstone, the independent candidate. In the 2005 general election, she received 14,615 votes, representing 38.29% of the votes cast in the constituency.
As a high profile backbencher she has become a regular critic of Blair over his plans to introduce top-up fees. She also called for him to resign following the Judicial Enquiry by Lord Hutton in 2003 surrounding the reasons for going to war in Iraq and the death of government adviser Dr. David Kelly. Jackson is generally considered to be a traditional left-winger, often disagreeing with the dominant Blairite governing centre-right faction in the Labour Party.
By October 2005, her problems with Blair's leadership swelled to a point where she threatened to challenge the Prime Minister as a stalking horse candidate in a leadership contest if he does not stand down within a reasonable amount of time. On 31 October 2006, Jackson was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War.[1]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Character |
| 1963 | This Sporting Life | Bit part |
| 1967 | Benefit of the Doubt | Bit part |
| 1967 | Marat/Sade | Charlotte Corday |
| 1968 | Tell Me Lies | Guest |
| 1968 | Let's Murder Vivaldi (TV) | Julie |
| 1968 | Negatives | Vivien |
| 1969 | Women in Love | Gudrun Brangwen |
| 1969 | Salve Regina (TV) | Marina Palek |
| 1970 | Howards End (TV) | |
| 1970 | The Music Lovers | Nina (Antonina Milyukova) |
| 1971 | Sunday Bloody Sunday | Alex Greville |
| 1971 | The Boy Friend | Rita |
| 1971 | Mary, Queen of Scots | Queen Elizabeth I |
| 1971 | Elizabeth R (mini) TV Series | Queen Elizabeth I |
| 1972 | The Triple Echo | Alice |
| 1973 | A Touch of Class | Vicki Allessio |
| 1973 | A Bequest to the Nation | Lady Hamilton |
| 1974 | The Maids | Solange |
| 1975 | The Romantic Englishwoman | Elizabeth Fielding |
| 1975 | Il Sorriso del grande tentatore | Sister Geraldine |
| 1975 | Hedda | Hedda Gabler |
| 1976 | The Incredible Sarah | Sarah Bernhardt |
| 1977 | Nasty Habits | Sister Alexandra |
| 1978 | House Calls | Ann Atkinson |
| 1978 | Stevie | Stevie Smith |
| 1978 | The Class of Miss MacMichael | Conor MacMichael |
| 1979 | Lost and Found | Tricia |
| 1980 | Hopscotch | Isobel von Schonenberg |
| 1981 | The Patricia Neal Story (TV) | Patricia Neal |
| 1982 | HealtH | Isabella Garnell |
| 1982 | The Return of the Soldier | Margaret Grey |
| 1982 | Giro City | Sophie |
| 1984 | Sakharov (TV) | Yelena Bonner (Sakharova) |
| 1985 | Turtle Diary | Neaera Duncan |
| 1987 | Beyond Therapy | Charlotte |
| 1987 | Business as Usual | Babs Flynn |
| 1988 | Strange Interlude (TV) | Nina Leeds |
| 1988 | Salome's Last Dance | Herodias/Lady Alice |
| 1989 | The Rainbow | Anna Brangwen |
| 1989 | King of the Wind | Queen Caroline |
| 1989 | Doombeach | Miss |
| 1990 | T-Bag's Christmas Ding Dong (TV) | Vanity Bag |
| 1990 | The Real Story of Humpty Dumpty | Glitch the Witch (voice) |
| 1991 | The House of Bernarda Alba (TV) | Bernarda Alba |
| 1991 | A Murder of Quality (TV) | Ailsa Brimley |
| 1992 | The Secret Life of Arnold Bax (TV) | Harriet Cohen |
| 1994 | A Wave of Passion: The Life of Alexandra Kollontai (TV) | Alexandra Kollontai (voice) |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Labour MPs who rebelled on Iraq. BBC News (31 October, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-31.
[edit] External links
- Glenda Jackson at the Internet Movie Database
- Guardian Unlimited Politics — Ask Aristotle: Glenda Jackson
- TheyWorkForYou.com — Glenda Jackson
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Maggie Smith for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie |
Academy Award for Best Actress 1970 for Women in Love |
Succeeded by Jane Fonda for Klute |
| Preceded by Liza Minnelli for Cabaret |
Academy Award for Best Actress 1973 for A Touch of Class |
Succeeded by Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by Geoffrey Finsberg |
Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Highgate 1992 – present |
Incumbent |
Categories: 1936 births | Living people | Current British MPs | Actor-politicians | Best Actress Academy Award winners | BAFTA winners (people) | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from English constituencies | British female MPs | Commanders of the Order of the British Empire | English film actors | English stage actors | English television actors | People from Birkenhead | Royal Shakespeare Company members | Labour MPs (UK) | UK MPs 1992-1997 | UK MPs 1997-2001 | UK MPs 2001-2005 | UK MPs 2005-
