Glenda Jackson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenda_Jackson

Glenda May Jackson, CBE (born 9 May 1936) is a British actress and former Labour Party politician.

As a professional actress from the late 1950s, she spent four years as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1964, being particularly associated with the work of director Peter Brook. During her film career, she won two Academy Awards for Best Actress: for Women in Love (1970) and A Touch of Class (1973). Other award-winning performances include Alex in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and the BBC television serial Elizabeth R (also 1971); for the latter, she received a Primetime Emmy Award.

She first became a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1992, as Member for Hampstead and Highgate. Early in the government of Tony Blair, she served as a Junior Transport minister from 1997 to 1999, later becoming critical of Blair. After constituency boundary changes, from 2010 until her retirement from politics in 2015, she represented Hampstead and Kilburn.

At the 2010 general election, her majority of 42 votes was one of the closest results of the entire election. She announced in 2011 that she would stand down as an MP at the 2015 general election

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER Jackson was born in Birkenhead on the Wirral, where her father was a builder, and her mother worked in shops and as a cleaner. Jackson was educated at the West Kirby County Grammar School for Girls, and performed at the Townswomen’s Guild drama group during her teens. She worked for two years in a branch of the Boots the Chemist chain before taking up a scholarship in 1954 to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Jackson made her professional stage debut in Terence Rattigan’s Separate Tables in 1957 while at RADA and appeared in repertory for the next six years. Her film debut was a bit part in This Sporting Life (1963). A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for four years from 1964, she originally joined for director Peter Brook’s ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ season which included Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade (1965) in which she played an inmate of an asylum portraying Charlotte Corday, the assassin of Marat. The production ran on Broadway in 1965 and in Paris (Jackson appeared in the 1967 film version) and Jackson also appeared as Ophelia in Peter Hall’s production of Hamlet in the same year.

Critic Penelope Gilliatt thought Jackson was the only Ophelia she had seen who was ready to play the Prince himself. The RSC’s staging at the Aldwych Theatre of US (1966), a protest play against the Vietnam War, also featured Jackson, and she appeared in its film version, Tell Me Lies. Later that year, she starred in the psychological drama Negatives (1968), which was not a huge financial success, but won her more good reviews.

CRITICAL AND COMMERCIAL SUCCESS Jackson’s starring role in Ken Russell’s film of Women in Love (1969) led to her winning her first Academy Award for Best Actress. Brian McFarlane, the main author of The Encyclopedia of British Film, has written: “Her blazing intelligence, sexual challenge and abrasiveness were at the service of a superbly written role in a film with a passion rare in the annals of British cinema.” In the process of gaining funding for The Music Lovers (1970) from United Artists, Russell explained it as “the story of a homosexual who marries a nymphomaniac”, the couple being the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) and Antonina Miliukova played by Jackson.

This film received mixed reviews in the U.S.: the anonymous reviewer in Variety wrote of the two principals “Their performances are more dramatically bombastic than sympathetic, or sometimes even believable”. Jackson was initially interested in the role of Sister Jeanne in The Devils (1971), Russell’s next film, but turned it down after script rewrites and deciding that she did not wish to play a third neurotic character in a row.

Glenda-Jackson-theatre-actor-elizabeth-theatregold In order to play Queen Elizabeth I in the BBC’s serial Elizabeth R (1971), Jackson had her head shaved. After the series was shown on PBS in the US, Jackson received two Primetime Emmy Awards for her performance. She also portrayed Queen Elizabeth in the film Mary, Queen of Scots, and gained a BAFTA for her role in John Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday (both 1971). In that year British exhibitors voted her the 6th most popular star at the British box office, and she appeared in a comedy sketch as Cleopatra for The Morecambe and Wise Show including delivering the line “All men are fools and what makes them so is having beauty like what I have got.”

Filmmaker Melvin Frank saw her comedic potential on the Morecambe and Wise Show and offered her the lead female role in his next project. She gained a second Academy Award for Best Actress for A Touch of Class (1973). She continued to work in the theatre, and returned to the RSC to play the lead role in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. A later film version directed by Nunn was released as Hedda (1975) for which Jackson was nominated for an Oscar. In 1978, she scored box office success in the United States in the romantic comedy House Calls, which co-starred Walter Matthau. Jackson and Matthau teamed again in the comedy Hopscotch (1980), which was a mild success, but not as popular as expected.

For her 1980 appearance on The Muppet Show, she told the producers that she would perform any material they liked; this turned out to be a role where she has a delusion that she is a pirate captain who hijacks the Muppet Theatre as her ship.

LATER ACTING CAREER In 1985, she appeared on Broadway as Nina Leeds in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude at the Nederlander Theatre in a production which had originated in London the previous year and ran for eight weeks.[3] John Beaufort for The Christian Science Monitor wrote: “Bravura is the inevitable word for Miss Jackson’s display of feminine wiles and brilliant technique.”

Frank Rich, in The New York Times thought Jackson, “with her helmet of hair and gashed features”, when Leeds is a young woman, “looks like a cubist portrait of Louise Brooks”, and later when the character has aged several decades, is “mesmerizing as a Zelda Fitzgeraldesque neurotic, a rotting and spiteful middle-aged matron and, finally, a spent, sphinx-like widow happily embracing extinction.” Herbert Wise directed a British television version of O’Neill’s drama which was first broadcast in the US as part of PBS’s American Playhouse in January 1988.

In 1989, Jackson appeared in Ken Russell’s The Rainbow, playing Anna Brangwen, mother of Gudrun, the part which had won her her first Academy Award twenty years earlier. Also in that year she played Martha in a Los Angeles production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Doolittle Theatre (now the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre). Directed by the playwright himself, this staging featured John Lithgow as George. Dan Sullivan in the Los Angeles Times wrote that Jackson and Lithgow performed “with the assurance of dedicated character assassins, not your hire-and-salary types” with the actors being able to display their character’s capacity for antipathy.

Albee was disappointed with this production, pointing to Jackson who he thought “had retreated back to the thing she can do very well, that ice cold performance. I don’t know whether she got scared, but in rehearsal she was being Martha, and the closer we got to opening the less Martha she was!”.

She performed the lead role in Howard Barker’s Scenes from an Execution as Galactia, a sixteenth century female Venetian artist, at the Almeida Theatre in 1990. It was an adaptation of Barker’s 1984 radio play in which Jackson had played the same role.

In 2015 Jackson returned to acting following a 23-year absence, having retired from politics. She appeared in the play Blood Sex and Money by Émile Zola, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, taking the role of Dide, the ancient matriarch of the Rougon-Macquart family. Never one to be scared,she returned to the stage at the end of 2016, playing the title role in Shakespeare’s King Lear at the Old Vic Theatre in London, in a production running from October 25 to December 3. Jackson was nominated for Best Actress at the Olivier Awards for her role, but ultimately lost out to Billie Piper. She did, however, win the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at the 2017 Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her performance in King Lear at the Old Vic. In 2018, Jackson returned to Broadway in a revival of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, winning the 2018 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

POLITICAL CAREER Jackson retired from acting in order to stand for election to the House of Commons in the 1992 general election, subsequently becoming the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate. She has stated that she felt Britain was being “destroyed” by the policies of Thatcher and the Conservative government, so that she was willing to do “anything that was legal” to oppose her.

Following a period as shadow minister for transport, following the 1997 general election, she was appointed as parliamentary under secretary of state (a junior minister) in the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair, with responsibility for London Transport, a post from which she resigned in 1999 before an unsuccessful attempt to be nominated as the Labour Party candidate for the election of the first Mayor of London in 2000. 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 became a regular critic of Blair over his plans to introduce higher education tuition fees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 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 was generally considered to be a traditional left-winger, often disagreeing with the dominant Blairite governing Third Way faction in the Labour Party. Jackson is also a republican.

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 did 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.

Her constituency boundaries changed for the 2010 general election. The Gospel Oak and Highgate wards became part of Holborn & St Pancras, and the new Hampstead & Kilburn constituency switched into Brent to include Brondesbury, Kilburn and Queens Park wards (from the old Brent East and Brent South seats). On 6 May 2010, Jackson was elected as the MP for the new Hampstead and Kilburn constituency with a margin of 42 votes over Conservative Chris Philp, with the Liberal Democrat candidate Edward Fordham less than a thousand votes behind them. She had the second closest result and second smallest majority of any MP in the 2010 election.

In June 2011, Jackson announced that, presuming the Parliament elected in 2010 lasted until 2015, she would not seek re-election. She explained “I will be almost 80 and by then it will be time for someone else to have a turn”. The eventual election was held two days before her 79th birthday.

In April 2013, Jackson gave a speech in parliament following the death of Margaret Thatcher. She accused Thatcher of treating “vices as virtues” and stated that because of Thatcherism England was susceptible to unprecedented unemployment rates and homelessness.

Another speech of Jackson’s went viral in June 2014 when she gave a scathing assessment of Iain Duncan Smith’s tenure as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, telling him that he was responsible for the “destruction of the welfare state and the total and utter incompetence of his department.”

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PERSONAL LIFE AND HONOURS Jackson has a son, Dan Hodges, born in 1969 from her marriage to Roy Hodges; he has worked as a Labour Party advisor and commentator, and a well-known political blogger who describes himself as a “Blairite cuckoo.” She was five months pregnant when filming on Women in Love was completed. Her marriage to Hodges lasted from 1958 until their divorce in 1976.

In 1978, she was awarded a CBE.

FILMOGRAPHY FILM Year Title Role Notes 1963 This Sporting Life Singer at Party Uncredited 1967 Marat/Sade Charlotte Corday 1968 Negatives Vivien 1969 Women in Love Gudrun Brangwen 1971 Music Lovers, TheThe Music Lovers Antonina Miliukova 1971 Sunday Bloody Sunday Alex Greville 1971 Boy Friend, TheThe Boy Friend Rita Monroe 1971 Mary, Queen of Scots Queen Elizabeth I 1972 Triple Echo, TheThe Triple Echo Alice 1973 Bequest to the Nation Lady Hamilton AKA The Nelson Affair 1973 Touch of Class, AA Touch of Class Vickie Allessio 1973 Devil Is a Woman, TheThe Devil Is a Woman Sister Geraldine 1975 Maids, TheThe Maids Solange 1975 Romantic Englishwoman, TheThe Romantic Englishwoman Elizabeth Fielding 1975 Hedda Hedda Gabler 1976 Incredible Sarah, TheThe Incredible Sarah Sarah Bernhardt 1977 Nasty Habits Sister Alexandra 1978 House Calls Ann Atkinson 1978 Stevie Stevie Smith 1978 Class of Miss MacMichael, TheThe Class of Miss MacMichael Conor MacMichael 1979 Lost and Found Patricia Brittenham 1980 Health Isabella Garnell 1980 Hopscotch Isobel von Schonenberg 1982 Return of the Soldier, TheThe Return of the Soldier Margaret Grey 1982 Giro City Sophie 1985 Turtle Diary Neaera Duncan 1987 Beyond Therapy Charlotte 1988 Business as Usual Babs Flynn 1988 Salome’s Last Dance Herodias / Lady Alice 1989 Rainbow, TheThe Rainbow Anna Brangwen 1989 Doombeach Miss 1990 King of the Wind Queen Caroline TELEVISION Year Title Role Notes 1957–61 ITV Play of the Week Iris Jones / Jurywoman 2 episodes 1963 Z-Cars Hospital Nurse / WPC Fernley 2 episodes 1965–68 Wednesday Play, TheThe Wednesday Play Cathy / Julie 2 episodes 1967 Half Hour Story Claire Foley Episode: “Which of These Two Ladies Is He Married To?” 1969 ITV Sunday Night Theatre Marina Palek Episode: “Salve Regina” 1970 Play of the Month Margaret Schlegel Episode: “Howards End” 1971 Elizabeth R Queen Elizabeth I TV miniseries; 6 episodes 1971–74 The Morecambe & Wise Show Herself 4 episodes 1980 The Muppet Show Herself Episode: “Glenda Jackson” 1980 The Morecambe & Wise Show Woman Kissed by Eric Episode: “1980 Christmas Show” 1981 Patricia Neal Story, TheThe Patricia Neal Story Patricia Neal TV film 1984 Sakharov Yelena Bonner (Sakharova) TV film 1988 American Playhouse Nina Leeds Episode: “Strange Interlude” 1990 Carol & Company Dr. Doris Kruber Episode: “Kruber Alert” 1990 T.Bag’s Christmas Ding Dong Vanity Bag TV film 1991 Murder of Quality, AA Murder of Quality Ailsa Brimley TV film 1991 House of Bernarda Alba, TheThe House of Bernarda Alba Bernarda Alba TV film 1992 Secret Life of Arnold Bax, TheThe Secret Life of Arnold Bax Harriet Cohen TV film THEATRE

Year Title Role Venue 1964 Marat/Sade Charlotte Corday Aldwych Theatre 1965 Martin Beck Theatre 1965 Hamlet Ophelia Aldwych Theatre 1966 US Protestor Aldwych Theatre 1975 Hedda Gabler Hedda Gabler Aldwych Theatre 1977 Stevie Stevie Smith Vaudeville Theatre 1978 Antony and Cleopatra Cleopatra Aldwych Theatre 1980 Rose Rose Duke of York’s Theatre 1981 Cort Theatre 1984 Strange Interlude Nina Leeds Duke of York’s Theatre 1985 Nederlander Theatre 1988 Macbeth Lady Macbeth Mark Hellinger Theatre 1989 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Martha Doolittle Theatre 1990 Scenes from an Execution Galactia Almeida Theatre 2016 King Lear King Lear The Old Vic 2018 Three Tall Women A John Golden Theatre 2019 King Lear King Lear Cort Theatre AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS Year Award Category Production Result 1965 Tony Award Best Featured Actress in a Play Marat/Sade Nominated 1970 British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Leading Role Women in Love Nominated 1971 Academy Award Best Actress Won National Board of Review Best Actress Won National Society of Film Critics Award Best Actress Won New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Actress Won Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated Laurel Awards Laurel Award for Best Female Dramatic Performance Nominated British Academy Television Awards Best Actress Play of the Month (Howards End) Nominated 1972 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Elizabeth R Won Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Nominated Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series Won British Academy Television Awards Best Actress Nominated Academy Award Best Actress Sunday Bloody Sunday Nominated British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Leading Role Won David di Donatello Best Actress (shared with Vanessa Redgrave) Mary, Queen of Scots Won Evening Standard British Film Awards Best Actress Won Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated 1974 Academy Award Best Actress A Touch of Class Won Evening Standard British Film Awards Best Actress Won Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Won San Sebastián International Film Festival San Sebastián Prize for Best Actress Won New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Actress 2nd place British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Leading Role Nominated 1976 Academy Award Best Actress Hedda Nominated David di Donatello Best Foreign Actress (tied with Isabelle Adjani for The Story of Adele H.) Won Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated 1977 The Incredible Sarah Nominated Laurence Olivier Award Actress of the Year in a New Play Stevie Nominated 1978 Montreal World Film Festival Best Actress Stevie Won 1979 Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated Laurence Olivier Award Actress of the Year in a Revival Antony and Cleopatra Nominated 1980 Actress of the Year in a New Play Rose Nominated 1981 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Nominated National Board of Review Best Actress Stevie Won New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Actress Won 1982 Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film The Patricia Neal Story Nominated Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special Nominated 1984 CableACE Awards Actress in a Movie or Miniseries Sakharov Won Golden Globe Award Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated Laurence Olivier Award Actress of the Year in a Revival Strange Interlude Nominated 1985 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Nominated 1988 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play Macbeth Nominated Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Nominated 1992 CableACE Awards Actress in a Dramatic Series The Secret Life of Arnold Bax Won 2006 Ibsen Centennial Commemoration Award Won 2017 Evening Standard Theatre Awards Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress King Lear Won Laurence Olivier Award Best Actress Nominated 2018 Tony Award Best Actress in a Play Three Tall Women Won Drama Desk Award Outstanding Actress in a Play Won Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Actress in a Play Won Drama League Award Distinguished Performance Won