Jackson transitioned her career to politics from 1992 to 2015, and was elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate at the1992 general election. She was a junior transport minister from 1997 to 1999 during thefirst Blair ministry; she later became critical ofTony Blair. After constituency boundary changes, she represented Hampstead and Kilburn from 2010. At the2010 general election, her majority of 42 votes, confirmed after a recount, was the narrowest margin of victory in Great Britain.[3][4] Jackson stood down at the2015 general election and returned to acting.
Glenda May Jackson was born at 151 Market Street inBirkenhead, Cheshire, on 9 May 1936. Her mother named her after theHollywood film starGlenda Farrell.[5] Shortly after her birth, the family moved toHoylake, also on theWirral.[6] Her family was very poor, and lived in atwo-up two-down house with an outside toilet at 21 Lake Place. Her father Harry was a builder, while her mother Joan (née Pearce) worked in a local shop, pulled pints in a pub and was a domestic cleaner.[7][8][9]
In January 1957, Jackson made her professional stage debut inTed Willis'sDoctor in the House at theConnaught Theatre inWorthing.[15] This was followed byTerence Rattigan'sSeparate Tables, while Jackson was still at RADA,[16] and she began appearing in repertory theatre.[17] She was also a stage manager at Crewe in repertory theatre.[9]
From 1958 to 1961, Jackson went through a period of two and a half years in which she was unable to find acting work. She unsuccessfully auditioned for theRoyal Shakespeare Company (RSC), and undertook what she later described as "a series of soul-destroying jobs". This included waitressing atThe 2i's Coffee Bar, clerical work for a largeCity of London firm, answering phones for a theatrical agent, and a role atBritish Home Stores. She also worked as a Bluecoat atButlin's Pwllheli holiday resort on theLlŷn Peninsula inNorth West Wales, where her new husband and fellow actor Roy Hodges was aRedcoat. Jackson eventually returned to repertory theatre inDundee, but worked in bars in between acting jobs.[18]
The RSC's staging at theAldwych Theatre ofUS (1966), a protest play against theVietnam War, also featured Jackson, and she appeared in its film version,Tell Me Lies.[22] Later that year, she starred in the psychological dramaNegatives (1968), which was not a huge financial success, but won her more good reviews.
Jackson's starring role inKen Russell's film adaptation ofD. H. Lawrence'sWomen in Love (1969) led to her firstAcademy Award for Best Actress.Brian McFarlane, the main author ofThe Encyclopedia of British Film, wrote: "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."[23] In the process of gaining funding forThe Music Lovers (1970) fromUnited Artists, Russell explained it as "the story of a homosexual who marries anymphomaniac",[24] the couple being the composerPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) andAntonina Miliukova, played by Jackson. The film received mixed reviews in the US; the anonymous reviewer inVariety wrote of the two principals, "Their performances are more dramatically bombastic than sympathetic, or sometimes even believable."[25]The Music Lovers was a box-office success in Europe, reaching No. 1 in the UK's weekly rankings in March 1971. It was the first of four films starring Jackson which topped the box-office charts in the UK.[26][27] Jackson was initially interested in the role of Sister Jeanne inThe 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.[28]
Jackson made the first of several appearances withMorecambe and Wise in their 1971 Christmas special. Appearing in a comedy sketch asCleopatra for the BBCMorecambe and Wise Show, she delivered the line, "All men are fools and what makes them so is having beauty like what I have got."[33] Her later appearances included a song-and-dance routine (where she was pushed offstage by Eric), a period drama aboutQueen Victoria, and another musical routine (in theirThames Television series) where she was elevated ten feet in the air by a misbehaving swivel chair.[34][35] Jackson and Wise also appeared in a 1981 information film for theBlood Transfusion Service.[36]
FilmmakerMelvin Frank saw Jackson's comedy skills in theMorecambe and Wise Show and offered her the lead female role in his romantic comedyA Touch of Class (1973), co-starringGeorge Segal, which was a UK box-office No. 1 in June 1973.[27] In February 1974, Jackson's role in the film won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She continued to work in the theatre, returning to the RSC for the lead inHenrik Ibsen'sHedda Gabler. A later film version directed byTrevor Nunn was released asHedda (1975), for which Jackson was nominated for an Oscar. InThe New York Times,Vincent Canby wrote: "This version ofHedda Gabler is all Miss Jackson's Hedda and, I must say, great fun to watch ... Miss Jackson's technical virtuosity is particularly suited to a character like Hedda. Her command of her voice and her body, as well as the Jackson mannerisms, have the effect of separating the actress from the character in a very curious way."[37]
In 1978, she starred in the romantic comedyHouse Calls, co-starringWalter Matthau, with the film spending two weeks at No. 1 in the US box-office rankings.[38][39][40]House Calls was the biggest box-office hit of her career in the United States.[41] That year, she was awarded aCBE.[9] In 1979, she reunited with herA Touch of Class colleagues Segal and Frank for the romantic comedyLost and Found.[42][43] Jackson and Matthau teamed again in the comedyHopscotch (1980), which debuted at No. 1 in its opening weekend at the US box office, also spending its second week in the top spot.[44][45][46]
For her 1980 appearance onThe Muppet Show, Jackson told the producers she would perform any material they liked. In her appearance, she has a delusion that she is a pirate captain who takes over the Muppet Theatre as her ship.[47] Fifteen years after the New York engagement ofMarat/Sade, Jackson returned to Broadway inAndrew Davies'sRose (1981) oppositeJessica Tandy; both actresses received Tony nominations for their roles.[48] In September 1983, The Glenda Jackson Theatre in Birkenhead was named in her honour. The theatre was attached toWirral Metropolitan College, but demolished in 2005 following the establishment of a purpose-built site for students.[49]
In 1985, she played Nina Leeds in a revival ofEugene O'Neill'sStrange Interlude at theNederlander Theatre in a production which had originated in London the previous year and ran for eight weeks.[8] John Beaufort forThe Christian Science Monitor wrote: "Bravura is the inevitable word for Miss Jackson's display of feminine wiles and brilliant technique."[50]Frank Rich inThe New York Times thought Jackson, "with her helmet of hair and gashed features", when Leeds is a young woman, "looks like a cubist portrait ofLouise Brooks", and later when the character has aged several decades, is "mesmerizing as aZelda Fitzgeraldesque neurotic, a rotting and spiteful middle-aged matron and, finally, a spent,sphinx-like widow happily embracing extinction."[51]Herbert Wise directed the drama on television where it was first broadcast in the US as part of PBS'sAmerican Playhouse in 1988.[52]
In November 1984, Jackson appeared in the title role ofRobert David MacDonald's English translation ofRacine'sPhèdre, titledPhedra, atThe Old Vic. The play was designed and directed byPhilip Prowse, andRobert Eddison playedTheramenes.[53][54]The Daily Telegraph's John Barber wrote of her performance, "Wonderfully impressive ... The actress finds a voice as jagged and hoarse as her torment".Benedict Nightingale in theNew Statesman was intrigued that Jackson did not go in for nobility, but played Racine's feverish queen as if to say that "being skewered in the guts byCupid is an ugly, bitter, humiliating business".[55] The costume which Prowse designed for Jackson's performance is in theVictoria and Albert Museum,[56] and iconic photographs of Jackson in the role can be found online.[57][58]
In 1989, Jackson appeared in Ken Russell'sThe Rainbow, playing Anna Brangwen, mother of Gudrun, the part for which she had won her first Academy Award twenty years earlier. The same year, she played Martha in a Los Angeles production ofEdward Albee'sWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Doolittle Theatre (now theRicardo Montalbán Theatre). Directed by the playwright himself, this staging featuredJohn Lithgow as George.Dan Sullivan in theLos 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.[59] 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!"[60] She performed the lead role inHoward Barker'sScenes from an Execution as Galactia, a sixteenth-century femaleVenetian artist, at theAlmeida Theatre in 1990.[61] It was an adaptation of Barker's 1984 radio play in which Jackson had played the same role.[62]
In 2015, Jackson returned to acting following a 23-year absence, having retired from politics. She took the lead role of Dide, the ancient matriarch, inBlood, Sex and Money, aradio drama series based on theLes Rougon-Macquart novel series byÉmile Zola and aired onRadio 4 from November 2015 to October 2016.[63] She returned to the stage at the end of 2016, playingthe title role inWilliam Shakespeare'sKing Lear at theOld Vic Theatre in London, in a production running from 25 October to 3 December. Jackson was nominated for Best Actress at theOlivier Awards for her role but ultimately lost out toBillie Piper. She won theNatasha Richardson Award for Best Actress at the 2017Evening Standard Theatre Awards for her performance.[64] Dominic Cavendish ofThe Telegraph wrote, "Glenda Jackson is tremendous as King Lear. No ifs, no buts. In returning to the stage at the age of 80, 25 years after her last performance (as theClytemnestra-like Christine inEugene O'Neill'sMourning Becomes Electra at theGlasgow Citizens), she has pulled off one of those 11th-hour feats of human endeavour that will surely be talked about for years to come by those who see it."[65]
In 2018, Jackson returned toBroadway in a revival ofEdward Albee'sThree Tall Women acting alongsideLaurie Metcalf andAllison Pill.[66] The role earned her theTony Award for Best Actress in a Play.[67]Marilyn Stasio ofVariety wrote, "Watching Glenda Jackson in theatrical flight is like looking straight into the sun. Her expressive face registers her thoughts while guarding her feelings. But it's the voice that really thrills. Deeply pitched and clarion clear, it's the commanding voice of stern authority. Don't mess with this household god or she'll turn you to stone."[68] Jackson returned to the title role ofKing Lear on Broadway in a production that opened in April 2019.[69] DirectorSam Gold described her portrayal of Lear inThe New York Times Magazine: "She is going to go through something most people don't go through. You're all invited. Glenda Jackson is going to endure this, and you're going to witness it."[70] In 2019, after a 27-year absence, Jackson returned to television drama, portraying an elderly grandmother struggling with dementia inElizabeth Is Missing onBBC One, based on the novel of the same name byEmma Healey, for which she won theBAFTA TV Award for Best Actress andInternational Emmy Award for Best Actress.[71][72] From February 2020 to January 2022, she starred in the lead role of Constance Sterling in the radio drama seriesFault Lines: Money, Sex and Blood for Radio 4, another adaptation ofLes Rougon-Macquart.[73]
In February 2021, it was reported that Jackson would star withMichael Caine inThe Great Escaper, a film telling the true story of Bernard Jordan's escape from his care home to commemorate the 70th anniversary of theD-Day landings in France. Caine would play Jordan, with Jackson as his wife Rene.[74] Caine and Jackson previously starred together inThe Romantic Englishwoman (1975).[75] Jackson had completed filming onThe Great Escaper in September 2022; it was to be her last film.[76][77][78] It was released on 6 October 2023.[79][80] In July 2022, theBritish Film Institute celebrated her film and television career with a month-long retrospective season at theBFI Southbank in London. As well as screenings of her work, the programme includedGlenda Jackson in Conversation, in which she was interviewed about her career live on stage by broadcasterJohn Wilson.[81][82][83]
Jackson joined theLabour Party in the early 1950s, at the age of 16.[84] Her earlier campaigns were not party political. In 1978, she was one of the public figures who lent their name as a sponsor to theAnti-Nazi League.[85] The same year, she appeared in a print advertisement forOxfam.[86] Jackson was on the executive of the National Association of Voluntary Hostels, and spoke at rallies for the housing charityShelter. Human rights were also an area of interest, and she joined a demonstration outside the Indonesian Embassy to protest against the detention of political prisoners. She was involved in children's charities, as president of the Toy Libraries Association and as a programme narrator forUNICEF. She also gave time and money to a home for emotionally disturbed children inBerkshire run by former actressCoral Atkins.[87]
Jackson's name was linked to several parliamentary seats over the years; she was approached by aConstituency Labour Party (CLP) in Bristol to stand at the1979 general election, but this did not materialise.[87][note 1] An approach was also made to her about the possibility of being a candidate for themarginal Welsh seat ofBridgend at the1983 general election, which she turned down to pursue a humanities degree atThames Polytechnic. Though she was seen in the refectory at Thames a few times, she dropped out before starting the course.[88] In that election, she supportedPaul Boateng and Ian Wilson, Labour's candidates forHertfordshire West andWatford, respectively. She was also a member of the Arts for Labour group.[90]
In December 1989, it was rumoured that Jackson had been approached by two branches ofLeeds East CLP to succeed their Labour MP,Denis Healey. According to her biographerChris Bryant, she turned down this opportunity. In late 1989, two members ofHampstead and Highgate CLP got in touch with Jackson about the possibility of standing there. Despite having never been to a Labour ward meeting, she won over the local party, and triumphed in the ballot, which took place on 28 March 1990. Jackson defeated three candidates who were all politically to her left:Kate Allen (Ken Livingstone's partner and aCamden councillor), economic history lecturer Sarah Palmer (daughter of former Labour MPArthur Palmer) and Maureen Robinson, a previous Mayor of Camden.[93][94][95]
Jackson later stated that she felt Britain was being "destroyed" by the policies of the thenprime minister of the United Kingdom,Margaret Thatcher, and the Conservative government, so that she was willing to do "anything that was legal" to oppose them.[96] In November 1990, Thatcher stood down as prime minister andleader of the Conservative Party. On Thatcher's death, Jackson protested Parliament's tributes to that legacy.[97]
Jackson retired from acting in 1991 to devote herself to politics full-time as theprospective parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Highgate.[98] Although her party did not win the1992 general election, as had been speculated, there was an above average swing to Labour in her constituency, and she gained the seat, narrowly beating the Conservative candidateOliver Letwin, a former adviser to Thatcher.[99][100][101] Jackson, whose campaign had been sponsored by the train drivers' union,ASLEF, was the first of Labour's 1992 intake to join the front bench when she became shadow transport minister in July 1996.[102][103]
As a high-profile backbencher, Jackson became a regular critic of Blair over his plans to introducehigher education tuition fees in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. She also called for him to resign following the Judicial Enquiry byLord Hutton in 2003 surrounding the reasons for going towar in Iraq and the death of government adviserDavid Kelly.[108][109][110][111] At the subsequent2005 general election, she held her seat, albeit with a reduced majority and a swing to the Conservatives, who had selected local councillorPiers Wauchope.[112] By October 2005, her disagreements with Blair's leadership swelled to a point where she threatened to challenge the prime minister as astalking horse candidate in a leadership contest if he did not stand down within a reasonable amount of time.[113] On 31 October 2006, Jackson was one of 12 Labour MPs to backPlaid Cymru and theScottish National Party's call for an inquiry into theIraq War.[114]
Her constituency boundaries changed for the2010 general election. TheGospel Oak andHighgate wards became part ofHolborn and St Pancras, and the newHampstead and Kilburn constituency took in territory fromBrent to include Brondesbury, Kilburn and Queens Park wards (from the oldBrent East andBrent South seats). On 6 May 2010, Jackson was elected as the MP for the new Hampstead and Kilburn constituency by a margin of 42 votes over ConservativeChris Philp, with theLiberal Democrat candidate Edward Fordham less than a thousand votes behind them. She had the closest result in England, and the second smallest majority of any MP at the 2010 election.[115][116][117] Jackson's seat was marginal for most of her time in politics, with the 1997 election being the only occasion on which she received an absolute majority of votes cast in the constituency.[105]
In June 2011, Jackson announced that, presuming theUK Parliament elected in 2010 lasted until 2015, she would not seek re-election. She stated: "I will be almost 80 and by then it will be time for someone else to have a turn."[118] The eventual election was held two days before her 79th birthday, 23 years after she had first entered theHouse of Commons. In April 2012, theLondon Evening Standard reported that, in 2007–2008 she claimed £136,793 in allowances despite turning up for only 27 per cent of votes and speaking in just two debates, and that in 2011 she had to repay more than £8,000 in expenses she had wrongly claimed.[119]
On 10 April 2013, Jackson delivered a speech in the House of Commons following thedeath of Margaret Thatcher, which subsequently went viral.[120] She accusedThatcherism of treating "vices as virtues" and stated that, because of Thatcherism, the UK was susceptible to unprecedented unemployment rates and homelessness, chronically underfunded schools and public services, and the closure of mental hospitals.[121][122] Another speech of Jackson's went viral in June 2014 when she gave a scathing assessment ofIain Duncan Smith's tenure as Work and Pensions Secretary, telling him that he was responsible for the "destruction of the welfare state and the total and utter incompetence of his department".[123][124]
Jackson was a borderlinesocialist, and was generally considered to be a traditionalleftist during her political career, often disagreeing with the dominantBlairite governingThird Way faction in the Labour Party; she rebelled against her party in parliamentary votes on a number of occasions. She was also opposed to the politics ofArthur Scargill and theMilitant tendency that dominated the party's battles in the 1980s. Jackson labelled Militant andDerek Hatton's politics as "self-indulgent crap", and she sent leaderNeil Kinnock a congratulatory telegram after his high-profile 1985Labour Party Conference speech, in which he criticised the activities of Militant and their allies.[125][126][127] Jackson opposed theBritish monarchy, and was arepublican.[128]The Guardian'sSimon Hattenstone summed up Jackson's views as "traditional Labour, solidarity, feminism".[129] Jackson had been an outspokenfeminist, criticising the lack of gender equality for women.[130]
In the1992 Labour Party leadership election, Jackson supported the successful candidate,John Smith. In the1994 leadership election, she backedTony Blair, who won the contest and subsequently became prime minister.[131] Jackson voiced her support for Blair's successorGordon Brown as prime minister in 2008.[132] Brown appeared with Jackson on a campaign visit for the 2010 general election, with him describing her as "a very close friend".[133] In the2010 leadership election, with Brown having stood down, Jackson voted forDavid Miliband, considered to be more of a political moderate than his younger brother,Ed Miliband, a figure on the party'ssoft left who was ultimately elected as party leader.[134] Following her departure from Parliament, the Labour Party electedJeremy Corbyn as its leader. Jackson stated that she supported him "as a person", and would have nominated him in the2015 leadership election. She qualified her support, adding: "Never in a million years would I have voted for him, though."[129]
In the1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, Jackson voted against Britain continuing in theEuropean Economic Community. She subsequently changed her mind on the issue, and supported Britain remaining in theEuropean Union in the2016 Brexit referendum.[135][109] Despite this, she disagreed with calls for a second vote, such as byPeople's Vote. To this effect, she stated her admiration for the then prime ministerTheresa May; when this subject matter was queried by the interviewer,The Guardian'sEmma Brockes, Jackson responded: "I've certainly admired her in the way she has handled herself overBrexit, yes! I do admire her for her tenacity, trying to deliver the referendum result to the people of our country, even though I disapproved of it."[109][136]
Interviewed in July 2020, shortly afterKeir Starmer had taken over as party leader from Corbyn, Jackson declared herself happy with him in the role.[137] In July 2022, she commented on Starmer, saying: "I just wish Keir would get someone to help him develop his voice." She called it "one of his big drawbacks".[82] That same month, she said that Parliament had not been welcoming to women when she was voted in during the1992 general election.[138]
In 1957, Jackson met Roy Hodges, a stage manager and fellow actor in their repertory theatre company. The pair soon embarked upon a relationship.[139][140] Jackson and Hodges were married on 2 August 1958 at St Marylebone Register Office in London.[141] Their son,Dan, was born in 1969; Jackson was six months pregnant when filming onWomen in Love was completed.[142] Daniel is a former Labour Party adviser and commentator, who works as a newspaper columnist forThe Mail on Sunday.[143][144] When told by her son that he was going to write for a Conservative newspaper, Jackson replied, "Well, I'll have to emigrate!"[136]
Jackson's marriage was running into difficulties by the early 1970s, and in 1975, she began an affair with Andy Phillips, the lighting director for the production ofHedda Gabler in which she was starring at the time.[145] Hodges sued Jackson for divorce on the grounds of her adultery with Phillips in November that year, and they were divorced in 1976.[145][146] Jackson and Phillips were in an on-off relationship until 1981.[147] It was reported in 2016 that she had been "happily single for decades".[129]
During the early years of her career, Jackson and her husband lived inSwiss Cottage, northwest London, an area she would later represent as an MP.[148] In the late 1960s, the pair moved toBlackheath, southeast London.[149] Later, she lived in a basementgranny flat there, with her son, daughter-in-law and grandson upstairs.[109] Jackson listed her interests inWho's Who as cooking, gardening and readingJane Austen.[9]
Jackson died at her Blackheath home on 15 June 2023, at the age of 87 following a brief illness.[79] In tribute to Jackson, on the day of her death, the BBC broadcast a repeat of her interview withJohn Wilson first shown in an edition ofThis Cultural Life in October 2022,[150] followed by the 2019 dramaElizabeth Is Missing.[151]
^Jackson "was approached by a member of the Bristol Labour Party to stand for Parliament in what was a safe Tory constituency."[90] This is most likely to have beenBristol West, as it was the only Conservative-held seat in Bristol prior to the 1979 general election.See alsoPolitics of Bristol § Westminster representation.
^Bryant, Christopher (1999).Glenda Jackson: the biography. London: HarperCollins. pp. 30, 255.ISBN0-00-255911-0.OCLC42790640.
^D. Keith Peacock "Jackson, Glenda [May]" in Colin Chambers (ed)The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre, London: Continuum, 2002 [2005], p.398.
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