Glenda Jackson

Glenda May Jackson was born on 9 May 1936 at 151 Market Street in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, and died on 15 June 2023. Her mother named her after Hollywood film star Glenda Farrell. Shortly after her birth, the family relocated to Hoylake on the Wirral, where Jackson grew up in a two-up two-down house with an outside toilet at 21 Lake Place. Her father Harry worked as a builder, and her mother Joan performed multiple jobs including shop work, pub service, and domestic cleaning. The eldest of four daughters, Jackson attended Holy Trinity Church of England and Cathcart Street primary schools before moving on to West Kirby County Grammar School for Girls. During her teens she participated in the Townswomen's Guild drama group, and in 1952 she made her first acting appearance in J. B. Priestley's Mystery of Greenfingers with the YMCA Players in Hoylake. After two years working at Boots the Chemists, she won a scholarship in 1954 to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, beginning her studies there in early 1955.

Jackson made her professional stage debut in January 1957 in Ted Willis's Doctor in the House at the Connaught Theatre in Worthing. From 1958 to 1961 she experienced roughly two and a half years during which she was unable to find acting work, taking on jobs that included waitressing, clerical work, answering phones for a theatrical agent, and working at British Home Stores. She also served as a Bluecoat at Butlin's Pwllheli holiday resort in North West Wales. She eventually returned to repertory theatre in Dundee and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for four years beginning in 1963, originally as part of director Peter Brook's Theatre of Cruelty season.

Her Broadway career spanned 1965 to 2019. Within the RSC, she originated the role of Charlotte Corday in Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade — full title The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade — in which she played an inmate of an insane asylum portraying the assassin of Jean-Paul Marat. The production transferred to Broadway in 1965 and also ran in Paris; Jackson reprised the role in the 1967 film version. Her Broadway performance earned her a Tony Award nomination. She also appeared that same year as Ophelia in Peter Hall's production of Hamlet, with critic Penelope Gilliatt remarking that Jackson was the only Ophelia she had seen who seemed ready to play the Prince himself. Jackson subsequently appeared on Broadway in Rose, Macbeth, Three Tall Women, and King Lear, among other productions.

Her screen career brought her significant recognition across film and television. Her starring role in Ken Russell's Women in Love (1969) earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress, which she did not collect in person due to work commitments. She won the award a second time for A Touch of Class (1973), again absent from the ceremony. Additional notable films include Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) — for which she received both an Academy Award nomination and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role — Hedda (1975), The Incredible Sarah (1976), House Calls (1978), Stevie (1978), and Hopscotch (1980). On television, she shaved her head to portray Queen Elizabeth I in the BBC serial Elizabeth R (1971), a performance that earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards after the series aired on PBS in the United States. She later received both the BAFTA Award and the International Emmy Award for her performance in Elizabeth Is Missing (2019).

Jackson received five Laurence Olivier Award nominations for West End roles in Stevie (1977), Antony and Cleopatra (1979), Rose (1980), Strange Interlude (1984), and King Lear (2016). Her role in King Lear marked her return to acting after a 25-year absence from the stage, and she reprised it on Broadway in 2019. On Broadway, she received Tony Award nominations for Marat/Sade (1966), Rose (1981), Strange Interlude (1985), and Macbeth (1988). In 2018 she won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for the revival of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, the same year she received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. Her accolades across stage, film, and television — including two Academy Awards, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award — placed her among the rare performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. She also holds two BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

In 1992 Jackson transitioned from acting to politics, winning election as a Labour Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Highgate. She served in that constituency until 2010, during which time she held the position of junior transport minister from 1997 to 1999 during the first Blair ministry. Following boundary changes, she represented Hampstead and Kilburn from 2010 to 2015. At the 2010 general election, her majority of 42 votes — confirmed after a recount — was the narrowest margin of victory in Great Britain. She stood down at the 2015 general election and returned to acting, ultimately bringing her stage career full circle with her Broadway appearance in King Lear in 2019.