The only MP to win an entire trophy-cabinet’s worth of prestigious film awards, including two Academy Awards and a BAFTA, Glenda Jackson was never one for going along with “the rules”.
From playing sexually empowered female characters at a time when women were widely portrayed as unassuming and submissive eye-flutterers, to famously turning down the role of M to Pierce Brosnan’s Bond because it was “boring”, Jackson determinedly defied expectations.
She was also the method actor of method actors - the star, who died today aged 87, was celebrated for her incredible performances across both stage and screen, spanning from 1967’s Marat/Sade to Ken Russell’s The Secret Life of Arnold Bax in 1992.
The actress – who recently completed filming The Great Escaper, co-starring with Michael Caine – won huge acclaim for her ability to bring intense emotion to her performances, bringing her characters to life and turning them into film icons.
From Women in Love to Sunday Bloody Sunday, these are the veteran star’s most memorable TV and film performances from her stellar, decades-long career.
Women in Love (1969)
Jackson first became a household name and an “arthouse sex symbol” in her role as the formidable Gudrun Brangwenin.
The film was released when the sexual revolution and the women’s liberation movement were picking up traction, and her character – unpredictable, complex, intelligent, emotional and oozing a subtle sexual confidence – seemed to encompass the moment.
At the time, female sex symbols in film were largely presented as catering to the whims of men, but here Gudrun was the one firmly in the driver’s seat. The role won Jackson her first Oscar, for Best Actress.
Critics praised the role as that of a 1920s English woman who was ahead of her time; Gudrun wanted a meaningful relationship, but not if it meant diminishing herself to make a man feel more “manly” and comfortable.
Elizabeth R (1971)
Learning how to ride side-saddle, fire a bow and arrow, and spending seven months wearing punishingly heavy costumes that restricted her breathing and movement, Jackson truly suffered for her art in this BBC drama.
However, the actress, who also shaved her head and spent hours in a make-up chair at the crack of dawn having her prosthetic makeup done, saw her pain rewarded with an Emmy for the acclaimed six-part series.
Playing Queen Elizabeth I, and showing the character ageing from a teenage girl to an old woman was a defining role in Jackson’s career. She went on to reprise the challenging screen role later that year alongside Vanessa Redgrave in the film Mary, Queen of Scots.
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
Once described by English novelist and film critic Penelope Gilliatt as “the only Ophelia I had ever seen who was capable of playing Hamlet”, Jackson shone in this critically lauded film. She played divorcee Alex Greville – a latter-day Ophelia – who becomes romantically involved with indecisive, bisexual mod artist Bob Elkin (Murray Head), even though she’s fully aware that he’s also intimately involved with middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch).
She triumphed at showing the steely determination of her character who refuses to put up with Elkin’s frustrating indecisiveness. The director John Schlesinger admitted to initially wanting Vanessa Redgrave for the role as he believed Jackson would be “stoic and stagey”. But she won him over in the audition. She ended up bagging an Oscar-nomination for the role, and walked away with a BAFTA for her performance.
Bequest to the Nation (1973)
Reuniting with Peter Finch, in this film adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s classic play of the same name, Jackson fearlessly depicted Emma Hamilton; a drunken harridan who disrupts polite society and mesmerises naval hero Horatio Nelson (Finch).
Jackson is seen swearing like a sailor, flirting shamelessly and having moments of self-awareness as Hamilton, the portrayal of which many critics said was the most arresting depiction of the character to date. Despite that, Jackson dismissed her performance as “rubbishy”.
A Touch of Class (1973)
Director Melvin Frank is said to have been so blown away by Jackson’s comic timing as Cleopatra on The Morecambe and Wise Show that he offered her the role of Vickie Allessio without an audition in this quirky homage. The actress played divorced fashion designer Allessio who conducts an affair with married American executive Steve Blackburn (George Segal), and won a second Oscar for Best Actress in the process.
Jackson is said to have invoked the spirit of Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell; two stars of the early 1940s who were on the big screen when women were expected to be competent, intelligent and able to cope.
A Touch of Class was described by famed critic Roger Ebert as "well deserved" in a film that is "sharp-edged, often very funny dissection of a love affair between two possibly incompatible people."
Nasty Habits (1977)
While the film itself had mixed reviews, Jackson was widely praised for her “dry wit” in this adaptation of Muriel Spark’s bestseller, The Abbess of Crewe – a “Watergate satire”.
The star played the “Nixonian” aspiring head of a Philadelphia convent who organises the theft of incriminating letters sent to Susan Penhaligon, her young rival in a snap election that follows the sudden death of Abbess Edith Evans.
Stevie (1978)
Jackson played poet Stevie Smith and captured her humour, humanity and self-acceptance in this adaptation of Hugh Whitemore’s 1976 stage play of the same name.
The actress had once seen the acclaimed English poet, who died in 1971, perform Not Waving but Drowning at a poetry reading and instantly saw “a very strong woman, tempered in fairly fierce fires” who had “walked through hell many times”.
Jackson was said by one critic to have “poignantly combined idiosyncrasy with perspicacity” in the role.
Business as Usual (1988)
In one of her last notable films, Jackson played the manager of a Liverpool boutique who is sacked after she accuses her company’s regional manager of sexual harassment. What ensues is a battle over equal rights and the sexist treatment of women who dare to speak up. It was also a stark and no-holds barred account of what it was like to be working-class in Margaret Thatcher’s England. Jackson tapped into her own experience of working in Boots to challenge the Thatcherite mentality.
Her performance was warmly received by fans and critics. The Los Angeles Times wrote that “a crisp, warm portrayal of Babs, complete with Liverpudlian accent, typifies the excellence of all the film’s performances from its very large cast."
