Glenda Jackson dead at 87

[Lilith7]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-26234103

[b]"Glenda Jackson, [/b][b]who has died aged 87,[/b] [b]had scant patience for the usual foibles and pretensions of her profession.[/b]

"I regard acting," she once said, "as a serious job for serious-minded people."
Hollywood showered her with admiration and two best actress Oscars. But Jackson was not easily flattered.
Famously prickly, her view of Tinseltown often bordered on contempt. "If I'm too strong for some people," she said, "that's their problem".
And, at the height of her acting power, she gave it all up for a career in politics.

In 1971, having appeared as Elizabeth I in the historically dubious film, Mary, Queen of Scots, she reprised the role in BBC TV's Elizabeth R.

The six-part series saw her play the Virgin Queen from princess to ailing old woman.

At the age of 56, Jackson announced she was quitting acting - to stand as a Labour parliamentary candidate in the 1992 general election.

"The best theatre is trying to tell the truth," she said. "And the best politics is trying to tell the truth."
In an otherwise miserable election for her party, she won a notable victory in Hampstead and Highgate, which had been a Conservative seat for two decades.

But the most controversial moment in her political career came in April 2013, when Parliament was recalled to pay tribute to the former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.

Lady Thatcher had just died. But Jackson saw no reason to rein in her criticism of a woman she believed "had inflicted heinous social, economic and spiritual damage upon the country".


Conservative MPs were furious when the Speaker refused to rule her remarks out of order. One political commentator accused the Labour left of being "petty", "childish" and "self-indulgent" with its ungracious attacks on the Iron Lady's memory. The writer was Jackson's son, Dan Hodges.
Jackson decided not to defend her seat at the 2015 general election. And - at the age of 79 - she returned to acting."

Jackson was winning accolades for her acting work as recently as 2020, when she won a Bafta TV Award for best leading actress for her performance in Elizabeth is Missing, about a woman suffering from dementia.

Shortly before her death, Jackson completed filming The Great Escaper, in which she co-starred with Michael Caine."









https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/j...ed-aged-87

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Dammit.

[Lilith7]

Indeed; she was one of a kind.

[nzoomed]

I cant actually say I had even heard of her, must be a bit before my time.

[Lilith7]

I cant actually say I had even heard of her, must be a bit before my time.

I think her acting & political career was mainly 70s & later. But I do admire her for sticking to her guns about Margaret Thatcher; that can't have been easy.

[R2x1]

"But I do admire her for sticking to her guns about Margaret Thatcher; that can't have been easy. "

It became a lot easier (and safer0 after the Tin Shrew shuffled off this earthly ream.

[Lilith7]

"But I do admire her for sticking to her guns about Margaret Thatcher; that can't have been easy. "

It became a lot easier (and safer0 after the Tin Shrew shuffled off this earthly ream.

Indeed; allegedly, there were several street parties in the north of England - mainly in what had been mining country - to celebrate her death.

As another Neo Liberal enthusiast, its no surprise that Thatcher was widely hated in many former working class areas where there was no longer much in the way of work.