Glenda Jackson the British unquestionable consummate actress of her generation who died last week aged 87 proved that it was possible to achieve remarkable success in totally different careers. As a performer she was one of a handful of actors to achieve the American Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. Then at what many considered was the peak of her career she retired and got herself elected as a member of the British Parliament where she stayed for 23 years.
Then as a mere 79-year-old Jackson returned to the theatre, and never one to take the easy path elected to play the title role in King Lear in both London and on Broadway.
Reading through Jackson’s 70-year extraordinary resume is both enlightenment and exhausting ….. how one person could excel at so much would be hard to believe if it wasn’t there in black and white in front of you. Despite the volume of work, we have absolutely no hesitation in selecting our very favorite Jackson role.
In 1969 the openly gay British filmmaker John Schlesinger won an Academy Award for Midnight Cowboy which portrayed gay men as alienated and self-loathing beings. Two years later with a script by Penelope Gilliat, he made Sunday Bloody Sunday in which Jackson played a divorced recruitment consultant who was having an affair with a free-spirited young bisexual artist (Murray Head). She was not the only person in his life as he was simultaneously having an affair with a Jewish doctor played by Peter Finch.
It was a box office failure in the (still very homophobic) USA but at 25th British Academy Film Awards, the film received eight nominations and won five awards, including Best Actress for Jackson ……and Best Film too.
Maybe it was because this film was based in London my hometown and that it also resounded with my own journey with my sexuality at that time, but if found myself in love with Head (!) but had such total admiration for Jackson. I would see nearly all her films after this, but none ever affected me like this performance of hers
Glenda May Jackson CBE (9 May 1936 – 15 June 2023) R.I.P.
