Glenda Jackson

Glenda Jackson’s film career shone especially in the 70s, although later it was not one of the most fruitful in terms of media coverage, as the actress retired from cinema in 1992, at the age of 56, to dedicate herself to politics. active in British Parliament, as a member of the Labor Party. In her style – a film star with strong political and social leanings in favor of women’s rights – she bears a striking resemblance to another British actress of the same age, Vanessa Redgrave ., with whom she worked when she was an actress, although it is true that Reagrave’s filmography is much more extensive due to her incessant acting activity. However, Glenda Jackson’s years of career have brought her no less than two Oscars, in addition to two nominations and many other awards, something most big stars cannot boast of.

Glenda May Jackson was born on May 9, 1936 in Cheshire (England). After graduating from school, she went to work in a pharmacy at the age of sixteen. She but she was bored to death and she decided to take a radical turn. At the age of eighteen she was admitted to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and shortly thereafter, at the age of 22, she married Roy Hodges. The marriage had a son, but it ended in divorce in 1976, after almost twenty years of life together.

On stage, his first role was in the play “Mesas separadas”. It was soon seen that Glenda was a friend of unconventional roles, where the woman claimed her leading role in society. Thus, after some brief appearances in television series, she attracted attention in the avant-garde and insane film Marat/Sade (1967). Two years later, she would give the bell with another controversial film, but with a much greater impact: Women in Love , by Ken Russell . The story is based on a novel by DH Lawrence and narrates the vital and loving dissatisfaction of two couples. Glenda Jackson wowed with her role as Gudrun Brangwen and she won the Best Actress Oscar. She would repeat with Ken Russell in Passion for Living(1970), where she played the wife of the Russian composer Tchaikovsky. And her next relevant role brought her another Oscar nomination and it was in Sunday, Damn Sunday (1971), one of the flagship films of what was called Free Cinema, very realistic narratives with a clear social component.

Little by little, Glenda Jackson’s works became more and more defined from the point of view of the female universe. She was involved in the lives of real women or characters from literature who precisely claimed the pre-eminence of the female temperament. Thus, it was Mary Tudor in Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), where she worked with Vanessa Redgrave ; she got into the skin of one of Henrik Ibsen ‘s great creations , in Hedda (1975), an adaptation of the famous “Hedda Gabler” and for whose work she once again opted for an Oscar; she was Admiral Nelson’s lover, Lady Hamilton, in A Hero’s Legacy (1973); she became the tormented British poet Stevie Smith, in Stevie(1978); and she even played real actresses who had led tumultuous lives, such as Sarah Bernhardt, in Sara (1976), or many years later Patricia Neal in The Story of Patricia Neal (1981).

Much earlier, in 1973, Glenda had won her second Oscar, also as a leading actress, thanks to the romantic comedy A Touch of Class , a much kinder film than the previous ones, directed by Melvin Frank . Little by little her films were softening and she stood out more in comedy. Of a pleasant and romantic character is Alegrías de un viudo (1978), with Walter Matthau , an actor with whom she would repeat in An Entanglement for Two (1980); and she was Robert Altman ‘s muse in Three on a Couch (1987). From the 80s, she especially highlights two serious films. The first is Return of the Soldier(1982), a sensitive adaptation of Rebecca West ‘s novel about the traumas of war, and which brings together a great cast that includes Julie Christie , Ann-Margret and Alan Bates . The second film is the television biopic Sakharov (1984), about the life of the famous Russian dissident, Nobel Prize in Physics. Before the end of the decade, the actress gave the last blows of her in the cinema again by the hand of the provocateur Ken Russell , with films like Salome, the price of passion (1988) and The rainbow(1989). But Glenda Jackson’s career was later diluted in some television productions, before giving up film for politics, her other great passion.