British internationally known actress who won a NY Film Classics Award in 1971, an Emmy for “Queen Elizabeth” in 1972, and Oscars in 1970 and 1974. She made her debut in January 1955 in “Rada,” after leaving her job as a chemist. A consummate professional, her skills cover a multitude of different roles from those of cold, sex-starved women to the neurotic, flawed woman, to that of casual nudity.
Jackson is the eldest of four daughters of a bricklayer and a barmaid, raised in the London working class. At 16, she dropped out of school to become a drugstore clerk. Getting into amateur dramatics, she smoothed out her northern accent and won a state scholarship to drama school. Going on to become a member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, she worked steadily from 1965 in theater and from 1966 in films. After the release of “Women in Love,” in November, 1969, she moved into international celebrity.
Deeply involved in politics, Jackson worked actively with the Labour Party from 1981: she phased out of the theater into the role of Member of Parliament in May 1992.
A blunt, opinionated, no-nonsense sort of woman, she insists on keeping her private life completely sacrosanct. She married Roy Hodges in 1958 for 18 years. Their son Daniel is as committed to Labour as his mom. On the night of 2/24/1992, he stood up for two black men who were being taunted in a London pub and in the ensuing fight, he lost his left eye to a broken beer bottle. Two weeks later he was back at his mom’s side, stumping for her election.
A committed feminist and socialist, Jackson puts her all into whatever she tackles. Her ex-husband once said of her, “If Glenda went into crime, she’d become Jack the Ripper; if she went into politics, she’d become prime minister.” Jackson herself has no such ambitions, but does want to make a mark. Appalled at the poverty and crime that she sees in her beloved country, she aims to rectify the plight that she sees as coming from the Thatcher regime.
Link to Wikipedia biography