Oscar winner and former MP Glenda Jackson dies

Oscar-winning actress Glenda Jackson, who enjoyed a second career as a British MP, has died aged 87.

She died at her home in Blackheath, London, after a brief illness, her agent Lionel Larner said.

When she returned to acting in her eighties, she took on a male role and one of theatre's most challenging – that of King Lear – for which she won high praise.

One of four daughters of a bricklayer and a cleaning lady in north-west England, Jackson never forgot her roots even as she made her name as one of the greatest female actors of her generation.

Growing up in Birkenhead, Cheshire, Jackson left school at the age of 15 and found work in a shop, before winning a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

She won her first Academy Award in 1971 as lead actress for her role as a headstrong artist in director Ken Russell's film of DH Lawrence's novel Women in Love.

Her second Oscar came three years later for A Touch of Class, a romantic comedy directed by Melvin Frank in which Jackson played a harried fashion designer caught up in a catastrophic love affair with an American businessman in London.

Despite the successes and awards, including two Emmy Awards and a Tony, she gave up acting for politics and served as a Labour MP for 23 years.

Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, which was Jackson's constituency from 2010 to 2015, paid tribute to her predecessor, describing her as a “very supportive mentor” and “formidable politician”.

"Devastated to hear that my predecessor Glenda Jackson has died," Ms Siddiq said on Twitter.

“A formidable politician, an amazing actress and a very supportive mentor to me. Hampstead and Kilburn will miss you Glenda.”

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's thoughts are with Jackson's friends and family, Downing Street said.

“Obviously, that's extremely sad news and obviously his thoughts will be with her friends and family at this time, but I'm sure we will have more to say,” the Prime Minister's spokesman said.

In 1992, Jackson was elected as the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate and served as a junior transport minister from 1997 to 1999 during Tony Blair's government.

Jackson stood down as an MP at the 2015 general election and returned to acting.

She won a Bafta for best actress in 2019 for her role in Elizabeth Is Missing, which followed the story of a woman with dementia.

She recently completed filming The Great Escaper, in which she stars alongside Michael Caine.