click any photo to enlarge
Sharing the celebrations as she does with another weird assortment including Alan Bennett, Candice Bergen, Billy Joel, J. M. Barrie, Joan Sims, Howard Carter, Richard Adams, Albert Finney, Dave Gahan, Roger Hargreaves, Vince Cable, Paul Heaton and Anne Sofie von Otter, the magnificent Glenda Jackson blows out 85 candles on her cake today!
A remarkable woman all round, she rose from humble working-class beginnings to become a renowned actress, winning her first Oscar in 1969 for Women In Love [fun fact: twenty years later in The Rainbow, she played the mother of her character Gudrun]. Never one to be typecast, she has portrayed a vast variety of characters over the years, including classic dramatic roles such as Hedda Gabler and (on stage) King Lear, as well as numerous biographical portrayals such as poet Stevie Smith, assassin Charlotte Corday, actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Patricia Neal, Lady Emma Hamilton and George II's Queen Caroline, and, of course, Queen Elizabeth I - both in the acclaimed BBC serial Elizabeth R and in the movie Mary, Queen of Scots:
She worked extensively and repeatedly with that maestro of all things OTT, the fabulous Ken Russell - in the aforementioned Women In Love, The Music Lovers and The Devils (and even an uncredited role in The Boy Friend), and she won a BAFTA for her role opposite Peter Finch in the groundbreaking "gay love-triangle" drama Sunday Bloody Sunday in 1971. By way of a complete contrast to the grittiness of such roles, that same year she accepted an invitation from Morecambe and Wise to appear in their Xmas special (and in one fell swoop, became one of Britain's best-loved actresses):
Morecambe & Wise and Glenda Jackson - "Antony and Cleopatra"I love her in just about anything she's been in [even the "Pirate Captain" in The Muppet Show!], but I was particularly fond of this one - the first time she really turned her hand to big-screen comedy, with excellent results. She won her second Oscar for her role! It was the "fight scene" in this film that coined a phrase in our family when I was young, for if anyone was angry or in a strop, we would always refer to it as "doing a Glenda"...
Having spent a couple of decades as Labour MP for Hampstead in North London, and seen off both her bêtes noir Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, she's jacked all that in and gone back to her first love, acting. Just last year, she received accolades, awards and nominations galore for her latest role in Elizabeth is Missing, and, at an age when most people might be taking it easy and knitting jumpers, shows no signs of slowing down...
Many happy returns, Glenda May Jackson CBE (born 9th May 1936)!
Adore. Sunday Bloody Sunday... The one that got away? Stevie - about poet Stevie Smith. The original soundtrack is an absolute dream... Glenda reading Stevie's poetry over the a soundtrack that is basically little more than a cello... I had a vinyl copy and left it in Iowa. I so wish I'd had the sense to keep it. She is stellar. One of the very best... thanks for the beautiful photos and retrospect. You do this sort of thing with such taste. Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteI loved Stevie - such a tour-de-force of acting between her and the marvellous Mona Washbourne! Jx
DeleteShe often looks like a right mardy cow, so it's always lovely to see her comedic side.
ReplyDeleteEven at 85, I wouldn't mess with her... Jx
DeleteLordy You scared me at first... I thought maybe she'd handed in her dinner pail! Whew...Love her in anything. And her pairing with Walter Matthau was inspired. "Hopscotch" and "House Calls" If you've missed them I suggest you search whatever it is you have in UK for such things.
ReplyDeleteOh, not our Glenda - she's still going.
DeleteI do recall seeing at least one, if not both. She was a perfect foil for Mr Matthau's "hangdog curmudgeon" style. Jx
Another fine bevy of birthday boy's and girl's but Glenda is Über Fab.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to see her 'King Lear'
Harrowing, I'd have thought... Jx
Delete