<p>Actor Glenda Jackson, a two-time Oscar winner who later served as a socialist politician in the British parliament for 23 years, has died after a brief illness, <em>PA Media</em> reported on Thursday, citing her agent. She was 87.</p>.<p>One of four daughters of a bricklayer and a cleaning lady in northwest England, Jackson never forgot her roots even as she made her name as one of the greatest women actors of her generation.</p>.<p>Raw-boned, pallid and angular, with striking, sharp eyes, she had starred on stage, television and film before quitting to take up politics, declaring: "An actor's life is not interesting".</p>.<p>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 prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.</p>.<p>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 D.H. Lawrence's novel "<em>Women in Love</em>".</p>.<p>Her second Oscar came three years later for "<em>A Touch of Class</em>", 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.</p>.<p>After more than three decades on stage and film, Jackson quit acting and took her no-nonsense, straight-talking style into politics.</p>.<p>She had been angered by the damage she believed was inflicted on the working classes by Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Conservative prime minister from 1979 until 1990.</p>.<p>In 1992, at the age of 55, Jackson won a seat in parliament representing the left-of-centre Labour Party in a constituency in north London.</p>.<p>"We must work for the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, the frail, the sick," she told supporters.</p>.<p>Jackson was married from 1958 to 1976 to stage director Roy Hodges. She is survived by their son, Daniel Hodges, who was born in 1969.</p>
<p>Actor Glenda Jackson, a two-time Oscar winner who later served as a socialist politician in the British parliament for 23 years, has died after a brief illness, <em>PA Media</em> reported on Thursday, citing her agent. She was 87.</p>.<p>One of four daughters of a bricklayer and a cleaning lady in northwest England, Jackson never forgot her roots even as she made her name as one of the greatest women actors of her generation.</p>.<p>Raw-boned, pallid and angular, with striking, sharp eyes, she had starred on stage, television and film before quitting to take up politics, declaring: "An actor's life is not interesting".</p>.<p>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 prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.</p>.<p>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 D.H. Lawrence's novel "<em>Women in Love</em>".</p>.<p>Her second Oscar came three years later for "<em>A Touch of Class</em>", 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.</p>.<p>After more than three decades on stage and film, Jackson quit acting and took her no-nonsense, straight-talking style into politics.</p>.<p>She had been angered by the damage she believed was inflicted on the working classes by Margaret Thatcher, Britain's Conservative prime minister from 1979 until 1990.</p>.<p>In 1992, at the age of 55, Jackson won a seat in parliament representing the left-of-centre Labour Party in a constituency in north London.</p>.<p>"We must work for the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, the frail, the sick," she told supporters.</p>.<p>Jackson was married from 1958 to 1976 to stage director Roy Hodges. She is survived by their son, Daniel Hodges, who was born in 1969.</p>