Oscar winner-turned-MP Glenda Jackson dies
British actress Glenda Jackson, the two-time Oscar-winning actress who went on to become an MP, died on Thursday at the age of 87, her agent said. Lionel Larner said Jackson "died peacefully at her home in Blackheath London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side." "She recently completed filming 'The Great Escaper' in which she co-starred with Michael Caine," he added. Jackson won the Best Actress Oscar in 1970 for her performance in "Women in Love", and again in 1973 for her role in "A Touch of Class". She was elected as a Labour MP for her local London constituency of Hampstead and Highgate in 1992, and served as a transport minister in prime minister Tony Blair's government between 1997 and 1999. Jackson came to be at odds with Blair over the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She said his decision to enter the US-led war without United Nations' authorisation left her “deeply, deeply ashamed.” “The victims will be as they always are, women, children, the elderly,” she told The Associated Press before the invasion. Jackson returned to acting after leaving Parliament in 2015 and had some of her most acclaimed roles, including the title character in Shakespeare's “King Lear.”  Tulip Siddiq, the current Labour MP serving Jackson's former constituency, called her a "formidable politician" and a "very supportive mentor". "Devastated to hear that my predecessor Glenda Jackson has died," she tweeted. (AFP/AP)