Glenda Jackson dies at 87, completes last film
BRITISH actress Glenda Jackson has passed away at the age of 87 after a “brief illness”.
The Oscar-winner who was also a politician for many years – was working not long before she died, with her agent saying she had recently completed filming The Great Escaper.
Last month film company Pathé released a still to mark Jackson’s 87th birthday, showing her with a birthday cake.
The film was actually inspired by a true story.
It follows Second World War veteran Bernard Jordan and his daring 2014 escape from his Sussex care home to attend the 70th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day Landings in France.
Octogenarian Jordan made headlines all around the world when he made his escape and the story captured everyone’s imagination.
Promo material for the movie says that “it wasn’t the whole story” and that the “bitter-sweet script explores the reality with wit and a very big heart”.
In the film, Michael Caine plays Jordan and Jackson stars as his wife Irene.
The pensioner was married to Irene for over 60 years and the film “celebrates their love without sentimentality and with an eye to the lessons we might all learn from the Greatest Generation”.
The shoot was a reunion for Jackson and Caine as they also shared the screen in The Romantic Englishwoman back in 1975.
Other cast members include John Standing, Danielle Vitalis and Donald Sage Mackay.
