LONDON — Two-time Oscar-winning actress and former UK politician Glenda Jackson “died peacefully” after a brief illness at the age of 87, her agent confirmed, according to PA Media.

Born in the western town of Birkenhead in England in 1936, Jackson joined an amateur theater group as a teenager before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

After graduating she starred on London’s West End and made her Broadway debut in 1965 in a production of “Marat/Sade.”

The screen followed. She won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her role opposite Oliver Reed in the 1969 period drama “Women in Love.”

Her second came soon after for the 1973 romantic comedy “A Touch of Class.”

In 1992 she turned to politics, becoming a Labour MP while the party was in opposition. She was an MP for 23 years, during which her party came to power in a landslide under former Prime Minister Tony Blair. — CNN