Glenda's death was announced by her agent Lionel Larner, who released a statement providing some limited details about the circumstances.

"Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side,” the statement read. "Today we lost one of the world's greatest actresses and I have lost a best friend of over fifty years."

The statement doesn't detail any specific cause of death, so anything past a "brief illness" remains a mystery. Of course, at the age of 87, a generally weakened immune system can make the body more prone to illness in general.

We may never know the exact cause of Glenda's death, but what is clear from both looking at her biography and at the many tributes that have come pouring in since the news broke is that she will be missed.