Gordon Jackson, an Actor, at 66 -  Hudson in 'Upstairs, Downstairs' - NYTimes.com
Gordon Jackson, an Actor, at 66; Hudson in 'Upstairs, Downstairs'
AP
Published: January 16, 1990
LONDON, Jan. 15— Gordon Jackson, an actor known to millions of television viewers as Hudson, the archetypal butler in the popular series ''Upstairs, Downstairs,'' died on Sunday in Cromwell Hospital in London. He was 66 years old. The cause of death was not disclosed, but Mr. Jackson's agent, Michael Anderson, said the actor had been ill for a short time before being hospitalized.
The tall, ginger-haired Mr. Jackson, who brought his mellifluous Scottish accent to dozens of film, stage and television roles, started acting as a teen-ager soon after the outbreak of World War II. His career spanned nearly half a century and included more than 60 film credits, but he was best known for his portrayal of the stiff-upper-lipped butler in ''Upstairs, Downstairs,'' which ran from 1970 to 1975.
Won an Emmy in 1976
Mr. Jackson's work in the series won him a British Actor of the Year award in 1974 and an Emmy Award in 1976. Reruns of ''Upstairs, Downstairs'' are still being shown in the United States.
The actor, described as gentle and self-effacing by friends, once said: ''My trouble is that I'm underconfident and I'm too tentative. I'm not a go-getter and I never have been.
''It's only when the curtain goes up and the cameras start to roll that I don't enjoy this business.''
Mr. Jackson was born in Glasgow in 1923. He started an apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce in Edinburgh, but got his first professional acting job in 1941, playing a Scottish soldier in the film ''The Foreman Went to France,'' a story of Britons trapped in France in 1940 by the German invasion.
Films He Appeared In
His film credits included ''Somewhere in France'' in 1943, ''Whisky Galore'' in 1948, ''Happy Go Lovely'' in 1951, ''Tunes of Glory'' in 1960, ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' in 1961, 'The Great Escape'' in 1962, ''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' in 1968 and ''The Whistle Blower'' in 1986.
He also played the tough undercover police chief Cowley in the British television thriller series ''The Professionals'' from 1977 to 1981, and was in the 1981 Australian mini-series ''A Town Like Alice,'' and a 1988 television movie, ''Noble House.''
On stage, he played Banquo in ''Macbeth,'' Horatio in ''Hamlet,'' Malvolio in ''Twelfth Night'' and a host of other characters in London's West End. His theater credits also included roles in a 1970 Stratford, Ontario, production of Ibsen's ''Hedda Gabler.''
He is survived by his wife, Rona, and two sons.
photo: Gordon Jackson (Camera Press, 1982)