Diana Rigg

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Dame Diana Rigg
Diana Rigg en 2006.jpg
Portrait of Diana Rigg in 2006
Born (1938-07-20) 20 July 1938 (age 74)
Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Spouse(s) Menachem Gueffen
(1973–76, divorced)
Archibald Stirling (1982–90, divorced)
Children Rachael Stirling

Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE (born 20 July 1938) is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. She is considered a sex symbol and an icon of 1960s feminism.[1][2]

Contents

Biography [edit]

Early life and education [edit]

Rigg was born in Doncaster, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, now in South Yorkshire[3] to Louis Rigg (1903–1968) and Beryl Hilda Helliwell (1908–1981); her father was a railway engineer who had been born in Yorkshire. Between the ages of two months and eight years Rigg lived in Bikaner, India, where her father was employed as a railway executive.[3] Rigg speaks fluent Hindi. She was then sent to a boarding school, the Moravian School in Fulneck, near Pudsey. She disliked her boarding school, where she felt like a fish out of water, but she believes that Yorkshire played a greater part in shaping her character than India did. She trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[4]

Theatre career [edit]

Rigg's career in film, television and the theatre has been wide-ranging, including roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1959 and 1964. Her professional debut was in The Caucasian Chalk Circle in 1955, aged 17.

A return to the stage and a nude scene with Keith Michell for Abelard and Heloise in 1970 led to a notorious description of her as 'built like a brick basilica with insufficient flying buttresses', by the acerbic critic John Simon.[5] (Simon's line is often rendered incorrectly, with "mausoleum" in place of "basilica."). A member of the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic from 1972 to 1975, Rigg took leading roles in premiere productions of two Tom Stoppard plays, Dorothy Moore in Jumpers (National Theatre, 1972) and Ruth Carson in Night and Day (Phoenix Theatre, 1978).

In 1982, she appeared in a musical called Colette, based on the life of the French writer and created by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, but it closed during an American tour en route to Broadway. In 1987 she took a leading role in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Follies.

In the 1990s, she had triumphs with roles at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, including Medea in 1992 (which transferred to the Wyndham's Theatre in 1993 and then Broadway in 1994, for which she received the Tony Award for Best Actress), Mother Courage at the National Theatre in 1995 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Almeida Theatre in 1996 (which transferred to the Aldwych Theatre in 1997).

In 2004, she appeared as Violet Venable in Sheffield Theatres' production of Tennessee Williams's play Suddenly Last Summer, which transferred to the Albery Theatre. In 2006, she appeared at the Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End in a drama entitled Honour which had a limited but successful run. In 2007, she appeared as Huma Rojo in the Old Vic's production of All About My Mother, adapted by Samuel Adamson and based on the film of the same title directed by Pedro Almodóvar.

She appeared in 2008 in The Cherry Orchard at the Chichester Festival Theatre, returning there in 2009 to star in Noël Coward's Hay Fever. In 2011 she played Mrs Higgins in Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre, opposite Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon, having played Eliza Dolittle in the same play in 1974.

Film and television career [edit]

Rigg appeared in the cult British 1960s television series The Avengers (1965–67) playing the secret agent Mrs Emma Peel in 51 episodes, replacing Elizabeth Shepherd at very short notice when Shepherd was dropped from the role after filming two episodes. Rigg auditioned for the role of Emma Peel on a whim, without ever having seen the programme. Although she was hugely successful in the series, she disliked the lack of privacy that it brought. She also did not like the way that she was treated by the Associated British Corporation (ABC). After a dozen episodes she discovered that she was being paid less than a cameraman. For her second season she held out for a pay rise from £150 a week to £450,[6] but there was still no question of her staying for a third year. Patrick Macnee, her co-star in the series, noted that Rigg had later told him that she considered Macnee and her driver to be her only friends on the set.[7]

On the big screen she became a Bond girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), playing Tracy Bond, James Bond's only wife. She said she took the role with the hope that she would become well known in America.[8] Throughout the filming of the movie, there were rumours that the experience was not a happy one, owing to a personality clash with Bond actor George Lazenby. The rumors may have arisen from a reporter witnessing her say "I'm having garlic for lunch George, I hope you are!" before a love scene between the two. However, both Rigg and Lazenby have denied the claims, and both wrote off the garlic comment as a joke.

Her other films from this period include The Assassination Bureau (1969), The Hospital (1971), Theatre of Blood (1973), In This House of Brede (1975) (based on the book by Rumer Godden) and A Little Night Music (1977). She appeared as the title character in The Marquise (1980), a television adaptation of play by Noël Coward. In 1981 she appeared in a Yorkshire Television production of Hedda Gabler in the title role, and as Lady Holiday in the film The Great Muppet Caper (1981). The following year she received acclaim for her performance as Arlena Marshall in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun.

She appeared as Regan, the king's treacherous second daughter, in a Granada Television production of King Lear (1983), which starred Laurence Olivier in the title role. She costarred with Denholm Elliot in a television version of Dickens' Bleak House (BBC, 1985), and played the Wicked Queen in the Cannon adaptation of Snow White (1987). In 1989 she played Helena Vesey in Mother Love for the BBC; her portrayal of an obsessive mother who was prepared to do anything, even murder, to keep control of her son won Rigg the 1989 BAFTA for Best Television Actress.

In the 1990s she appeared on television as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca (winning an Emmy Award in the process), as well as the PBS production Moll Flanders, and as the amateur detective Mrs. Bradley in The Mrs Bradley Mysteries. In this BBC series, first aired in 2000, she played Gladys Mitchell's detective, Dame Beatrice Adela Le Strange Bradley, an eccentric old woman who worked for Scotland Yard as a pathologist. The series was not a critical success and did not return for a second season.

Rigg in the premiere of her 1973 NBC television program.

From 1989 until 2003, she hosted the PBS television series Mystery!, taking over from Vincent Price, her co-star from Theatre of Blood. Her TV career in America has been varied; anomalously she starred in her own sitcom Diana in 1973, but it was not successful.

She also appeared in the second series of Ricky Gervais's hit comedy Extras, alongside Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, and in the 2006 film The Painted Veil.

In 2013 she appeared in an episode of Doctor Who in a Victorian-era based story called The Crimson Horror alongside her daughter Rachael Stirling, Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman. The episode had been specially written for her and her daughter by Mark Gatiss and aired as part of series 7.[9]

That year she also co-starred in the third season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, portraying Lady Olenna Tyrell, a witty and sarcastic political mastermind popularly known as the Queen of Thorns.[10]

Personal life [edit]

Rigg lived with Philip Saville.[when?] Her marriage to Menachem Gueffen, an Israeli painter, lasted from 1973 until their divorce in 1976. She was married to Archibald Stirling, a theatrical producer and former officer in the Scots Guards, from 1982 until they divorced in 1990. The marriage broke up when Stirling had an affair with actress Joely Richardson.[4] With Stirling, Rigg has a daughter, actress Rachael Stirling, who was born in 1977.[11]

Rigg was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1994.

Rigg is a Patron of International Care & Relief and was for many years the public face of the charity's child sponsorship scheme. She was also Chancellor of the University of Stirling,[4] being succeeded by James Naughtie when her ten year term of office ended on 31 July 2008.

Michael Parkinson, who first interviewed Rigg in 1972, described her as the most desirable woman he ever met, who "radiated a lustrous beauty".[1]

A smoker from the age of 18, Rigg continued to smoke 20 cigarettes a day as of 2009.[12] However in 2011 she said she had given up smoking, because "she had to".[13]

She received honorary degrees from the University of Stirling in 1988 and the University of Leeds in 1992.[14]

Filmography [edit]

Film [edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1968 Midsummer Night's Dream, AA Midsummer Night's Dream Helena
1969 Mini-Killers Short film
1969 Assassination Bureau, TheThe Assassination Bureau Sonya Winter
1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service Tracy
1970 Julius Caesar Portia
1971 Hospital, TheThe Hospital Barbara Drummond
1973 Theatre of Blood Edwina Lionheart
1977 Little Night Music, AA Little Night Music Charlotte Mittelheim
1981 Great Muppet Caper, TheThe Great Muppet Caper Lady Holiday
1982 Evil Under the Sun Arlena Marshall
1987 Snow White Evil Queen
1994 Good Man in Africa, AA Good Man in Africa Chloe Fanshawe
1998 Parting Shots Lisa
2005 Heidi Grandmamma
2006 Painted Veil, TheThe Painted Veil Mother Superior

Television [edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1959 Midsummer Night's Dream, AA Midsummer Night's Dream Bit part TV film
1963 Sentimental Agent, TheThe Sentimental Agent Francy Wilde Episode: "A Very Desirable Plot"
1964 Festival Adriana Episode: "The Comedy of Errors"
1964 Armchair Theatre Anita Fender Episode: "The Hothouse"
1965 ITV Play of the Week Bianca Episode: "Women Beware Women"
1965-1968 Avengers, TheThe Avengers Emma Peel Main role (51 episodes)
1970 ITV Saturday Night Theatre Liz Jardine Episode: "Married Alive"
1973-1974 Diana Diana Smythe Main role (15 episodes)
1974 Affairs of the Heart Grace Gracedew Episode: "Grace"
1975 In This House of Brede Philippa TV film
1977 Three Piece Suite Various Regular role (6 episodes)
1979 Oresteia Clytemnestra TV miniseries
1980 Marquise, TheThe Marquise Eloise TV film
1981 Hedda Gabler Hedda Gabler TV film
1982 BBC Play of the Month Rita Allmers Episode: Little Eyolf
1982 Witness for the Prosecution Christine Vole TV film
1983 King Lear Regan TV film
1985 Bleak House Lady Honoria Dedlock TV miniseries
1986 Worst Witch, TheThe Worst Witch Miss Constance Hardbroom TV film
1987 Hazard of Hearts, AA Hazard of Hearts Lady Harriet Vulcan TV film
1989 Play on One, TheThe Play on One Lydia Episode: "Unexplained Laughter"
1989 Mother Love Helena Vesey TV miniseries
1992 Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris Mme. Colbert TV film
1993 Road to Avonlea Lady Blackwell Episode: "The Disappearance"
1993 Running Delilah Judith TV film
1993 Screen Two Baroness Frieda von Stangel Episode: "Genghis Cohn"
1995 Zoya Evgenia TV film
1995 Haunting of Helen Walker, TheThe Haunting of Helen Walker Mrs. Grose TV film
1996 Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, TheThe Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders Mrs. Golightly TV film
1996 Samson and Delilah Mara TV film
1997 Rebecca Mrs. Danvers TV miniseries
1998 American, TheThe American Madame de Bellegarde TV film
1998-2000 Mrs Bradley Mysteries, TheThe Mrs Bradley Mysteries Mrs. Adela Bradley Main role
2000 In the Beginning Mature Rebeccah TV film
2001 Victoria & Albert Baroness Lehzen TV miniseries
2003 Murder in Mind Jill Craig Episode: "Suicide"
2003 Charles II: The Power and the Passion Queen Henrietta Maria TV miniseries
2013 Game of Thrones Lady Olenna Tyrell Season 3
2013 Doctor Who Mrs. Winifred Gillyflower Episode: The Crimson Horror

Theatre [edit]

List of selected theatre credits
Year Title Role Notes
1966 Twelfth Night Viola Royal Shakespeare Company
1971 Abelard and Heloise Heloise
1974 Pygmalion Elisa Albery Theatre, London
1975 Night and Day Ruth Phoenix Theatre, London
1975 Misanthrope, TheThe Misanthrope Célimène
1982 Colette Colette US national tour
1983 Heartbreak House Lady Ariadne Utterword Theatre Royal Haymarket, London
1985 Little Eyolf Rita Lyric Theatre, London
1985 Antony and Cleopatra Cleopatra Chichester Festival Theatre, UK
1986 Wildfire Bess Theatre Royal, Bath & Phoenix Theatre, London
1987 Follies Phyllis Shaftesbury Theatre, London
1990 Love Letters Melissa Stage Door Theatre, San Francisco
1992 Putting It Together Old Fire Station Theatre, Oxford
1992 Berlin Bertie Rosa Royal Court Theatre, London
1994 Medea Medea
1998 Phaedra Phaedra Almeida Theatre, London
1998 Britannicus Agrippa Almedia Theatre, London & New York City
2001 Humble Boy Flora National Theatre, London
2002 Hollow Crown, TheThe Hollow Crown Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne
2004 Suddenly, Last Summer Violet Albery Theatre, London
2006 Honour Honour Wyndham's Theatre, London
2008 Cherry Orchard, TheThe Cherry Orchard TGanevskya Chichester Festival Theatre, UK

Awards and Nominations [edit]

Film & TV [edit]

Emmy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

  • 1975 Best Supporting Actress (Motion Picture) for The Hospital - nominated

BAFTA Awards

Rigg also received a special BAFTA at the 2000 BAFTA TV Awards along with the other Avengers actresses, Honor Blackman, Joanna Lumley and Linda Thorson.

Theatre [edit]

Tony Awards

  • 1971: Best Actress in a Play for Abelard & Heloise - nominated
  • 1975: Best Actress in a Play for The Misanthrope - nominated
  • 1994: Best Actress in a Play for Medea - won

Olivier Awards

  • 1994: Best Actress for Medea - nominated
  • 1996: Best Actress for Mother Courage - nominated
  • 1997: Best Actress for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - nominated
  • 1999: Best Actress for Britannicus and Phedre - nominated

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b Parkinson, Michael (14 October 2010). Parky's People. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 316. ISBN 978-1-84894-696-5. Retrieved 12 April 2012. 
  2. ^ DiPaolo, Marc (31 March 2011). War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film. McFarland. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-7864-4718-3. Retrieved 12 April 2012. 
  3. ^ a b Meet... Dame Diana Rigg, BBC South Yorkshire. accessed on 14 July 2006.
  4. ^ a b c Nigel Farndale (17 August 2008). "Diana Rigg: her story". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2011-08-20. 
  5. ^ Diana Rigg during her Parkinson Interview September 15, 2007 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpmdE68R_w0&feature=related
  6. ^ Dave Rogers The Complete Avengers, London: Boxtree, 1989; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, p.169
  7. ^ J.G. Lane, "Diana Rigg Biography", accessed 3 December 2010
  8. ^ Bond's Beauties – James Bond, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Man With the G...
  9. ^ Doctor Who, "Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling to Star in New Series!", accessed 3 July 2012
  10. ^ "Dame Diana Rigg Joins Season 3 Of HBO's 'Game Of Thrones' | The Playlist". Blogs.indiewire.com. Retrieved 2013-04-28. 
  11. ^ Groskop, Viv (17 February 2010), Rachael Stirling is a rising stage star – and she's in love with her ass, London Evening Standard, retrieved 12 June 2011 
  12. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/19/diana-rigg-body-soul
  13. ^ Ciaran Brown. "Ciaran Brown meets Avengers actress Dame Diana Rigg". Ciaranbrown.com. Retrieved 2013-04-28. 
  14. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001671/bio

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Diana Rigg
Preceded by
Mie Hama		 Bond girl
1969		 Succeeded by
Jill St. John
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