Diana Rigg

Dame Diana Rigg
File:Diana Rigg en 2006.jpg Portrait of Diana Rigg in 2006
Born	(1938-07-20) 20 July 1938 Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Height	5′ 8½” (1.74 m)
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 played the roles 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.

Biography

Early life and education

Rigg was born in Doncaster, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, now in South Yorkshire 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. 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.

Theatre career

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. (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

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, 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.

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. 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.

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. Her performance earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Personal life

Rigg lived with Philip Saville. 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. With Stirling, Rigg has a daughter, actress Rachael Stirling, who was born in 1977.

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, 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".

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

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

Filmography

Film

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

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1959	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Bit part	TV film
1963	The 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	The 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	The Marquise	Eloise	TV film
1981	Hedda Gabler	Hedda Gabler	TV film
1982	Play of the Month (BBC)	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	The Worst Witch	Miss Constance Hardbroom	TV film
1987	A Hazard of Hearts	Lady Harriet Vulcan	TV film
1989	The 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	The Haunting of Helen Walker	Mrs. Grose	TV film
1996	The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders	Mrs. Golightly	TV film
1996	Samson and Delilah	Mara	TV film
1997	Rebecca	Mrs. Danvers	TV miniseries
1998	The American	Madame de Bellegarde	TV film
1998-2000	The 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

List of selected theatre credits

1964	King Lear	Cordelia	Royal Shakespeare Company (European/US Tour)
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	The 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	The Hollow Crown		Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne
2004	Suddenly, Last Summer	Violet	Albery Theatre, London
2006	Honour	Honour	Wyndham's Theatre, London
2008	The Cherry Orchard	TGanevskya	Chichester Festival Theatre, UK

Awards and Nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
1967	Emmy Award	Best Actress in a Drama Series	The Avengers	Nominated
1968	Emmy Award	Best Actress in a Drama Series	The Avengers	Nominated
1971	Tony Award	Best Actress in a Play	Abelard and Heloise	Nominated
1972	Golden Globe	Best Supporting Actress (motion picture)	The Hospital	Nominated
1975	Tony Award	Best Actress in a Play	The Misanthrope	Nominated
1975	Emmy Award	Best Actress in a TV Movie	In This House of Brede	Nominated
1990	BAFTA TV Award	Best Actress	Mother Love	Won
1994	Olivier Award	Best Actress	Medea	Nominated
1994	Tony Award	Best Actress in a Play	Medea	Won
1996	Olivier Award	Best Actress	Mother Courage	Nominated
1997	Olivier Award	Best Actress	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf	Nominated
1997	Emmy Award	Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie	Rebecca	Won
1999	Olivier Award	Best Actress	Britanicus and Phedre	Nominated
2002	Emmy Award	Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie	Victoria & Albert	Nominated
2013	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series	Game of Thrones	Nominated
2013	Emmy Award	Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series	Game of Thrones	Pending

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.

External links

• Diana Rigg at the Internet Broadway Database
• Diana Rigg at IMDb
• Diana Rigg at the TCM Movie Database
• DianaRigg.net, unofficial website