Diana Rigg: Difference between revisions
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In 1982, she appeared in a [[musical theatre|musical]] called ''Colette'', based on the life of the [[Colette|French writer]] and created by [[Tom Jones (writer)|Tom Jones]] and [[Harvey Schmidt]], but it closed during an American tour en route to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]. In 1986, she took a leading role in the [[West End theatre|West End]] production of [[Stephen Sondheim]]'s musical ''[[Follies]]''. |
In 1982, she appeared in a [[musical theatre|musical]] called ''Colette'', based on the life of the [[Colette|French writer]] and created by [[Tom Jones (writer)|Tom Jones]] and [[Harvey Schmidt]], but it closed during an American tour en route to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]]. In 1986, she took a leading role in the [[West End theatre|West End]] production of [[Stephen Sondheim]]'s musical ''[[Follies]]''. |
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On the big screen she became a [[Bond girl]] in ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)|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.<ref>http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085500,00.html</ref> Throughout the filming of the movie, there were |
On the big screen she became a [[Bond girl]] in ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)|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.<ref>http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085500,00.html</ref> 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 [Lazenby] 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 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 also appeared as Lady Holiday in the 1981 film ''[[The Great Muppet Caper]]''. |
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In the 1980s, after reading stinging reviews of a stage performance she had given, Rigg was inspired to compile the worst theatrical reviews she could find into a tongue-in-cheek (and best-selling) compilation, entitled ''[[No Turn Unstoned]]''. In 1981 she appeared in a Yorkshire Television production of ''[[Hedda Gabler]]'' in the title role. In 1982 she received acclaim for her performance as Arlena Stuart Marshall in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's ''[[Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)|Evil Under the Sun]]''. In 1983, she appeared in a [[Granada Television]] production of ''[[King Lear (1983 TV drama)|King Lear]]'', starring [[Laurence Olivier]] in the title role, as Regan, the king's treacherous second daughter. In 1985 she costarred with Denholm Elliot in a BBC production of ''Bleak House'', a novel by [[Charles Dickens]]. In 1988, she played the Wicked Queen in the Cannon adaptation of ''[[Snow White (1987 film)|Snow White]]''. In 1989, she played Helena Vesey in ''[[Mother Love (TV series)|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 Diana the 1989 [[BAFTA]] for best actress. Also in 1989, Diana appeared in the BBC adaptation of [[Alice Thomas Ellis]]' ''Unexplained Laughter'', alongside [[Elaine Paige]]. |
In the 1980s, after reading stinging reviews of a stage performance she had given, Rigg was inspired to compile the worst theatrical reviews she could find into a tongue-in-cheek (and best-selling) compilation, entitled ''[[No Turn Unstoned]]''. In 1981 she appeared in a Yorkshire Television production of ''[[Hedda Gabler]]'' in the title role. In 1982 she received acclaim for her performance as Arlena Stuart Marshall in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's ''[[Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)|Evil Under the Sun]]''. In 1983, she appeared in a [[Granada Television]] production of ''[[King Lear (1983 TV drama)|King Lear]]'', starring [[Laurence Olivier]] in the title role, as Regan, the king's treacherous second daughter. In 1985 she costarred with Denholm Elliot in a BBC production of ''Bleak House'', a novel by [[Charles Dickens]]. In 1988, she played the Wicked Queen in the Cannon adaptation of ''[[Snow White (1987 film)|Snow White]]''. In 1989, she played Helena Vesey in ''[[Mother Love (TV series)|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 Diana the 1989 [[BAFTA]] for best actress. Also in 1989, Diana appeared in the BBC adaptation of [[Alice Thomas Ellis]]' ''Unexplained Laughter'', alongside [[Elaine Paige]]. |
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Revision as of 02:14, 13 June 2011
Diana Rigg | |
|---|---|
| File:Diana Rigg en 2006.jpg Diana Rigg in 2006 | |
| Born | Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg 20 July 1938 |
| Spouse(s) | Menachem Gueffen (1973–1976, divorced) Archibald Stirling (1982–1990, 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.
Biography
Early life
Rigg was born in Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire[1] to Louis Rigg 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.[1] 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.[2]
Career
Rigg is particularly known for her role in the British 1960s television series The Avengers, where she played the secret agent Mrs. Emma Peel for 51 episodes between 1965 and 1967. Rigg tried out for the role of Emma Peel on a whim, without ever having seen the programme. Her 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.
Although she was hugely successful in the role of Emma Peel, she did not like the lack of privacy that television brought. She also did not like the way that she was treated by ABC Weekend TV. After a dozen episodes she discovered that she was being paid less than a cameraman.
For the second series she held out for a raise in pay from £150 a week to £450 [3], 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.[4] After leaving The Avengers she appeared as the title character in the telemovie The Marquise, which was based on a play by Noel Coward.
She also returned to the stage, including playing two Tom Stoppard leads, Ruth Carson in Night and Day and Dorothy Moore in Jumpers. A nude scene with Keith Michell in Abelard and Heloise 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.")
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 1986, she took a leading role in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Follies.
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.[5] 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 [Lazenby] 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 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 also appeared as Lady Holiday in the 1981 film The Great Muppet Caper.
In the 1980s, after reading stinging reviews of a stage performance she had given, Rigg was inspired to compile the worst theatrical reviews she could find into a tongue-in-cheek (and best-selling) compilation, entitled No Turn Unstoned. In 1981 she appeared in a Yorkshire Television production of Hedda Gabler in the title role. In 1982 she received acclaim for her performance as Arlena Stuart Marshall in the film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun. In 1983, she appeared in a Granada Television production of King Lear, starring Laurence Olivier in the title role, as Regan, the king's treacherous second daughter. In 1985 she costarred with Denholm Elliot in a BBC production of Bleak House, a novel by Charles Dickens. In 1988, she played the Wicked Queen in the Cannon adaptation of Snow White. 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 Diana the 1989 BAFTA for best actress. Also in 1989, Diana appeared in the BBC adaptation of Alice Thomas Ellis' Unexplained Laughter, alongside Elaine Paige.
In 1986, she presented the Scottish Television series Held in Trust, which focused on the work of the National Trust for Scotland and some of its most famous treasures.
In the 1990s, she had triumphs with roles at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, including Medea in 1993 (for which she received the Best Actress Tony Award), Mother Courage in 1995 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1996. On television she has appeared as Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca (winning an Emmy Award in the process), as well as the mother-in-law in the PBS production Moll Flanders, and as the amateur detective Mrs. Bradley in The Mrs Bradley Mysteries. In 1992 she also played Mme. Colbert Chief Vendeuse to the fashion house of Dior in Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris.
In this 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.
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; most famously she starred in her own series Diana, but it was not successful.
Rigg has continued to perform on stage; in 2004 she appeared as Violet Venable in Sheffield Theatres' production of Tennessee Williams's play Suddenly Last Summer. This enjoyed a successful national tour. In 2006 she appeared at 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 Noel Coward's Hay Fever.
Although she does not consider herself a singer, her performances in A Little Night Music, Follies and other stage musicals have been well received by audiences and critics alike. She made a highly memorable appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1975, in which she played Nell Gwynne in a musical pastiche, joining Eric and Ernie to sing “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life?”.
She also appeared in the second season of Ricky Gervais' hit comedy, Extras, alongside Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, and in the 2006 film The Painted Veil.
Personal life
Rigg lived with Philip Saville.[when?] Her marriage to Menachem Gueffen, an Israeli painter, lasted from 1973 until they divorced 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.[6] With Stirling, Rigg has a daughter, actress Rachael Stirling, who was born in 1977.[7]
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.
- ^ a b Meet... Dame Diana Rigg, BBC South Yorkshire. accessed on 14 July 2006.
- ^ Article by Nigel Farndale in Sunday Independent, 17 August 2008, page 11
- ^ The Complete Avengers by Dave Rogers, page 169 (Boxtree Ltd., in Great Britain, 1989; St. Martin's Press, in America, 1989)
- ^ J.G. Lane, "Diana Rigg Biography", accessed 3 December 2010
- ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085500,00.html
- ^ Farndale, Nigel. "Diana Rigg: Her Story". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2008-08-03. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
- ^ 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
{{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help).
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | The Sentimental Agent | Francy | 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 | 51 episodes |
| 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 | Tracy Di Vicenzo | |
| 1970 | ITV Saturday Night Theatre | Liz Jardine | Episode: "Married Alive" |
| 1970 | Julius Caesar | Portia | |
| 1971 | The Hospital | Barbara | |
| 1973 | Theatre of Blood | Edwina Lionheart | |
| 1973-1974 | Diana | Diana Smythe | 15 episodes |
| 1974 | Affairs of the Heart | Grace Gracedew | Episode: "Grace" |
| 1975 | In This House of Brede | Dame Philippa | TV movie |
| 1977 | Three Piece Suite | Various | 6 episodes |
| 1977 | A Little Night Music | Charlotte Mittelheim | |
| 1979 | Oresteia | Eloise | TV movie |
| 1980 | The Marquise | Eloise | TV movie |
| 1981 | Hedda Gabler | Hedda Gabler | TV drama |
| 1981 | The Great Muppet Caper | Lady Holiday | |
| 1982 | Evil Under the Sun | Arlena Marshall | |
| 1982 | BBC Play of the Month | Rita Allmers | Episode: "Little Eyolf" |
| 1982 | Hallmark Hall of Fame | Christine Vole | Episode: "Witness for the Prosecution" |
| 1983 | King Lear | Regan | TV drama |
| 1985 | Bleak House | Lady Honoria Dedlock | 7 episodes |
| 1986 | The Worst Witch | Miss Constance Hardbroom | |
| 1987 | Snow White | Evil Queen | |
| 1987 | A Hazard of Hearts | Lady Harriet Vulcan | TV movie |
| 1989 | The Play on One | Lydia | Episode: "Unexplained Laughter" |
| 1989 | Mother Love | Helena Vesey | TV mini-series |
| 1989-2004 | Mystery! | Host | TV series |
| 1992 | Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris | Mme. Colbert | TV movie |
| 1993 | Road to Avonlea | Lady Blackwell | Episode: "The Disappearance" |
| 1993 | Running Delilah | Judith | TV movie |
| 1993 | Screen Two | Baroness Frieda von Stangel | Episode: "Genghis Cohn" |
| 1994 | A Good Man in Africa | Chloe Fanshawe | |
| 1995 | Zoya | Evgenia | TV movie |
| 1995 | The Haunting of Helen Walker | Mrs. Grose | TV movie |
| 1996 | Moll Flanders | Mrs. Golightly | TV movie |
| 1996 | Samson and Delilah | Mara | TV movie |
| 1997 | Rebecca | Mrs. Danvers | TV miniseries |
| 1998 | The American | Madame de Bellegarde | TV movie |
| 1999 | Parting Shots | Lisa | |
| 1998-2000 | The Mrs Bradley Mysteries | Mrs. Adela Bradley | 5 episodes |
| 2000 | In the Beginning | Mature Rebeccah | |
| 2001 | Victoria & Albert | Baroness Louise Lehzen | TV movie |
| 2003 | Murder in Mind | Jill Craig | Episode: "Suicide" |
| 2003 | The Last King | Queen Henrietta Maria | Episode: "1.1" Episode: "1.3" |
| 2005 | Heidi | Grandmamma | |
| 2006 | The Painted Veil | Mother Superior |
References
External links
- Diana Rigg at the Internet Broadway Database
- Diana Rigg at IMDb
- Diana Rigg at the TCM Movie Database
- Template:Tv.com person
- DianaRigg.net, unofficial website
- 1938 births
- Living people
- Actresses awarded British damehoods
- BAFTA winners (people)
- Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Emmy Award winners
- English film actors
- English stage actors
- English television actors
- People associated with the University of Stirling
- People from Doncaster
- Royal National Theatre Company members
- Royal Shakespeare Company members
- Tony Award winners
- Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art