Diana Rigg

IMDB PAGE / WIKIPEDIA PAGE

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“I loved the complexity of Olenna. She was a political woman, and she played the game brilliantly. Anything and everything executed ruthlessly for the survival of her family, which is historical in a way, like the Borgias and various other famous families.”

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ALSO KNOWN FOR

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

The Avengers (1965)

Evil Under the Sun (1982)

Last Night In Soho (2021)

Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE (20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Rigg was born in Doncaster, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire (now in South Yorkshire), to Louis and Beryl Hilda Rigg (née Helliwell). She trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1955 to 1957, where her classmates included Glenda Jackson and Siân Phillips. Her most famous roles include Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969); Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013–2017); and the title role in Medea in the West End in 1993 followed by Broadway a year later.

Rigg made her professional stage debut in 1957 in The Caucasian Chalk Circle and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. She made her Broadway debut in Abelard & Heloise in 1971. Her role as Emma Peel made her a sex symbol. For her role in Medea, both in London and New York, she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She was made a CBE in 1988 and a Dame in 1994. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service.

Rigg appeared in numerous TV series and films, starring opposite Patrick Macnee as John Steed as the secret agent Emma Peel in 51 episodes of The Avengers (1965 - 1968). On the big screen, she became a Bond girl in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) opposite George Lazenby. In 1973–1974, she starred in a short-lived US sitcom called Diana. Decades later, in 2013, Rigg was cast in a recurring role in 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 four Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Other credits include Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968); Lady Holiday in The Great Muppet Caper (1981); and Arlena Marshall in Evil Under the Sun (1982). She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the BBC miniseries Mother Love (1989) and an Emmy Award for her role as Mrs. Danvers in an adaptation of Rebecca (1997). Her other television credits include You, Me and the Apocalypse (2015) and Detectorists (2015). Her final film role was in Edgar Wright's psychological horror film Last Night in Soho, completed just before her death in 2020.