Diana Rigg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dame
Diana Rigg
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Rigg in Diana, 1973
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| Born |
Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg
20 July 1938 Doncaster, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
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| Died | 10 September 2020 (aged 82) London, England
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| Alma mater | Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1957–2020 |
| Known for |
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| Spouse(s) |
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| Children | Rachael Stirling |
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020) was a famous English actress. She starred in many plays, TV shows, and movies. Some of her most well-known roles include Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers (1965–1968) and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, who was James Bond's wife, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Later in her career, she became very popular as Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013–2017).
Diana Rigg started her acting career on stage in 1957. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. She won a Tony Award in 1994 for her amazing performance in the play Medea. For her contributions to drama, she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988 and later a Dame in 1994. This is a very high honor in the United Kingdom.
She also won a BAFTA TV Award for her role in the miniseries Mother Love (1989) and an Emmy Award for playing Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca (1997). Her final film role was in Last Night in Soho, which was released after she passed away.
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Growing Up and Learning to Act
Diana Rigg was born on 20 July 1938 in Doncaster, England. Her parents were Louis and Beryl Hilda Rigg. She had an older brother. Her father worked for the railway in India, so Diana lived there from when she was two months old until she was eight. She lived in a place called Bikaner, Rajasthan, and learned to speak Hindi as a second language.
When she was eight, she was sent back to England to go to a boarding school called Fulneck Girls School. She didn't really like boarding school, but she felt that growing up in Yorkshire, England, helped shape her personality more than her time in India. From 1955 to 1957, she trained to be an actress at the famous Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Her Career in Theatre
Diana Rigg had a very long and successful career in theatre, film, and television. She was part of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1959 to 1967. Her first professional acting job was in a play called The Caucasian Chalk Circle in 1957.
She made her debut on Broadway in New York in 1971 with the play Abelard and Heloïse. She was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for this role. She was nominated again in 1975 for The Misanthrope. Diana Rigg also starred in two plays by the famous writer Tom Stoppard, called Jumpers (1972) and Night and Day (1978).
In the 1990s, she had huge successes in plays like Medea (1992), for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress when it moved to Broadway in 1994. She also starred in Mother Courage (1995) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1996).
Later in her career, she continued to perform on stage. In 2011, she played Mrs. Higgins in Pygmalion, which was interesting because 37 years earlier she had played Eliza Doolittle in the same play. In 2018, she returned to Broadway to play Mrs. Higgins again in the musical My Fair Lady, earning her fourth Tony nomination.
Her Film and Television Roles
Becoming Emma Peel
From 1965 to 1968, Diana Rigg became a household name playing the secret agent Emma Peel in the British TV series The Avengers. She starred alongside Patrick Macnee, who played John Steed. She joined the show very quickly after another actress left. Even though she became very famous from the show, she didn't like how little privacy she had.
She also felt that she wasn't paid fairly compared to her male co-star. She asked for a pay raise from £150 a week to £450. She later said that no other women in the industry supported her, and the press made her seem greedy. She left the show after her second year.
James Bond and Beyond
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In 1969, Diana Rigg became a "Bond girl" in the movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. She played Tracy Bond, who was the only woman James Bond ever married. She hoped this role would make her more famous in the United States.
She appeared in many other films, including A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968), The Great Muppet Caper (1981) where she played Lady Holiday, and Evil Under the Sun (1982), based on an Agatha Christie book.
On television, she won a BAFTA award in 1990 for her role as Helena Vesey in Mother Love. She also won an Emmy Award in 1997 for playing Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca. From 1989 to 2003, she hosted the American TV series Mystery!.
Doctor Who and Game of Thrones
In 2013, Diana Rigg appeared in an episode of Doctor Who called "The Crimson Horror". She acted alongside her daughter, Rachael Stirling, in this episode. It was specially written for them.
The same year, she joined the cast of the popular HBO series Game of Thrones. She played Lady Olenna Tyrell, a very clever and witty character known as the Queen of Thorns. Her performance was loved by critics and fans, and she received several Emmy nominations for this role. Her character was a fan favorite and was killed off in the seventh season, with her final performance receiving much praise.
Her last TV role was as Mrs. Pumphrey in All Creatures Great and Small (2020). She finished filming this role just before she passed away. Her final film, Last Night in Soho, was released after her death and was dedicated to her memory.
Her Life Outside of Acting
Diana Rigg had a daughter named Rachael Stirling, who is also an actress. Rachael was born in 1977.
Diana Rigg was involved with charity work. She was a patron for International Care & Relief, helping with their child-sponsorship program for many years. She also served as the Chancellor of the University of Stirling in Scotland for ten years.
She passed away at her daughter's home in London on 10 September 2020, at the age of 82. Her daughter said that she had been diagnosed with cancer in March of that year.
Awards and Special Recognition
Diana Rigg received many awards and honors throughout her career.
- She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988.
- She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1994.
- She won a Tony Award in 1994 for Medea.
- She won a BAFTA TV Award in 1990 for Mother Love.
- She won an Emmy Award in 1997 for Rebecca.
- She received several nominations for her role in Game of Thrones.
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See also
In Spanish: Diana Rigg para niños
