Diana Rigg

Born on July 20, 1938 in Doncaster (in the British county of South Yorkshire), Diana Rigg spent a large part of her childhood in India, for work reasons for her father, an engineer. Back in England she studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. With various productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company, she began to earn enormous prestige on the stage. 

After a few appearances in series on the small screen, she was chosen to play Emma Peel, a woman of arms to take, who worked as a secret agent of the British government, in the fourth season of The Avengers , a landmark of British television, Her costume of leather with silver boots, her chemistry with the male lead, Patrick MacNee, her mastery of karate in fights, and the humor that she gave to the series made her the most remembered female protagonist of this fiction. When she recorded the first batch of episodes she discovered that she earned less than the camera operator. She demanded a raise, and the producers not only acquiesced, but allowed her enough flexibility to continue acting on stage. “During filming, we didn’t even imagine that Emma Steed would become a feminist symbol and a role model for many women,” she said in an interview. The role was inherited by Uma Thurman in the infamous film version of the television production shot in 1998.

In 1967, Diana Rigg left the series to pursue other projects, becoming the only woman to settle down with James Bond himself, who walked her down the aisle in 007 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, where the licensed agent for kill was played by George Lazenby  (who was not forgiven by the public for his character getting married, so he did not play it again). She also shot the action comedy The Assassins’ Club , the drama Anatomy of a Hospital , and the comedy horror film  To Kill or Not to Kill, This Is the Problem , alongside Vincent Price . .

Starting in the 1990s, he devoted himself mainly to the theater, but he continued to appear on film and television. Late in her life, she played Olenna Tyrell, de facto leader of one of the great houses of the Seven Kingdoms, in Game of Thrones. . Divorced in 1976 from Menachem Gueffen, her husband, she was together with the producer, Archibald Hugh Stirling between 1982 and 1990. The latter was the father of Rachael Atlanta Stirling, her only daughter, who followed in her footsteps as actress. She was the author of two books, one on the world of theater, “No Turn Unstoned: The Worst Ever Theatrical Reviews” and “So to the Land.” , on British poetry. In 1994 she received the Dama recognition. 

She has been combining her passion for fishing with her work as an actress until the end of her life. At the time of her death,  Diana Rigg had the feature film Last Night in Soho and the miniseries Black Narcissus  pending release .