Dame Diana Rigg DBE |
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Rigg in the 1973 TV series Diana
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Born |
Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg 20 July 1938 Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK |
Residence | Hammersmith, London, UK |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1959–present |
Spouse(s) |
Menachem Gueffen (m. 1973; div. 1976) Archie Stirling (m. 1982; div. 1990) |
Children | Rachael Stirling |
Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE (born 20 July 1938) is an English actress. She played Emma Peel in the 1960s TV series The Avengers, and plays Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, Sutton in You, Me and the Apocalypse, and opposite her daughter, Rachael Stirling, in Detectorists. She has had an extensive career in film and theatre, including playing the title role in Medea, both in London and New York, for which she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She was made CBE in 1988 and a Dame in 1994.
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 the 1971 production of Abelard & Heloise. Her film roles include Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969); Lady Holiday in The Great Muppet Caper (1981); and Arlene Marshall in Evil Under the Sun (1982). She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for the 1989 BBC miniseries Mother Love, and an Emmy Award for her role as Mrs. Danvers in the 1997 adaptation of Rebecca.