Actor’s TV roles spanned from ‘Avengers’ to ‘Game of Thrones’
LONDON — Diana Rigg, a commanding British actor whose career stretched from the iconic 1960s spy series “The Avengers” to the fantasy juggernaut “Game of Thrones,” has died. She was 82.
Rigg ’s agent, Simon Beresford, said she died Thursday morning at home with her family. Daughter Rachael Stirling said she died of cancer that was diagnosed in March.
Rigg “spent her last months joyfully reflecting on her extraordinary life, full of love, laughter and a deep pride in her profession. I will miss her beyond words,” Stirling said.
Rigg starred in “The Avengers” as secret agent Emma Peel alongside Patrick McNee’s bowler-hatted John Steed. The pair were an impeccably dressed duo who fought villains and traded quips in a show whose mix of adventure and humor was enduringly influential.
Rigg also starred in 1969 James Bond thriller “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” as Tracy di Vicenzo, the only woman ever to marry, albeit briefly, Agent 007. Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said Rigg was “much beloved by Bond fans for her memorable performance.”
George Lazenby, who made his only appearance as Bond in the film, said on Instagram that he was “so sad to hear of the death of Diana Rigg. She undoubtedly raised my acting game when we made On Her Majesty’s Secret Service together in 1968-9.”
In later life, she played Olenna Tyrell — the formidable “Queen of Thorns” — in “Game of Thrones,” receiving an Emmy Award nomination for the role.
Rigg had her own sitcom
vehicle, NBC’s “Diana,” in 1973-74 and later hosted PBS’ “Masterpiece Mystery” from 1989 to 2004.
Other television roles included the Duchess of Buccleuch in the period drama “Victoria,” and she starred alongside her daughter in the gentle British sitcom “Detectorists.”
Rigg spent several years in the 1960s as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and combined screen work with a major stage career, in plays including William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage” and Tom Stoppard’s “Jumpers” at the National Theatre in London.
She had several acclaimed roles in the 1990s at London’s Almeida Theatre, including Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and the title role in the Greek tragedy “Medea.”
Rigg won a Tony Award for “Medea” on Broadway and was nominated on three other occasions — most recently in 2018 for playing Mrs. Higgins in “My Fair Lady.”
Jonathan Kent, who directed Rigg in some of her great stage roles, said her “combination of force of personality, beauty, courage and sheer emotional power made her a great classical
actress — one of an astonishing generation of British stage performers.”
She never retired. One of Rigg’s final television roles was in the rural veterinary drama “All Creatures Great and Small,” which is currently running on British television.
Stoppard said Rigg was “the most beautiful woman in the room, but she was what used to be called a trouper.”
“She went to work with her sleeves rolled up and a smile for everyone. Her talent was luminous,” he said.
During the 1960s, Rigg lived for eight years with actor-director Philip Saville, who was both older and otherwise married; she caused some scandal in the British tabloids when she proclaimed no interest in marrying Saville, saying she had no desire “to be respectable.”
She married Israeli painter Menachem Gueffen in 1973, but the couple divorced three years later.
She was married to theatrical producer Archibald Stirling from 1982 until their divorce in 1990.
Rigg is survived by her daughter and a grandson.