Diana Rigg 1938 - 2020
The only woman to walk James Bond down the aisle
Like most people, I first noticed Diana Rigg in The Avengers in the mid-sixties. Everyone was totally knocked out by this stunning actress playing the extraordinary Emma Peel. There wasn’t a man in Britain who didn’t turn on the TV to watch her.
She was magnificent and original and so much more than an attractive woman in a shining leather suit doing karate. She brought an incisive intelligence to that role, as she did them all.
Years later, in 1992, I remember seeing her as Medea on stage and it had a profound effect on me. I remember her powerful presence, and the way she used language was extraordinary; this was her defining role on stage, and one the press said turned her into the most fantastic classical actress of her generation.
In 1996, while making a film in America, I heard that she had been cast in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? at the Almeida in north London. Thirty seconds later, I made a long-distance call to my agent and said: “Get me the part of George.”
I remember going to the readthrough feeling very intimidated about meeting Diana, who was to be Martha, my onstage wife in Edward Albee’s portrayal of a most toxic marriage. Here I was, looking at a grande dame of British theatre. And the reality was that she was grand. She didn’t suffer fools gladly and she was a very powerful person as well as a very powerful actress.
She was very domineering in the rehearsal room – all I could do was react. Then I realised that the play is much more than a shouting match between two people: it is a love story. George is desperately in love with Martha and his seeming mildness is a way to survive. But in fact he is the puppet master, and the only one who can stop the marriage from being doomed.
There are many brilliant actresses of Diana’s generation
– Judi Dench and Maggie Smith to name but two. But what set her apart – aside from her fierce intelligence
– was that she was passionate and had the courage to play from her solar plexus.
Strangely, she was not overly theatrical as a person.
She was very much a realist. She wanted to give her audiences value for money and when we did Virginia Woolf, there wasn’t one performance where she didn’t have 10 guns blazing.
We didn’t socialise very much because after three hours of such emotional intensity (six on a matinee day), all you could do was limp home. But I do remember after the final curtain came down that I was having a glass of wine in the bar with the director, and she came and put her hand on my shoulder and said: “Now David, I really think you need a holiday.” She could be very warm.
I never did take that holiday. At least I don’t think I did – at that time I was busy going from one role to another and doing Poirot, too. But we did work together one more time, on a TV drama called Victoria and Albert.i only had one scene with her and we hadn’t seen one another before we went on set. As soon as she did see me she came over and greeted me with a warm hello: immediately that history that we had shared, that connection, came back. It’s no surprise really. You can’t act with someone in a play like Virginia
Woolf and be neutral afterwards. There is such a built-in experience there and it is extraordinary, and very rare when it happens.
I feel so fortunate to have had the experience of working with such an iconic actress. When I look back over my career and think about the defining roles that I have had, one of them will be
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? And that is because of Dame Diana Rigg.