Diana Rigg

Who is Diana Rigg?

Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for the role of Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers, which she appeared in from 1965 to 1968. She has also had an extensive career in the theatre both in Britain and America.

She made her professional stage debut in 1957 in The Caucasian Chalk Circle and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. In 1971, she made her Broadway debut in Abelard & Heloise. She played Medea in 1992 at the Almeida and Wyndham's in London and again in New York, where she won the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.

On television, she starred in the 1989 BBC miniseries Mother Love, for which she won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress and the 1997 adaptation of Rebecca, which won her an Emmy Award. Her film roles include, Helena, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Lady Holiday in The Great Muppet Caper and Arlene Marshall in Evil Under the Sun.

Rigg was made a CBE in 1988 and a Dame in 1994. She is considered a sex symbol and an icon of 1960s feminism.