Diana Rigg Was ‘One Tough Dame,’ from Emma Peel to Bond Girl to ‘Game of Thrones’ (EXCLUSIVE)

It's only when you take a step back that you get to see the many sides that made up the late Dame Diana Rigg. She was a leather-clad Avenger long before Scarlett Johansson (though in a British television espionage series rather than the Marvel Cinematic Universe), the first "Bond Girl" to hold her own against Agent 007, a perennial presence on the British stage and embraced as a star of HBO's Game of Thrones . Yet all of that was only a small part of who she was, as author Herbie J Pilato discovered while writing his new biography, One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg .

"My original perception of Diana Rigg had always been that she was a hot, tough, TV star who didn't put up with anything," says Pilato, "and my perception of her after having written the book is that that's pretty much who she was in real life as well. At the same time, she was compassionate and caring and devoted to charities, while not letting people know about it. And she was a classically trained actress who, like many British actors, don't give a damn what they do, all they care about is getting on that stage, which Diana went back to again and again. She didn't succeed in relationships, and never thought that she would, which is something she was okay with. Her work drove her."

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She was born Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg on July 20, 1938 in England, and spent most of the first eight years of her life living with her family in India. She would later attend the British boarding school Fulneck Girl's School (which she detested), but eventually trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art between 1955 and 1957. Her first foray into acting was as a part of the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1959 and 1967, shifting into films and television as well, though the stage would always be her home.

During the 1960s, the two roles that brought her the greatest amount of attention was that of secret agent Emma Peel opposite Patrick Macnee's John Steed on The Avengers, from 1965 to 1968, and then as Tracy Bond — the only woman to marry James Bond (played by George Lazenby, taking over from Sean Connery) — in 1969's 007 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service , though their marriage would be a tragically short one.

Diana Rigg is credited with 33 stage productions between 1957's The Caucasian Chalk Circle and a 2018 production of My Fair Lady . During that time, she took the lead roles in a pair of Tom Stoppard premieres (1972’s Jumpers and 1978’s Night and Day ); won the Tony Award in 1994 for Medea , in which Rigg played the title role; starred in an acclaimed 1996 production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and played a nun in 2006’s The Painted Veil .

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There were 20 films from 1968's A Midsummer Night's Dream to 2021's Last Night in Soho ; and, beyond guest appearances or TV movies, had recurring or regular roles on Diana (1973 to 1974), Three Piece Suit (1977), The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (1998 to 2000), as Lady Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (18 episodes between 2013 and 2017), You, Me and the Apocalypse (2015), Detectorists (2017), Victoria (2017) and All Creatures Great and Small (2020).

In her personal life, Diana Rigg was married to Menachem Gueffen from 1973 until 1976, and then to Archie Stirling from 192 until 1990, the two of them having a daughter, Rachael Stirling. She was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1994 as a call-out for her services to drama. She died of cancer on September 10, 2020 at the age of 82.

More about Diana Rigg is revealed by her biographer and author of One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg , Herbie J Pilato, in the facts below.

She was an advocate for equal pay before it was the norm

HERBIE J PILATO: Back when she was on The Avengers , she discovered what other people were making and began asking, "Why is a cameraman making more money than me? How come I'm not making the same amount of money as Patrick Macnee?” She adored him and he adored her, but she was a little disappointed in him that he didn't stick up for her during all of that.

She spoke Hindi at the age of 8

HJP: I couldn't speak English at eight years old and she was speaking Hindi [ laughs ]. Her father worked for the railway in India, where she lived from two months to eight years and she spoke Hindi as a second language.

Despite rumors to the contrary, she enjoyed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

HJP: She absolutely adored being in that film. I know there were some issues between her and George Lazenby and they've boldly told different stories. He said that she came by his dressing room one day and he was with a woman and that pissed her off, so there wasn't going to be an affair between the two of them, but she said, "What are you talking about? There was never anything between George and I." She was upset that he had such an ego on the film, and she was disappointed, because she really thought he wasn't that bad an actor for it being his first time. So, it was just a very complicated situation, and she knew that she was hired for that film to help him up his game, because she was just so fantastic. It was a double-edged sword, that role. But she was the strongest Bond leading lady up until that time and remains highly-regarding to this day.

Her favorite film was Theatre of Blood (1973)

Given her extensive credits, it may be surprising to some that Diana Rigg's favorite movie role was 1973's Theatre of Blood , starring Vincent Price as Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart, who blames a group of critics for the shambles of his career and decides to murder each of them, enlisting the help of his daughter, Edwina (Diana Rigg).

HJP: She loved working with Vincent Price and she loved that he got to really display his theatrical abilities, because he was pigeonholed as this horror movie guy and he felt that he wasn't fully appreciated for his talent as an actor. Diana bonded with him on that, because she was just coming out of The Avengers where the whole idea of her being a sex symbol was outshining her ability to prove herself as an actress, so that's something they bonded over specifically. So, I think it had more to do with that, because she got to work with him and she empathized with him.

Diana Rigg felt she never became a movie star because ... her head was too big(!)

HJP: TV acting was a very special kind of acting. Not everybody could be a TV star and not everybody could be likable enough to be welcomed into people's homes. And making that transition to the big screen was not an easy thing. It certainly wasn't then, though today nobody cares. You know, what are you watching on? A monitor, a mobile phone, a movie screen? But back then, to be a movie star, you had to be a movie star and she felt she didn't have the right face for it. Which didn't make any sense to me.

Diana Rigg broke free of her action heroine roots

HJP: In the same way that Sean Connery was desperate to break away from the James Bond image, Diana wanted to escape from Emma Peel and The Avengers . But while with Sean there was always a bit of Bond in what he did, Diana did break away from Emma. I don't think she felt she had anything to prove after a certain time, because she managed to break away from the stereotype. Certainly in the last 15 or 20 years, where she became this icon of television with the series Game of Thrones and All Creatures Great and Small . There were millions of people who saw those shows who never saw The Avengers , which brought her great gratification.

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