Diana Rigg, the classically trained British actor who was one of the best stage performers of her generation but who found greater fame on the small screen—with career-bookending roles in The Avengers and Game of Thrones—died of cancer on Thursday at age 82.
Rigg’s daughter, actor Rachael Sterling, said in a statement that her mother “spent her last months joyfully reflecting on her extraordinary life, full of love, laughter, and a deep pride in her profession.” She added, “I will miss her beyond words.” Rigg’s agent, Simon Beresford, said she “died at home with her family who have asked for privacy at this difficult time.”
Rigg’s storied career got its start in 1959 at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and she played legendary Shakespearean parts, including Helena in Peter Hall’s 1968 filmic version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Portia in a 1970 all-star version of Julius Caesar. For many of her fans, though, perhaps her most memorable role was as that of the sexy, catsuited Emma Peel on the 1960s TV series The Avengers, which made her an instant celebrity in both Britain and the United States. Though she wasn’t offered many starring roles in movies over the course of her long career, one of them made history: In the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Rigg played the only woman to marry the elusive international spy throughout the six-decade franchise. (Spoiler alert: She was killed off before the final credits rolled.)
Younger American audiences might know Rigg best from her role as Lady Olenna Tyrell on Game of Thrones, for which she was nominated for four Emmy Awards. Those weren’t Rigg’s only Emmy nominations, though; she collected nine total during her career, along with one best-supporting-actress win for her role as Mrs. Danvers in a 1997 miniseries production of Rebecca. In 1990, Rigg won a best-actress BAFTA TV award for her role in Mother Love. She also won a BAFTA special award in 2000 for The Avengers, an honor shared with the series’ other stars, Honor Blackman, Joanna Lumley, and Linda Thorson. For her last appearance on Broadway, playing the mother of Henry Higgins in the 2018 Lincoln Center production of My Fair Lady (“the definition of luxury casting,” in the words of the New York Times), Rigg earned a Tony nomination for best featured actress in a musical. Earlier in career, she won the 1994 best-actress Tony for her title role in Medea and was also nominated for two other Broadway appearances, in The Misanthrope (1975) and Abelard and Heloise, her Broadway debut (1971).
Rigg was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1988 and a Dame Commander in 1994. She is survived by Sterling, as well as one grandson.
