Who is Diana Rigg

Diana Rigg

16x20 Fine Art Photo
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Diana Rigg
16x20 Fine Art Photo
Available From Art.com

1959: "King Lear" - Attendant
1959: "Coriolanus" - Roman Citizen
1959: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Attendant
1959: "Othello" - Citizen
1959: "All's Well that Ends Well" - Lady
1958: "The Passing of the Third Floor Back" - Vivian
1957: "The Fruits of Enlightenment" - Anna Pavlovna-Zvezdintseva
1957: "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" - Natasha Abashwilli

1966: "Twelfth Night" - Viola
1964: "King Lear" - Cordelia
1963/4: "The Comedy of Errors" - Adriana
1963: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Helena
1963: "The Physicists" - Nurse Monika Stettler
1962: "King Lear" - Cordelia
1962: "The Comedy of Errors" - Adriana
1962: "Macbeth" - Lady Macduff
1962: "The Taming of the Shrew" - Bianca
1962: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Helena
1962: "The Art of Seduction" - President de Tourvel
1961: "The Taming of the Shrew" - Bianca
1961: "Becket" - Gwendolen
1961: "The Devils" - Phillipe Trincant
1961: "Ondine" - Violanta, Second Ondine
1960: "The Duchess of Malfi" - Lady
1960: "The Winter's Tale" - Lady
1960: "Troilus & Cressida" - Andromache
1960: "The Taming of the Shrew" - Wench
1960: "The Merchant of Venice" - Lady
1960: "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" - Lady

1987: "Follies" - Phyllis Stone
1986: "Wildfire" - Bess Garrison
1985: "Antony and Cleopatra" - Cleopatra
1985: "Little Eyolf" - Rita Allmers
1983: "Heartbreak House" - Hesione Hushabye
1982: "Colette" - Colette
1978: "Night and Day" - Ruth Carson
1978: "The Guardsman" - Ilona
1976: "Phaedra Britannica" - Phaedra
1975: "The Misanthrope" - Celimene
1974: "Pygmalion" - Eliza Doolittle
1973: "The Misanthrope" - Celimene
1973: "Jumpers" - Dottie Moore
1972/3: "Macbeth" - Lady Macbeth
1972: "'Tis Pity She's a Whore" - Hippolita
1972: "Jumpers" - Dottie Moore
1970/1: "Abelard and Heloise" - Heloise

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Heidi

Diana was a guest star in a 2003 episode of the BBC psychological thriller 'Murder in Mind.' She played the character Jill Craig, an apparent suicide victim.

In October 2003, Diana won a 35,000 libel case against two British newspapers that had claimed she was 'an embittered woman who was retiring from acting.'

Diana has one brother called Hugh. He is four years younger.

The actress Elizabeth Shepherd was initially selected to play Steed's new partner following the departure of Honor Blackman in 'The Avengers.' Despite the fact that some filming had already taken place, when the directors saw Diana in 'Armchair Theatre' she was chosen instead.

In a BBC radio interview, Diana said that she loved to go trout and salmon fishing in her spare time.

Diana received a BAFTA Special Award in 2000 for her role as Emma Peel in 'The Avengers'. It was shared jointly with the three other actresses who starred in the show: Honor Blackman, Linda Thorson and Joanna Lumley.

Diana was made Chancellor of Stirling University in October 1998. She is the first woman to hold the post.

She won a Tony Award for her performance in the 1994 Broadway production of 'Medea'.

She has received two Honorary Degrees, one from Leeds University and one from Stirling University.

Diana was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1987.

In the early 1970's, Diana Rigg had her own comedy series called 'Diana'. Only 13 episodes were ever aired.

In 1997, Diana received an EMMY for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Mini Series or Movie for her performance as Mrs Danvers in the ITV production of 'Rebecca'.

The name Emma Peel, her character in 'The Avengers', is a pun on the phrase 'man appeal'.

She is the mother of 'Tripping the Velvet' star Rachael Stirling.

Diana Rigg became a Dame of the British Empire in 1994 for her outstanding contribution to theatre and film.

The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries
Series 1
(Speedy Death / The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries)

The Mrs Bradley Mysteries was a British television drama series, produced in-house by the BBC for broadcast on the BBC One channel. It ran in 1998 and 1999, consisting of five episodes in total; a one-off special in the first year followed by a series of four episodes in the second.

Some co-production funding was contributed by the United States PBS broadcaster WGBH. In the US, the series was shown in PBS's Mystery! anthology strand, the host of which was Diana Rigg, who was also the star of The Mrs Bradley Mysteries. Wearing 1920s clothes, she introduced each episode to the audience:

"Adela Bradley doesn't mince words. And why should she. They are her greatest weapon against fools, cads, criminals...and ex-lovers. Words also came easily to Adela's creator, Gladys Mitchell, who published nearly eighty novels in her long lifetime. Gladys introduced Mrs. Bradley in 1929 in the book "Speedy Death". She endowed her breezy heroine with attributes she herself possessed including an interest in Freud and a passion for all things British: Morris dancing, mayday rituals, and the Loch Ness Monster. Over the course of some sixty mysteries, Adela Bradley married and divorced three husbands, was made a Dame of the British Empire, and a consultant to the British Home Office. She also developed prodigious abilities at pub darts, snooker, billiards, and knife throwing. One thing she cannot do is knit."

Joining Mrs. B. is her handsome confidant and chauffeur, George Moody, played by Neil Dudgeon. Wherever their Rolls Royce carries them, they encounter murders that people are just too embarrassed to report to the police.

Diana Rigg
16x20 Fine Art Photo
Available From Art.com




Diana Rigg
16x20 Fine Art Photo
Available From Art.com

2008: "The Cherry Orchard" - Ranyevskaya
2007: "All About My Mother" - Huma Rojo
2006: "Honour" - Honor Spencer
2004: "Suddenly, Last Summer" - Violet Venable
2002: "The Hollow Crown" - Various
2001: "The Women" National Theatre (Old Vic)
2001: "Humble Boy" - Flora Humble
1999: "Britannicus" - Agrippina
1999: "Phedre" - Phedre
1998: "Britannicus" - Agrippina
1998: "Phedre" - Phedre
1997: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" - Martha
1996: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" - Martha
1995/6: "Mother Courage" - Anna Fierling, Mother Courage
1994: "Medea" Medea
1993: "Medea" Medea
1992: "Medea" Medea
1992: "Berlin Bertie" - Rosa
1992: "Putting It Together"
1991: "All for Love" - Cleopatra
1990: "Love Letters" - Melissa Gardner

2006: "The Painted Veil" - Mother Superior.
2005: "Heidi" - Grandmamma.
1998: "Parting Shots" - Lisa.
1994: "Good Man in Africa" - Chloe Fanshawe.
1994: "Running Delilah" - Judith.
1987: "Snow White" - Evil Queen.
1982: ""Evil Under the Sun - Arlena Stuart Marshall.
1981: "The Great Muppet Caper" - Lady Holiday.
1977: "A Little Night Music" - Countess Charlotte Mittelheim.
1973: "Theatre of Blood" - Edwina Lionheart.
1971: "The Hospital" - Barbara Drummond.
1970: "Julius Caesar" - Portia.
1969: "Mini-Killers/Das Diadem"
1969: "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - Teresa (Tracy) di Vincenzo.
1969: "The Assassination Bureau" - Sonya Winter.
1969: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Helena.

Diana Rigg: On Her Majesty's Secret Service
16x20 Fine Art Photograph
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2003: "Charles II: The Power and the Passion" - Queen Henrietta Maria
2003: "Murder in Mind" ('Suicide') - Jill Craig
2001: "Victoria and Albert" - Baroness Lehzen
2000: "In the Beginning" - Mature Rebeccah
1999: "Mrs. Bradley Mysteries" - Adela Bradley
1998: "The American" - Madame de Bellegarde
1998: "Mrs. Bradley Mysteries" - Adela Bradley
1997: "Rebecca" - Mrs. Danvers
1996: "Samson and Delilah" - Mara
1996: "Moll Flanders" - Mrs. Golightly
1995: "The Haunting of Helen Walker" - Mrs. Grose
1995: "Zoya" - Evgenia
1994: "Genghis Cohn" - Baroness Frieda von Stangel
1993: "The Road to Avonlea" ('The Disappearance') - Lady Edith Blackwell
1992: "Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris" - Madame Colbert
1989: "Mother Love" - Helena Vesey
1989: "Unexplained Laughter" - Lydia
1987: "A Hazard of Hearts" - Harriet Vulcan
1986: "The Worst Witch" - Miss Hardbroom
1985: "Bleak House" - Lady Honoria Dedlock
1983: "King Lear" - Regan
1982: "Witness for the Prosecution" - Christine Vole
1982: "Little Eyolf" - Rita Allmers
1981: "Hedda Gabler" - Hedda Gabler
1980: "The Marquise" - Eloise de Kestournel
1979: "The Serpent Son" - Klytemnestra
1977: "Three Piece Suite" - Various Roles
1975: "In This House of Brede" - Philippa Talbot
1974: "Affairs of the Heart" - Grace Gracedew
1973: "Diana" - Diana Smythe
1970: "Married Alive" - Liz Jardine
1969: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Helena
1965-67: "The Avengers" - Emma Peel
1965: "Women Beware Women" - Bianca
1964: "The Hothouse" - Anita Fender
1964: "The Comedy of Errors" - Adriana
1963: "The Sentimental Agent" ('A Very Desirable Plot') - Francy Wilde
1961: "Ondine" - Violanta

Diana Rigg:
The Biography

Though forever linked in the public's eye with her Emma Peel role, Diana Rigg is one of England's most respected theatre actresses and, judging from this book, one hell of an interesting individual. In an eventful career fuelled by a fierce independence and a drive to test new waters, Rigg has scored notable successes in the theatre, movies and television along with the occasional failure. Her personal life has been as adventuresome and, as revealed in this biography by Kathleen Tracy, Rigg is as interesting a character as any role she has played.

Born in India and educated in England, Rigg arrived in London in the late 1950s very much a free spirit. Joining what was to become the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959 she embarked on a theatre career, slowly establishing a reputation as a gifted, insightful actress. In 1965, on a whim, she auditioned for the AVENGERS television series and won the role that made her into a cultural icon.

It isn't overstating matters to say the Emma Peel character exploded on the public conscience, especially the male portion. Here was a beautiful, intelligent, witty and self-assured woman capable of handling all situations, a woman totally unlike anything seen on television previously. Yet, for all the attention given to karate kicks and 'Emmapeeler' costumes, Rigg was a marvellously talented actress with a wonderfully expressive face that could effortlessly go from self-confidence to uncertainty to terror. Not to mention a smile that lit up a room and a rich, fruity voice and laugh!

Characteristically seeking new challenges, Rigg left the AVENGERS after two years. Returning to the theatre world, her reputation as a stage actress steadily grew over the years: Olivier subsequently calling her "a brilliantly skilled and delicious actress."

Rigg's track record in films and television was mixed. She was charming in THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU, held her own against George C. Scott in THE HOSPITAL, was the best Bond girl ever in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, tanked in DIANA, was Emmy nominated for IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE and was monstrously evil in MOTHER LOVE. Rigg's personal life was just as varied and interesting.

Unbelieveably, this is the first book about this gifted Tony and Emmy Award winner. Rigg fans will enjoy this book immensely, especially those quoted sections where she reveals herself as a forthright, insightful and self-deprecating 'Dame who considers herself a dame.'