Actress Dame Diana Rigg, famous for roles including Emma Peel in TV series The Avengers and Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, has died at the age of 82. Her daughter, actress Rachael Stirling, said she died of cancer, after being diagnosed in March.
“She spent her last months joyfully reflecting on her extraordinary life, full of love, laughter and a deep pride in her profession,” she added.
Dame Diana Rigg also played the only woman who became Mrs James Bond. Rigg played Tracy, who married George Lazenby’s 007 in the 1969 film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
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Lazenby said he was “so sad” to hear of Rigg’s death, while Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli also paid tribute.
The Avengers TV show and the Game of Thrones official accounts also honoured her.
Dame Diana Rigg’s other recent roles included the Duchess of Buccleuch in ITV’s Victoria and Mrs Pumphrey in Channel 5’s new adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small.
Samuel West, who plays Siegfried in the show, said: “Doesn’t really make sense to think of her having died. She generally lived the hell out of everyone.”
Others paying tribute included Sir Tom Stoppard, who remembered her “luminous” talent, while fellow playwright Sir David Hare said Rigg had a “dazzling change of direction in middle age as a great classical actor”.
‘She swept all before her’
He said: “When Emma Peel played Euripides’ Medea, Albee’s Martha and Brecht’s Mother Courage she swept all before her”. Her four Tony Awards nominations resulted in a win for her searing portrayal in the leading role in the stage play Medea in 1994.
Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister, said the actress “always raised the bar with her incredible talent, intelligence and wit. An absolute joy and honour to work with”.
Sherlock writer and actor Mark Gatiss fondly recalled working with her, while Stephen Merchant remembered Rigg in a scene from his show Extras.
In 1990, Rigg won the best actress Bafta TV award for playing a difficult mother-in-law in Mother Love. She also won a Bafta special award in 2000 for The Avengers; shared with the series’ other stars Honor Blackman, Joanna Lumley, and Linda Thorson.
Dame Diana Rigg was also nominated for nine primetime Emmy awards, winning for her role as Mrs Danvers in Rebecca in 1997.
