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Dame Diana Rigg DBE (born 20 July 1938 ), born '''Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg''', is an English Actress . EARLY LIFE Rigg was born in the South Yorkshire town of Doncaster , to Beryl Helliwell and Louis Rigg, a newspaperman who had been born in Yorkshire . She lived in India between the ages of two and eight and then went to school at Fulneck in Leeds . CAREER Rigg is particularly known for her role in the British 1960s Television Series '' The Avengers '', where she played the sexy secret agent Emma Peel . Her career in film, television and the theatre has been wide-ranging, including roles in the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1959 and 1964. Her professional debut was in ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' in 1955. Rigg tried out for the role of Emma Peel on a whim, without ever having seen the programme. Although she was hugely successful in the role, she did not like the lack of privacy that television brought. She also didn't like the way that she was treated by ITV ; after a dozen episodes she discovered that she was being paid less than the cameraman. For the second series she held out for a rise in pay (from 90 to 180 pounds a week), but there was still no question of her staying for a third year. Patrick Macnee , her co-star in the series, noted that Rigg had later told him that she considered him and her driver to be her only friends on the set. {Link without Title} After leaving ''The Avengers'' she appeared as the title character in the telemovie '' The Marquise '', which was based on a play by Noel Coward . She also returned to the stage, including playing two Tom Stoppard leads, Ruth Carson in '' Night And Day '' and Dorothy Moore in ''Jumpers''. A nude scene with Keith Michell in ''Abelard and Heloise'' led to a notorious description of her as 'built like a brick mausoleum with insufficient flying buttresses', by the acerbic Serbian-American critic John Simon . In 1986, she took a leading role in the West End production of Stephen Sondheim 's musical '' Follies ''. On the big screen she became a Bond Girl in '' On Her Majesty's Secret Service '' (1969), playing Tracy Draco , James Bond 's only wife. Her other films include '' The Assassination Bureau '' (1969), '' The Hospital '' (1971), '' Theatre Of Blood '' (1973), and '' A Little Night Music '' (1977). In the 1980s, after reading stinging reviews of a stage performance she had given, Rigg was inspired to compile the worst theatrical reviews she could find into a tongue-in-cheek (and best-selling) compilation, entitled ''No Turn Unstoned''. In the 1990s she had triumphs with roles at the Almeida Theatre in Islington (North London), including '' Medea '' in 1993, '' Mother Courage '' in 1995 and '' Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? '' in 1996. On television she has appeared as "Mrs. Danvers" in '' Rebecca '' and as the amateur detective "Mrs. Bradley" in a series of mysteries. From 1989 until 2003 she hosted the PBS television series '' Mystery! '', taking over from Vincent Price , her co-star from ''Theatre of Blood''. Dame Rigg has continued to perform on stage in London. The latest play being a drama entitled "Honour" which had a limited, but successful run in 2006. PRIVATE LIFE She lived with Philip Saville for some time, but would not marry him (he was married already). She did marry Menachem Gueffen , an Israel i painter, which lasted from 1973 to 1976, and Archibald Stirling , a theatrical producer, former officer in the Scots Guards and a member of one of Scotland's grandest families, which lasted from 1982 to 1990. By Stirling she has a daughter, the actress Rachael Stirling , who was born in 1977. Diana Rigg was created a Commander Of The British Empire (CBE) in 1988 and raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1994. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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