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She 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.
After The Avengers ended she returned to the stage, including playing two 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 basilica with too few flying buttresses'. 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 girlBond girl is slang for any actress taking a lead role in a James Bond movie or video game, or the character they play. Bond movies are known for the appearance of extremely attractive women in major roles (although secondary to Bond). Bond Girls are not r in On Her Majesty's Secret ServiceOn Her Majesty's Secret Service is a novel by Ian Fleming released in 1963. It is the sixth film (released in 1969) in the James Bond franchise and the first and last film to star George Lazenby as British secret service agent Commander James Bond. Lazenb ( 1969For other uses, see Number 1969. For the movie, see 1969 (movie). Events January January 1 Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News Of The World January 5 The Derry Riots leave over 100 people i). Her other films include The Assassination BureauThe Assassination Bureau was a movie made in 1969 based on the unfinished book by Jack London. It stars Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas. In the movie, Miss Winter (Rigg), a journalist, discovers an organization devoted to killing for money know ( 1969For other uses, see Number 1969. For the movie, see 1969 (movie). Events January January 1 Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch purchases the largest selling British Sunday newspaper The News Of The World January 5 The Derry Riots leave over 100 people i), Theatre of BloodTheatre of Blood was a 1973 horror film starring Vincent Price and Diana Rigg. 1973 films Horror films. ( 1973Events January events January 1 United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark enter the European Economic Community now known as the European Union January 3 Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12-person syndicate led), and A Little Night MusicA Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler. Based on the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night it tells the story of a lawyer, Fredrik Egerman, who is married to a very young wife, Anne, w ( 1977).
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.
Rigg was created CBE in 1987 and knighted in 1994. Dame Diana was born in Doncaster in Yorkshire and lived in India between the ages of two and eight. She was married to Menahem Gueffen, an Israeli painter, from 1973- 76, and to Archibald Stirling (a.k.a. Archibald Hugh Stirling of Keir), a theatrical producer, former officer in the Scots Guards, and a member of one of Scotland's grandest families, from 1982- 90. By Stirling she has a daughter, Rachael Atlanta Stirling (born 1977), who is also now an actress.
Since 1989 she has hosted the PBS television series Mystery!, taking over from Vincent Price.