Diana Rigg

Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 1938 – 10 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969); Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013–2017); and the title role in Medea in the West End in 1993 followed by Broadway a year later.

Rigg made her professional stage debut in 1957 in The Caucasian Chalk Circle and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. She made her Broadway debut in Abelard & Heloise in 1971. Her role as Emma Peel in The Avengers made her a sex symbol. Her eponymous turn in Medea, one of which she performed in both London and New York productions, won her the 1994 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, as well as earning her the first of four career Laurence Olivier Award nominations. Rigg was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for The Hospital and a Laurel Award for The Assassination Bureau. A nine-time Emmy Award nominee, she won Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie in 1997 for her role as Mrs. Danvers in the two-part miniseries Rebecca. She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress in 1990 for the BBC four-part miniseries Mother Love and, in 2000, received a special honorary BAFTA. She was appointed CBE in 1988 and a Dame in 1994 for services to drama.

Rigg appeared in many TV series and films, playing Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968); Lady Holiday in The Great Muppet Caper (1981); and Arlena Marshall in Evil Under the Sun (1982). Her other television credits include You, Me and the Apocalypse (2015), Detectorists (2015), the Doctor Who episode "The Crimson Horror" (2013) with her daughter, Rachael Stirling, and playing Mrs Pumphrey in All Creatures Great and Small (2020). Her final role was in Edgar Wright's 2021 psychological horror film Last Night in Soho, completed just before her death.