Diana Rigg passed away after a brief battle with cancer according to her daughter. The BAFTA, Emmy, and Tony award-winning British actress was 82 and left behind a legacy of playing strong characters.
Lady Olenna Tyrell left “Game of Thrones” fans with a beautiful parting line: “Tell Cersei it was me.” Rigg played a cunning and powerful leader in the hit HBO series. No stranger to powerful characters, she was a household name as Emma Peel on “The Avengers” from 1965-1968. Her character was a smart and badass spy who also happened to be gorgeous! She and John Steed (Patrick Macnee) solved crimes and ensured that the guilty were given their due.
A Bond girl in the 1969 “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” she dazzled on the screen opposite George Lazenby. The actor passed along his regrets by saying “I’m so sad to hear of the death of Diana Rigg. She undoubtedly raised my acting game.”
Still working, she has two projects in post-production “Black Narcissus” and “Last Night in Soho.” More recently, Rigg appeared as Queen Victoria’s Mistress of the Robes – The Duchess of Buccleuch in ITV’s “Victoria” with “Doctor Who’s Jenna Coleman, and also played Mrs. Pumphrey in the adaptation of “All Creatures Great and Small.”
Her passion for acting never ceased. See her full filmography here.
Written by Colleen Bement
