11 September 2020 - Actress Diana Rigg dies at 82
Diana Rigg, Emma Peel of ‘The Avengers,’ Dies at 82
Anita Gates (The New York Times, 10/09/2020)
Diana Rigg, the British actress who enthralled London and New York theater audiences with her performances in classic roles for more than a half-century but remained best known as the quintessential new woman of the 1960s — sexy, confident, witty and karate-adept — on the television series “The Avengers,” died on Thursday at her home in London. She was 82.
Her daughter, Rachael Stirling, said in a statement that the cause was cancer.
Ms. Rigg had late-career success in a recurring role, from 2013 to 2016, as the outspoken and demanding Lady Olenna Tyrell on HBO’s acclaimed series “Game of Thrones.” “I wonder if you’re the worst person I ever met,” Lady Olenna once said to her nemesis Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). “At a certain age, it’s hard to recall.”
Diana Rigg: star with an independent streak to match her glamour
Mark Lawson (The Guardian, 10/09/2020)
When Diana Rigg made her Broadway debut in 1971, the theatre programme Playbill introduced her in terms that established the wide range of work and appeal that still marked her career at her death today, five decades later, at the age of 82.
The then-31-year-old Yorkshirewoman, theatregoers were told, was “a highly established star of the theatre, motion pictures and films in England” who had recently “become popular in the United States as the glamorous Emma Peel in The Avengers television series and as the leading lady in the latest James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.
Diana Rigg, 'The Avengers' and 'Game of Thrones' actress, dies at 82
Rasha Ali (USA Today, 10/09/2020)
Diana Rigg, a British actress who became a 1960s style icon as secret agent Emma Peel in the TV series “The Avengers,” died Thursday of cancer at the age of 82.
Rigg’s agent Simon Beresford said she died Thursday morning at home with her family. Her daughter, Rachael Stirling, said she was diagnosed with cancer in March.
Rigg starred in “The Avengers” alongside Patrick McNee’s bowler-hatted John Steed. The pair were an impeccably dressed duo who fought villains and traded quips in a show whose mix of adventure and humor was enduringly influential.
Dame Diana Rigg: A career in pictures
(BBC, 10/09/2020)
After learning her trade as theatre actress, Dame Diana Rigg, who has died at the age of 82, became a household name overnight by playing Emma Peel in The Avengers in the 1960s.
She appeared in 51 episodes of the British espionage show, which also starred Patrick MacNee (pictured above) as special agent John Steed.