Regular Cast Biography
Page 9 of 11

Diana Rigg Emma Peel, 1965-67

by David K. Smith

Born 20 July 1938 in Doncaster, England, Diana Rigg was transplanted to India at the age of two months when her father, a railroad construction engineer, moved the family there for seven years (where she learned to speak Hindi). Returning to Yorkshire, she graduated from Fulneck Girls School in Pudsey and was promptly accepted by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, although she frequently butted heads with the faculty and was nearly kicked out. While highly successful at the Royal Shakespeare Company, she was starving on the meager pay, and started moonlighting on television shows. An appearance on Armchair Theatre ("The Hothouse") indirectly led to her world-famous role as Mrs. Emma Peel.

Voted #1 in TV Guide's "Top Ten Hottest Stars of All Time" (7 August 1999), Ms. Rigg started her acting career early, appearing in a school play of "Goldilocks" at the age of thirteen, and thereafter expressed a preference for the stage. By the time she was 22 she had been a clerk, a telephonist, and a fashion model. Named Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1987 and made a Dame in 1994, she has received honorary doctorates from Stirling University and from the University of Leeds.

Diana's father was Louis Rigg, her mother Beryl Helliwell. She has a brother, Hugh, an officer in the RAF, four years her elder. She married Menachem Gueffen, an artist, on 6 July 1973 in London, and divorced on 3 September 1976. Her daughter Rachael Atlanta Stirling was born 30 May 1977. She then married Archibald Hugh Stirling, a theatrical producer and Scottish laird (full title: Archibald Stirling of Keir) on 25 March 1982 in New York, and divorced in 1990.

Inquiries about Diana's daughter are on the rise, so here are a few tidbits on Rachael: A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, she followed her mother's lead and became an actress (filmography at IMDb). At 5 feet 9 inches, Rachael is 1/2-inch taller than her mother. Clever casting: Rachael plays the young Rebeccah and her mother the mature Rebeccah in the miniseries In the Beginning (2000).

Trivia: Dame Diana Rigg appeared as a guest on The New Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4 on Friday 2nd May. During her interview the actress discussed her time playing the role of Emma Peel in the 60s action TV series, The Avengers, which was made at Elstree Studios (then called A.B.P.C - Associated British Pictures Corportation). At the end of the show, Dame Diana was presented with a framed certificate to prove that she had created a new world record! The record being that Rigg was the first Western actress to have performed Kung Fu on a British TV series! Courtesy of www.elstreecalling.co.uk

• For fans who simply cannot get enough of the Dame, there is dianarigg.net, which offers a companion forum
• For those who understand French, there's Diana Rigg, ...
• What A Character! has a brief bio and filmography
• Salon Magazine brings you "Brilliant Careers," among them Diana Rigg—nicely done, except that it has a number of factual errors
• A curious but well-done bio page: People Are Strange-Diana Rigg
• John Robinson claims his is "The Very Best Web Site Honouring Her With Original Montage Images"
• Diana Rigg is considered one of the original Swingin' Chicks
• A Tribute to Dame Diana Rigg
• A Tribute to the Career of Dame Diana Rigg
• TV and Movie Trivia Tribute
• Here's a student slide show about Dame Diana Rigg
• Another one of many stray pages about Diana Rigg
• Then there's the Diana Rigg Picture Gallery—it is what it is
• Article: The divine Diana By Andrew Holden, 24 April 2002
• This is her entry in the Smoking List
• Bios, bios everywhere: BFI, Fact Index, Free-Definition, Hollywood.com, IMDB, MSN Entertainment, World of Celebrities
• More can be found at Variable Earth
• Lots more can be found with a Google search — be prepared for about a half-million hits...

• www.emmapeel.com is a screwy website that mixes The Avengers TV series and The Avengers superhero comic book series information together! It also features a fair amount of material stolen from TAF and other sites
• Emma Peel: An Appreciation is simply a visual tribute—a number of large images, mostly screen grabs
• Emma Peel - an Appreciation by Elizabeth Beebe has a bit more to it
• There's a (very small) Emma Peel Webring
• This is her Fact Index entry
• Emma Peel Page at AGIEV has various modified images and some animated gifs
• Amazon Women Warriors in Ancient History features Emma Peel as their mascot
• Who's the best? See Tall Dark and Deadly: A Comparative Look at Xena and Emma Peel
• No contest for Comic Book Fights: Emma Peel vs. Agent 99
• Into female muscle? Check out I Dream of Muscle
• Lots more can be found with a Google search — be prepared to wade through over a million hits...

• WOMEN IN FILM AND TELEVISION AWARDS Lifetime Achievement (2001)
• BAFTA (2000) for The Avengers
• Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Special for "Rebecca" (1996-97)
• LONDON EVENING STANDARD Award for Best Actress for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1996)
• Tony for Best Leading Actress in a Drama for "Medea" (1994)
• LONDON EVENING STANDARD Award for Best Actress for "Medea" (1992)
• Variety Club Award for "Evil Under the Sun" (1982)
• PLAYS AND PLAYERS London Theatre Critics Award for Best Actress for "Phaedra Britannica" (1975)

• So To the Land (1994)
• No Turn Unstoned: The Worst Ever Theatrical Reviews (1982)
• 45 RPM record: "Sentimental Journey" b/w "Forget Yesterday" UK RCA-Victor #2178 (1972)

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This website Copyright © 1996-2008 David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.
Page last modified 15 September 2008.