# Diana Rigg dies at 82 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264 "2020-09-10T14:23:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/1 "2020-09-10T14:23:17Z")
I watched the Avengers because Diana Rigg was in it. She was such a lovely lady and one of the early female action heroes. Diana was recently in Game of Thrones and a new generation of fans discovered her. She’ll be remembered for a long time. RIP > **[Diana Rigg, Star of ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Game of Thrones,’ Dies at 82](https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/diana-rigg-dead-82-dies-avengers-game-of-thrones-1234765209/)** > > Diana Rigg, the Tony and Emmy winner who splashed into the world of television with her commanding turn as intelligence agent Emma Peel on “The Avengers” in the 1960s and played Lady Ol… ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/2 "2020-09-10T14:30:03Z")
What a lousy way to start the day. Forget the TV. I’m old enough to have seen her do Shakespeare with the RSC. RIP, my lady. We’ll miss you. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/3 "2020-09-10T14:31:33Z")
I guess she was needed … upstairs. RIP ☹ ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/4 "2020-09-10T14:35:33Z")
I didn’t know that Diana had been nominated for so many acting awards. She had quite a career. I remember when she hosted Mystery! on PBS. It was really good. From the previously linked Variety article. > [@](#): > > On HBO’s “Game of Thrones” Rigg recurred as Olenna Tyrell, also known as the Queen of Thorns, beginning with the third season in 2013. She was Emmy nominated for guest actress in a drama for her work on the show in 2013, 2014 and 2015 > **SNIP** > In between she won an Emmy for playing Mrs. Danvers in a TV adaptation of “Rebecca” in 1997. She also received an Emmy nomination in 1975 for lead actress in a special program for “In This House of Brede,” in which she played a London businesswoman who opts to become a nun, and in 2002 for supporting actress in a miniseries or movie for “Victoria & Albert.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/5 "2020-09-10T14:38:33Z")
“I was good. I was very good.” Yes you were, Dame Diana. Now that was a life – applause as you finally bow out. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/6 "2020-09-10T14:43:29Z")
I didn’t realize she was in her 80s. I’ve seen her daughter Rachael Stirling in a few programmes and Ms. Sterling looks and sounds exactly like her mother. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/7 "2020-09-10T14:48:37Z")
Mark Gatiss wrote a episode of Doctor Who for Diana and Rachael to star in. It’s called the Crimson Horror. It’s one of Matt Smith’s better episodes. AFAIK it’s the only time they worked together. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/8 "2020-09-10T14:50:52Z")
There was a TV show about her called The Avengers. I think there were other people and stuff in that show too. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/9 "2020-09-10T15:03:31Z")
… and she, like, left it to do a movie. Uh … what the hell was the name of that movie where she, like, married some Secret Agent dude, or something? 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/10 "2020-09-10T15:14:00Z")
Noooo…! She was … Awesome. She was the @EmmaWatson of her time. Somewhere, if that exists, I’m sure she’s looking down on all of us. In a catsuit. “Come on now. WE’VE… got work to do.” \< clarinet exit music \> ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/11 "2020-09-10T15:17:19Z")
“Steed … is everything to scale?” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/12 "2020-09-10T15:30:14Z")
A great actress, an outsize presence and a feisty spirit. She will be missed. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/13 "2020-09-10T15:41:28Z")
only saw her in GOT but she was very good there ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/14 "2020-09-10T15:48:07Z")
Damn. I first saw her in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, at an…impressionable age. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/15 "2020-09-10T15:53:02Z")
If you didn’t see her in the Avengers when it first aired then you can’t imagine how transcendentally wonderful she appeared. Mrs. Peel was above every other woman who had ever been on a television show. Brains, beauty, excellence in multiple competences, and above all that attitude of absolute mastery of the world that was equal to the superlative that was John Steed. Once seen, nobody could forget her. It was the role of a lifetime - everybody’s lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/16 "2020-09-10T15:57:39Z")
Odd. Mrs. Peel was always a part of the cultural zietgeist when I was growing up, but I never actually saw more than a couple of episodes of the series. I was grown before I saw _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_. My biggest memory of her is in the 1983 TV movie version of _King Lear_, in which she played Regan to Laurence Olivier’s Lear. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/17 "2020-09-10T16:09:29Z")
In tribute to Diana: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2V--6WPKFtk/maxresdefault.jpg "The Avengers: Season Four ~ Opening & Closing Titles HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V--6WPKFtk) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YptQFiintYQ/hqdefault.jpg "On Her Majesty's Secret Service • We Have All the Time in the World • John Barry") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YptQFiintYQ) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/18 "2020-09-10T16:16:26Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Mark Gatiss wrote a episode of Doctor Who for Diana and Rachael to star in. It’s called the Crimson Horror. It’s one of Matt Smith’s better episodes. > > AFAIK it’s the only time they worked together. I believe that they also appeared together in _Detectorists_ (Stirling played Andy’s wife, and Rigg played her mother), but the _Doctor Who_ episode was apparently the first time that the two of them had appeared together on TV. Diana was an outstanding actor, and she was my very first celebrity crush. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/19 "2020-09-10T16:30:16Z")
NPR’s Scott Simon interviewed her a few years ago and reminded her that he had interviewed her _many_ years earlier, when he was a young reporter at the outset of his career (and completely smitten with her). He joked, “It was a very hard-hitting interview. I think my first question was, ‘Just what is it that makes you so _wonderful_, Miss Rigg?’” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264/20 "2020-09-10T16:34:51Z")
Damn. we just finished watching all the Diana Rigg episodes of _The Avengers_ a few weeks ago. When I was an undergrad there was a movie series on campus, and after each movie title they listed “…starring Diana Rigg”, whether she was actually in the movie or not (I think she was only in one or two). (Someone scrawled underneath a copy “This list is Rigged!”) She was immensely popular on campus, and not only because the independent station was re-running The Avengers. I loved her in her other roles – _The Assassination Bureau, Limited, Theater of Blood, A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, and as host (after Vincent Price passed away) of _Mystery!_ on PBS. And, of course, in Doctor Who and Game of Thrones. I find it interesting that the announcement of her death on HuffPo calls her a “Game of Thrones” actor – only a very few years earlier it would’ve listed her as an “Avengers” actor [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/diana-rigg-dies-at-82/920264.md?page=2)