British actress Diana Rigg, star of The Avengers and Game of Thrones, dies aged 82
- She rose to stardom as the karate-kicking secret agent Emma Peel before more recently playing the scheming Lady Oleanna in the HBO hit
- Rigg had a long career in theatre as well as appearing in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in which her character marries the British spy
Whether as the leather catsuited spy in the 1960s series The Avengers or the headscarved Lady Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones decades later, British actress Diana Rigg thrilled generations of television viewers.
Classically trained Rigg began her career in the Royal Shakespeare Company and later appeared in a wide range of television dramas, although it was her role in The Avengers that made her a worldwide sensation.
Playing Emma Peel, the sexy and intelligent sidekick of suave secret agent John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee, in the British cult series made her an instant pin-up.
“She was the hottest woman on television ever,” George R.R. Martin, author of the best-selling Game of Thrones books said in The Guardian newspaper in 2013 when the HBO television series of the same name landed Rigg for its cast.
“I was madly in love with her in The Avengers, along with virtually all the boys of my generation,” he said.
But the auburn-haired, snub-nosed and outspoken Rigg said later she did not enjoy her time as a glamour girl. And she walked out of The Avengers in 1967, after two seasons, because she was paid less than a cameraman.