Rigg as Lady Olenna in HBO’s “Game Of Thrones”

July 20, 1938- Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg:

“The older you get, the funnier you find life.”

When fans of the phenomenally popular Game Of Thrones on HBO consider Diana Rigg, they think of her witty, outspoken political operative Olenna Tyrell. In real life Rigg is just as forthright as her character. Having once played a Bond Girl, when she was recently asked on her opinion about who will play the next James Bond, she stated:

“A black Bond would be lovely. I wouldn’t like to see a female Bond, because we wouldn’t want to lose the Bond girls. But, we could have a lesbian Bond, why not?”

Why not, indeed.

By the way, it seems that both Idris Elba and Jodie Foster will have to wait to play 007. The project now known as Bond 25, will star Daniel Craig, who returns to play James Bond (at least) one more time.

When I think of Diana Rigg, I go right to Emma Peel, the jumpsuited hero she played on the mod television series The Avengers (1966-68). Rigg performed Peel with pre-feminist panache: she was a total kickass, and an equal to her male partner, while never losing her considerable sex appeal. It’s likely her character’s name was a silly play on British slang: “M (male) appeal”. She paradoxically played both sides of S&M: the dominatrix in black leather and the damsel in bondage.

Rigg is a 1960s Pop Icon. She moved into the spotlight as a truly liberated woman. But, is she a Feminist Icon? Rigg:

“I’ve always said feminism is about equal pay – nothing else. Women are bitchier than men. We’re extremely good at business, getting business done, prioritizing, organizing. Classic female qualities.”

Always the provocateur, In the 1960s, Rigg lived for eight years with director Philip Saville, gaining attention in the tabloids when she claimed to had no interest in ever marrying the older, already-married Saville, saying she had no desire “to be respectable”. She risked more scandal by having a child out of wedlock in 1977. She was the first major female actor to appear completely nude on stage.

Born in England, Rigg moved with her family to Jodhpur, India when she was a baby. Hindi is her second language, and she surprises friends and colleagues by using it when ordering Indian food. When she was eight-years-old, she was sent back to England to attend boarding school.

As a teenager, she was often in trouble with school authorities. Rigg;

“I was tall and redheaded. And tall redheads always got caught.”

Rigg studied acting the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art (RADA). She waited tables and did some modeling to support herself. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959. Her first big break was playing Cordelia in King Lear opposite Paul Scofield. Before each performance, Scofield would drink a special mixture of malt, bran, wheat and honey. Rigg:

“As a result, he suffered from flatulence. Odd sounds accompanied his impassioned cries of ‘Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones.'”

Playing dead in Scofield’s arms was professionally challenging; she had to really concentrate to conceal her laughter.

In 1965, Rigg had to compete against dozens of other actors for the female lead on The Avengers after Honor Blackman left the series to play Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. Rigg:

“We were told to turn up in black trousers and sweaters. We looked like a neo-fascist army. I had not seen The Avengers when I was cast, but the idea of doing a television series, that was a little wacky and way out; it appealed to me as the perfect antidote.”

Blackman’s character was written out of the show and Emma Peel was introduced as the new partner of dapper John Steed, perfectly played by Patrick Macnee. The series became wittier and sharper after she was cast. But, after the first season, Rigg discovered that she was paid less than the cameraman. Rigg:

“I made a bit of a stink about it. Any argument about money is ugly, but I felt I was being exploited.”

She was eventually paid $700 a week, and this was in an era before residuals.

Emma Peel was a new sort of female for television. Her relationship with Steed was not imperiled by his male ego. In one episode, Steed joins Ransack, an intellectual organization whose members include Peel, but he’s admitted only because she took the IQ test for him.

The striped jumpsuits that served as Rigg’s The Avengers wardrobe became known as “Emma Peelers”. She was besieged by fans who begged for autographs. The Avengers had a great look and it had sly dialogue that was filled double-entendres.

It was also rather brazen for its era. In a 1966 episode, A Touch Of Brimstone. Rigg as Peel, was disguised as a dominatrix, Queen Of Sin, squeezed into a bustier, a spiked choker collar, thigh-high leather boots and carrying a whip. In America, ABC refused to air it.

With Macnee in The Avengers, photograph from Thames Television

Rigg was nominated for an Emmy Award for The Avengers in 1967 and 1968, but she lost both times to Barbara Bain for Mission: Impossible. She wasn’t happy with the way she was treated by ABC, and Macnee found out later that Rigg believed she only had two friends on the set: him, and the driver who took her to the set every morning. She left the series in 1968 and was replaced Linda Thorson who played a much more traditional and submissive female. The Avengers only lasted one season without her. Macnee reprised his role as Steed in The New Avengers (1976-77): with Joanna Lumley (Patsy on Absolutely Fabulous) as Steed’s sidekick. It was also cancelled after only a single season.

In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Rigg’s portrayal of Contessa Teresa Draco di Vicenzo, Bond’s only wife, was Bond’s equal, and she brought a freshness and strength that other Bond girls lacked. It is probably her best film performance. Rigg has real screen chemistry with George Lazenby as Bond, but off-screen, they loathed each another. Lazenby called the filming as “hell” and revealed that Rigg deliberately ate garlic before their love scenes.

She hasn’t had much of a career in films, but I think highly of her work in three underrated movies: The Assassination Bureau (1969), The Hospital (1971) and, especially, Theatre Of Blood (1973), where Rigg plays Vincent Price’s demented daughter in drag.

She is most at home in the Theatre. I have been lucky enough to have seen Rigg on stage several times. The first was in Abelard And Heloise (1970) where she and Keith Michell appeared in a brief nude scene, performed in semi-darkness. It incited the press to catch a peek at undressed rehearsals. I thought, oh my god, it’s Emma un-Peeled!

New York Magazine’s caustic critic John Simon famously wrote: “Diana Rigg is built like a brick mausoleum with insufficient flying buttresses”. But, NY Times reviewer Clive Barnes said: ” It’s the most tasteful, tactful and apposite nude love scene I have ever encountered. As a matter of record, I suppose Miss Rigg and Mr. Michell are the first major stars to appear naked on the Broadway stage, but the scene is neither prurient nor distasteful. Rigg is perfect: as sensuous as a cat, with hidden fires beneath the surface.”

Rigg:

“I felt sorry for the audiences who had to see my poor old buttresses…”

Another actor, Sylvia Miles, whom Simon described as “one of New York’s leading party girls and gate-crashers” dumped a plate of antipasto over Simon in a New York restaurant.

Rigg parlayed her bad reviews into one of my favorite books, No Turn Unstoned: The Worst Ever Theatrical Reviews (1983).

Reviewing a 1982 television production of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, Simon praised her, and remembering his unkind review from earlier, wrote: “There is nothing remotely brick mausoleumish about her, and buttresses are well hidden by Victorian crinolines.”

Rigg earned a Tony nomination for Abelard And Heloise. One year later, she thumbed her nose at her detractors by performing another nude scene in another play, Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers, which I also saw. She continued to work steadily on stage, taking on all sorts of roles in Classics, Dramas, Comedies and Musicals. I saw her amazing performance on Broadway in Moliere’s The Misanthrophe in 1975 and in the ill-fated musical Colette in Seattle in 1982. Her last stage role was in London as Mrs. Higgins in G.B. Shaw’s Pygmalion opposite Rupert Everett, 35 years after playing Eliza Doolittle to great acclaim.

During the 1990s, Rigg served as host of PBS’ Mystery! series. She prefaced each show with:

“Deep down I have an irreverent spirit. People who take themselves deeply seriously are really good at tragedy, and I don’t take myself that seriously. I could have gone on and done greater things… but I didn’t. It’s as simple as that.”

Her awards mantle must be rather cluttered: A BAFTA Award, two Tony Awards, two Oliver nominations, the London Evening Standard Drama Award, an Emmy Award, and nine Emmy nominations, five during her five seasons on Game Of Thrones.

“The real difficulty is finding vehicles for the ladies. There aren’t very many new parts for us. I don’t know why. I think we’re fascinating creatures. “I don’t want to retire, I never want to retire. What’s the point of it?”

At brunches in the 1970s and 1980s, Rigg was often proclaimed by my gay guy friends as “the woman I would turn straight for”.