Dame Diana Rigg, who played Olenna Tyrell in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, has died of cancer aged 82.
Confirming the news in a statement, her agent Simon Beresford said, “It is with tremendous sadness that we announce that Dame Diana Rigg died peacefully early this morning. She was at home with her family who have asked for privacy at this difficult time.”
Born in Doncaster, England in 1938, Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg moved to Bikaner, India at an early age with her parents until she was 8. Rigg began studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1955 to 1957. Soon after she took to the stage with roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company but her big break was as the iconic Emma Peel, companion to John Steed in British espionage series The Avengers (no relation to the Marvel version). Though the role brought her great success, she was uncomfortable with being turned into a sex symbol and battled to be paid the same amount per week as co-star Patrick McNee.
A celebrated actress, Diana Rigg gained many rave reviews for her stage work and would go on to play a variety of roles on stage, television and film. Appearing as a Bond girl in George Lazenby’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the 2013 Doctor Who episode The Crimson Horror, and the Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant sitcom, Extras.
More recently it was her performance as Olenna Tyrell in HBO’s Game of Thrones that won her a whole new generation of fans where she was perfectly suited to playing the witty and cunning Queen of Thorns, delivering barbed observations with exquisite timing.
Diana Rigg was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1988 and a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 1994 for her services to drama during the Queen’s birthday honors. In 1997, she won the Emmy for outstanding support actress in the British-German miniseries Rebecca based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier. And her lifetime of work was commemorated by Washington D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company when she was awarded the Will award in 2014.
Her most recent and now final roles were in the recent revival of All Creatures Great and Small and the upcoming adaptation of Black Narcissus. Dame Diana Rigg is survived by her daughter Rachel Stirling.
Source: BBC News
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