So long to the Dame who oozed sex a-Peel: She was born Enid from Doncaster and became a theatrical 広大な／多数の／重要な. But as Diana Rigg dies 老年の 82, RICHARD KAY 詳細（に述べる）s how the 役割 that gave her career a high-kick happened by mistake

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Dame Diana Rigg was last night あられ／賞賛するd as a 'luminous talent' after her death yesterday at the age of 82.

The 退役軍人 actress, who played Emma Peel in 1960s TV series The Avengers, died に引き続いて a 癌 diagnosis in March.

Her other famous 役割s 含むd James 社債's wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969, while recently she had reached a new audience as the cunning and manipulative Olenna Tyrell in 攻撃する，衝突する fantasy 演劇 Game Of 王位s.

This Tuesday she appeared in Channel 5's new 見解／翻訳／版 of All Creatures 広大な／多数の／重要な And Small as the grand Mrs Pumphrey.

Besides her 審査する 役割s, she was 祝日，祝うd for her 行う／開催する／段階 work. Director Jonathan Kent said: 'Her combination of 軍隊 of personality, beauty, courage and sheer emotional 力／強力にする, made her a 広大な／多数の／重要な classical actress ? one of an astonishing 世代 of British 行う／開催する／段階 performers.'

脚本家 Sir Tom Stoppard said: 'Her talent was luminous.' And fellow 脚本家 Sir David Hare said: 'When Emma Peel played Euripides' Medea, Albee's Martha and Brecht's Mother Courage she swept all before her.'

Here, RICHARD KAY looks at the actress's stellar career.

Dame Diana Rigg was last night あられ／賞賛するd as a 'luminous talent' after her death yesterday at the age of 82. Pictured: Rigg with Patrick McNee in The Avengers

Anyone of a 確かな age brought up on 1960s 黒人／ボイコット and white television will remember Diana Rigg as the leather catsuit-覆う？, high-kicking Emma Peel.

With her blue-在庫／株ing 配達／演説／出産, she 武装解除するd villains before polishing them off with the firmest of karate chops while at the same time her witty, sexually laden 二塁打-entendres with her co-星／主役にする left テレビ視聴者s forever wondering if they did, or did not, go to bed.

The Avengers, which made her a 星／主役にする, is still shown around the world and 投票s 定期的に 投票（する） her the sexiest television 星／主役にする of all time.?

Such was her captivating allure that Douglas Fairbanks Junior, a tireless ladies' man, was moved to 宣言する that only an Outer Mongolian 修道士 would not find her 'devastatingly attractive'.

But the Yorkshire-born actress with the 削減（する）-glass accent, who died yesterday at the age of 82, was never 完全に comfortable with her status as a Sixties bombshell.

にもかかわらず 存在 the only 社債 girl to get 007 to the altar, she was happier on 行う／開催する／段階 where she enjoyed a remarkable career of theatrical highs.

The critic Bernard Levin 述べるd her as a '軍隊 of nature' and, along with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, she was one of the three 広大な／多数の／重要な dames of British theatre. Not that she turned her 支援する on television or film.?

Anyone of a 確かな age brought up on 1960s 黒人／ボイコット and white television will remember Diana Rigg as the leather catsuit-覆う？, high-kicking Emma Peel, 令状s Richard Kay

Pictured: Rigg as the?manipulative Olenna Tyrell in 攻撃する，衝突する fantasy 演劇 Game Of 王位s

She won a legion of new and younger fans as Lady Olenna Tyrell, the bloodthirsty matriarch in Game Of 王位s.

And only the night before her death was 発表するd, she was appearing as the eccentric Mrs Pumphrey on Channel 5 in the 最新の TV adaptation of James Herriot's All Creatures 広大な／多数の／重要な And Small.

In a 声明, Dame Diana's スパイ／執行官 said she died '平和的に on Thursday morning at home with her family'.

Her actress daughter Rachael Stirling, who had appeared と一緒に her mother in a 2013 episode of Doctor Who, said she had been 診断するd with 癌 in March and had 'spent her last months joyfully 反映するing on her 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の life, 十分な of love, laughter and a 深い pride in her profession. I will 行方不明になる her beyond words.'

Her co-星／主役にするs flooded social マスコミ with 尊敬の印s to the 'flinty, fearless, fabulous 軍隊 of nature' who had a 'dazzling wit and inimitable 発言する／表明する'.

Perhaps the most moving （機の）カム from George Lazenby whose one 遠出 as James 社債 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service saw Diana Rigg not only as his love 利益／興味 but also 事実上の／代理 him off the 審査する.?

'I'm so sad to hear of the death of Diana Rigg,' he wrote on Instagram. 'She undoubtedly raised my 事実上の／代理 game.

In a 声明, Dame Diana's スパイ／執行官 said she died '平和的に on Thursday morning at home with her family'

Her other famous 役割s 含むd James 社債's wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969

'The death of Contessa Teresa di Vincenzo Draco [her character in the movie] created a memorable cinema moment over 50 years ago. As my new bride, Tracy 社債, I wept for her loss. Now, upon 審理，公聴会 of Dame Diana's death, I weep again.'

But for all the actress's later successes and awards, no 役割 やめる （太陽，月の）食／失墜d her breathtaking arrival as the 有能な and 望ましい Mrs Peel, 主要な lady to Patrick Macnee's 滑らかに debonair John Steed in The Avengers.

Even though the Sixties was a time of cultural change, her 役割 gave her the chance to be one of the first 女性（の） characters on TV to give men as good as she got.

She rarely lost a fight and was portrayed as a master of 戦争の arts and 盗品故買者ing. She drove a Lotus Elan ? the 高さ of Sixties chic ? and, with her gamine 人物／姿／数字 styled in the 最新の 黒人／ボイコット and white 小型の-skirts and PVC jumpsuits, she looked fabulous too.

Her favourite guise was that of a women's magazine reporter, trying to interview 商売／仕事 大君s and corrupt playboys. Everything oozed sex 控訴，上告.

As to that endlessly fascinating banter with Steed, テレビ視聴者s were left to （不足などを）補う their own minds. To Rigg it was an enjoyable flirtation ? but one that went nowhere.

For his part, Macnee thought they slept together all the time, just not in 前線 of the camera. The teasing innuendo between the two helped make the show the international 攻撃する，衝突する it became. In fact, but for one of those chance happenings for which every actor is 感謝する, she might never have got the part.

Enid Rigg ? Diana was a middle 指名する ? was born in Doncaster in 1938 but almost すぐに moved to India where her father Louis was an engineer on the 鉄道s. Pictured with Rachael Stirling in March

Rigg at the 72nd 年次の Tony Awards in New York in June 2018 (left) and?receiving the Icon Award at the Cannes International Series Festival in 2019

She had already 審査する-実験（する）d for the 役割 ? to 取って代わる 栄誉（を受ける） Blackman who had left to play Pussy Galore in 007 film Goldfinger and whom she would later follow as a James 社債 love 利益／興味.

にもかかわらず Rigg's solid 業績／成就s ? she had spent more than five years with the 王室の Shakespeare Company ? she was not chosen and the 役割 went to another actress, Elizabeth Shepherd. But after two days of filming Brian Clemens, the programme's 生産者, was not happy.

'She's not a bad actress,' he later 解任するd of 行方不明になる Shepherd. 'But she just didn't have a sense of humour at all ? that was 必須の in The Avengers.?

So we scrapped what we'd 発射 and got rid of her and then 実験（する）d and out of the 実験（する）s （機の）カム Diana Rigg, who was 長，率いる and shoulders above everybody else.'

Two days later, she was filming. Her 業績／成果 as the cat-ふさわしい Mrs Peel brought her instant fame as The Avengers became as much a symbol of the Swinging '60s as the 小型の, The Beatles and the 小型の-skirt.

Sexy, resourceful and self-保証するd ? along with those deadly fighting 技術s ? Rigg's character became symbol for the growing feminist movement. Her 活動／戦闘-girl persona, coupled with that husky 発言する／表明する ? the result of a 20-a-day cigarette habit ? also brought her plenty of male admirers.

'We had no idea it would be defining,' she later said. 'It was nose to the grindstone ? working all hours that God gave.'

She also showed she was 有能な of taking on the 設立. During the first series, she discovered she was 収入 いっそう少なく than the cameramen and 主張するd on more money before making another episode.

But at the same time Rigg 設立する the sudden stardom difficult to 対処する with. She 解任するd having to hide in a bathroom to 避ける the attention of （人が）群がるs. It was partly 憤慨 at the 侵略 of her privacy that 説得するd her that she would spend only two years with The Avengers.

'It was very, very intrusive in those days because I was 即時に recognisable,' the actress later told Variety magazine. 'I was 感謝する to be a success but there was a price to 支払う／賃金.'

Her co-星／主役にするs flooded social マスコミ with 尊敬の印s to the 'flinty, fearless, fabulous 軍隊 of nature' who had a 'dazzling wit and inimitable 発言する／表明する'

Diana Rigg as the cutthroat matriarch Oleanna Tyrell in HBO's 世界的な 攻撃する，衝突する series, Game of 王位s, a show she 認める in 2019 that she had never watched

She was also keen to keep her 行う／開催する／段階 career alive. 'Some weeks I'd spend four days on the 始める，決める of The Avengers and then 長，率いる up to Stratford to be Regan to Olivier's [King] Lear,' she 解任するd.

But it was not just the 誘惑する of the 行う／開催する／段階. She left The Avengers for the 活動／戦闘-packed world of James 社債. Although she and 007 marry, in almost the last clip Rigg, playing a spirited heiress, is machine-gunned 負かす／撃墜する and dies.

Her 関係 with Australian-born Lazenby was difficult, although she 否定するd deliberately eating garlic before their love scenes.?

存在 a 社債 girl did not make her a film 星／主役にする, however, any more than appearing with Oliver Reed in The 暗殺 Bureau or as Vincent Price's daughter in the （軍の）野営地，陣営 horror film Theatre of 血 did. 'I suppose the thing I 悔いる most is that I never really 割れ目d films,' she once 公表する／暴露するd.

But 支援する on 行う／開催する／段階 it was a different story. She was nom inated for a Tony Award for her 業績／成果 in Abelard And Heloise, although it wasn't all plain sailing.

In New York, her 描写 of Heloise was savaged by acerbic critic John Simon, who 述べるd her in a nude scene as 'built like a brick basilica with insufficient 飛行機で行くing buttresses'. She later 認める she never felt comfortable 除去するing her 着せる／賦与するs on 行う／開催する／段階.

'I come from Yorkshire and no one from Yorkshire takes their 着せる／賦与するs off except on a Friday night,' she said. The episode led her to later publish a collection of scathing theatrical reviews 肩書を与えるd No Turn Unstoned.

Enid Rigg ? Diana was a middle 指名する ? was born in Doncaster in 1938 but almost すぐに moved to India where her father Louis was an engineer on the 鉄道s. 老年の seven, she was brought 支援する to England by her mother Beryl and sent to 搭乗 school in Pudsey, 近づく 物陰／風下d. Brother Hugh was at school in Buckinghamshire.

After India's independence her parents returned to Britain but money was tight and she remembers her father eking out his whisky 公約するing to herself that she would earn enough to give him a 瓶／封じ込める every day.?

In 2017, that 20-a-day smoking habit brought serious illness and she had to を受ける a heart 操作／手術

Encouraged by a teacher she 適用するd for the 王室の 学院 of 劇の Art, the 事実上の／代理 school, at 16. Hugh, 一方／合間, went on to become a 実験（する） 操縦する.

After a stint in rep, she was taken on by the RSC in 1959 where the distinguished director Peter Brook patronisingly 観察するd of her: 'If she doesn't waste herself on silly films, she could become something good.' She did, of course, do both.

In 1990, she won a Bafta for the 役割 of an obsessive mother in the BBC 演劇 Mother Love. Four years later, she won a Tony for best actress in one of her most acclaimed 役割s, that of Medea in the 古代の Greek play. In the same year, Rigg was created a Dame 指揮官 of the Order of the British Empire.

にもかかわらず such a high-profile career and polished image, Dame Diana took 避難 in a 井戸／弁護士席-保護するd 私的な life.

In interviews, 特に with women, she could be brusque to the point of rudeness, 特に when questioned about men. At one 行う／開催する／段階 she 発表するd she would never again speak to 女性（の） 新聞記者／雑誌記者s whom she crushingly dubbed 'grubettes'.

She was married twice, with both unions ending in 離婚.In the 1960s, she had a 関係 with the director Philip Saville but her first husband was an Israeli artist Menachem Gueffen whom she married in 1973. They separated a year later with Rigg 述べるing the marriage as a 'grotesque error'.

She then married tweedy Scottish landowner Archie Stirling. It surprised friends because she had been seen as something of a bohemian 人物／姿／数字.?

They 離婚d in 1990 after Stirling had an 事件／事情／状勢 with the actress Joely Richardson which left her 荒廃させるd, and ever since Dame Diana lived either with her daughter Rachael or alone.

In 2017, that 20-a-day smoking habit brought serious illness and she had to を受ける a heart 操作／手術.?

During 外科, the actress's heart stopped and her life hanged by a thread. 'The good Lord must have said, 'Send the old 捕らえる、獲得する 負かす／撃墜する again',' Dame Diana, the devout Christian, later said. 'I'm not having her yet.'

For years, she was 追求するd by a stalker who sent her unwanted gifts and unsolicited and often 深く，強烈に unpleasant letters.

And although she had left Emma Peel, the 役割 that brought her public attention, long behind, those silky self-defence 技術s must have come in handy one last time.