Avenger of the Week | Diana Rigg

Diana Rigg from her short-lived NBC Television show, Diana, in 1973.

GenderAvenger’s Avenger of the Week is Dame Diana Rigg, best known in America as whip-smart co-star Emma Peele in the campy 1960s spy tv series The Avengers. Rigg’s Peele was one of the rare examples of a strong, self-confident, and physically powerful woman character on television at the time.

A Shakespearean actress, Rigg held her own with eccentrically suave co-star Patrick Macnee as British agent John Steed, and she donned a black cat suit for special assignments in which she demonstrated her super self-defense powers, notably a lethal high kick. The show was described as sci-spy with science fiction overtones.

Rigg died of cancer on September 10 at 82.

Born in England in 1938, she spent much of her childhood in India, where her father was an engineer and she was fluent in Hindi. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in her late teens and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959, successfully playing many roles before she auditioned for the role of Emma Peele. During her two years in The Avengers series, she discovered that she was making less than the cameraman and refused to continue until she was paid more. Her chutzpah took her far. Rigg eventually debuted on Broadway in Abelard & Heloise in 1971, and she went on to win two BAFTA TV Awards, several Emmys, several Tonys, two Critics’ Choice Television Awards, and many more during her incredible career.

For her 63 year career on stage, screen, and television and that time she refused to let her work be devalued during The Avengers, Diana Rigg is our Avenger of the Week.

Let’s hear it for Diana Rigg!

The late and iconic Dame Diana Rigg, a woman who had to fight to be paid better than The Avengers’ cameraman, is @GenderAvenger’s #AvengerOfTheWeek. Her incredible career spanned 63 award-laden years, and we’re going to miss her. #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/avenger-of-the-week-diana-rigg