Biography for
Diana Rigg More at IMDb Pro »

Date of Birth

20 July 1938, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, UK

Birth Name

Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg

Height

5' 8½" (1.74 m)

Spouse

Archibald Hugh (Archie) Stirling	(25 March 1982 - 31 August 1990) (divorced) 1 child
Menachen Gueffen	(6 July 1973 - 3 September 1976) (divorced)

Trivia

She is more properly known as Dame Diana Rigg, the female equivalent of the title "Sir" when knighted. In June 1994, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her long contributions to theater and film.

Earned Tony nominations as Best Actress (Dramatic) for "Abelard and Heloise" (1972) and for "The Misanthrope" (1975). She won the Best Actress (Play) Tony Award in 1994 for her performance in the title role of "Medea." In recent years, her performances in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Mother Courage and Her Children" have led critics to proclaim her one of the greatest actresses on the British stage.

A savage review from John Simon for her performance in "Abelard and Heloise" led her to collect devastating theatrical reviews throughout history. The result was her book "No Turn Unstoned," published in 1982.

Rigg is Chancellor of Stirling University in Scotland.

Was recently voted the sexiest-ever TV star by TV Guide in the USA.

Mother of Rachael Stirling (born 1977).

Measurements: 34-25-36 1/2 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

20 October 2003 - British courts awarded her $63,832 and $134,000 in court expenses in her libel suit against Britain's "Evening Standard" and "Daily Mail" newspapers. They had written that she was an embittered woman who held British men in low regard.

She was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1999 (1998 season) for Best Actress for her performances in both "Britannicus" and "Phèdre.".

She was nominated for 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play of 1996 for her performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

She was awarded the 1992 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Medea.".

She was awarded the 1996 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performances in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Mother Courage.".

Born in Yorkshire, the daughter of a railroad engineer, she moved with her family to India at the age of two months and lived there until she was 8. (She learned to speak Hindi.).

The first major actor (along with co-star Keith Michell) to appear nude on stage in the production of "Abelard and Heloise" in 1970.

Became an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 and was the first as such to join the National Theatre of Great Britain (1971).

Received honorary degrees from Stirling University in 1988 and Leeds University in 1992.

Became a Member of the RADA Council.

Graduated from RADA.

Was forced to turn down the role of Elizabeth in Paint Your Wagon (1969) with Clint Eastwood, due to illness. Jean Seberg replaced her.

Father: Louis Rigg. Mother: Beryl Helliwell.

Her ex-husband, Archibald Stirling, is the nephew of Colonel Sir David Stirling, founder of the Special Air Service (SAS).

Personal Quotes

*[on hitting middle age] "I am devastated at what has happened. I have completely disappeared. I am totally invisible. I never really liked my sexy label but on the other hand, to disappear so totally is quite startling."

I don't go without make-up, though. I rather like that transformation in the morning from "I don't want to look in the mirror"; then you start pulling yourself together. It's a rather nice present to yourself that you can still do that.

I had an eye job in my early forties. Someone took a photograph of me in a play, after I'd lost a lot of weight, and I did look like Miss Havisham. I thought: "I have to do something - I'm too young to look like this." So I went and had an eyelift once the play was finished, and the doctor said that it would last only about eight years. I imagined after that it would all cave in with a terrible groaning sound, like scaffolding, but it didn't, and I haven't had anything done since. I look at women who are my age who look absolutely ravishing and I know they have had something done. Well, why not?

If I meet a woman who is immaculately groomed, I really admire her discipline. I grew up admiring out-of-this-world screen goddesses, such as Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth, but I have to acknowledge that I haven't the patience for getting dressed up very often - at my age you think: "Why bother?" Now that I'm older I don't go to premieres or first-night parties, not even my own.

I didn't like my Bond Girl outfits. The designer was a friend of the directors and I thought they were too boring and middle-aged for my character. The right costumes are essential for getting into a part; I've witnessed many costume parades with grumpy or even weeping actors because they've been put into the wrong thing.

In those days, trousers were appallingly cut for women so I used to go to a gentlemen's tailor to have them made. Nowadays you can look at some quite highly priced clothes and be astonished at how badly they are finished. But then, people don't look for that any more, it's only old bags like me that do. When I need to look smart, I go for Armani because he's just absolutely brilliant at tailoring. I always dress for myself, not men or other women. I'm well aware of them though - you get the sweep of the eye up and down and I think, "You poor thing, are you so competitive that you have to measure yourself against everyone else?" It's so pathetic.

I think I was quite daring. I was once escorted out of a restaurant because I was wearing a trouser suit. It wasn't considered good breeding for a woman to go around in trousers after 6pm, especially in smart restaurants and bars such as the Connaught hotel, which served the best cocktails.

Society was so much more prudish in the 1960s. In one episode of The Avengers I played a belly dancer and I had to stick a jewel in my navel because the Americans wouldn't tolerate them. In those days you didn't flash the boobs at all. What you did do to look glamorous was jack the boobs up and probably wear something quite low-cut.

The leather catsuit I wore in The Avengers was a total nightmare; it took a good 45 minutes to get unzipped to go to the loo. It was like struggling in and out of a wet-suit. Once I got into the jersey catsuits they were very easy to wear but you had to watch for baggy knees; there is nothing worse. I got a lot of very odd fan mail while I was in that show, but my mum used to enjoy replying to it. Some of the men who wrote to me must have been a bit startled because she would offer really motherly advice. I would get a letter from a teenage boy, say, who was overexcited and my mother would write back saying: "My daughter is far too old for you and what you really need is a good run around the block."

Where Are They Now

(July 2004) Acting in London in Tennessee Williams adaptation of "Suddenly Last Summer" as Violet Venable.

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