- A smoker from the age of 18, Rigg was still smoking 20 cigarettes a day in 2009. By December 2017, she had stopped smoking after serious illness led to heart surgery, a cardiac ablation, two months earlier. A devout Christian, she commented that: "My heart had stopped ticking during the procedure, so I was up there and The Good Lord must have said, 'Send the old bag down again, I'm not having her yet!'".
- October 20, 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 voted the sexiest-ever television star by TV Guide in the United States.
- Born in Yorkshire, the daughter of a railroad engineer, she moved with her family to India at the age of two months and resided there until she was 8 (she learned to speak Hindi).
- More properly known as Dame Diana Rigg, the female equivalent of the title "Sir" when knighted. In June 1994, she was made DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for her long contributions to theater and film.
- Best known by the public for her role as Mrs. Emma Peel on The Avengers (1961).
- Her smaller-than-usual role on Detectorists (2014) is explained by the fact that her character's daughter, the female lead on the series, is played by her real-life daughter Rachael Stirling.
- In the 1960s, she resided for eight years with director Philip Saville, gaining attention in the tabloids when she disclaimed interest in marrying the older, already-married Saville, saying she had no desire "to be respectable".
- She had never seen an episode of The Avengers (1961) when she auditioned for Emma Peel on a whim.
- She was forced to turn down the role of Elizabeth in Paint Your Wagon (1969) with Clint Eastwood, due to illness. Jean Seberg replaced her.
- She received Tony Award 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.
- Was the first major actor (along with co-star Keith Michell) to appear nude onstage, i.e. in the production of "Abelard and Heloise" (1970).
- She and The Avengers (1961) co-star, Patrick Macnee (a friend and mentor), both appeared in the James Bond movie franchise. She starred in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) (she was the only Bond girl to ever get James Bond to the altar), while Macnee appeared in A View to a Kill (1985).
- She never retired from acting.
- Her final film Last Night in Soho (2021) was dedicated to her.
- She was Steve McQueen's choice to play his love interest in Le Mans (1971), but was unavailable. Elga Andersen was cast instead.
- She declined to reprise her role as Emma Peel in The New Avengers (1976).
- In 1973, she was reunited with The Avengers (1961) lead, Patrick Macnee, for the episode You Can't Go Back (1973).
- She had long been an outspoken critic of feminism, saying in 1969, "Women are in a much stronger position than men.".
- Her ex-husband, Archibald Stirling, is the nephew of Colonel Sir David Stirling, founder of the Special Air Service (SAS).
- Mother of Rachael Stirling, who was born on May 30, 1977.
- Winner of Doctor Who Magazine Best Guest Actress for 2013.
- Although she played Gabriele Ferzetti's daughter in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), she is only 13 years his junior.
- Michael Parkinson, who first interviewed Rigg in 1972, described her as the most desirable woman he ever met, who "radiated a lustrous beauty".
- 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?".
- Her remains were cremated at East London Cemetery and Crematorium.
- Is the only Dame to have acted in the Doctor Who franchise.
- She named Theater of Blood (1973) as the best film she ever appeared in.
- She was Chancellor of University of Stirling in Stirling, Scotland, UK from for a ten year term from 1998 to 2008. She also received an honorary degree from the same University in 1988, ten years before becoming University Chancellor there, and which officially had no connection. Coincidentally, Rigg was married to Archibald Hugh (Archie) Stirling from 1982-1990, but there was no connection between her ex-husband and the University of the same name, nor for that matter her daughter, Rachael Stirling.
- Became an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company (1967) and was the first as such to join the National Theatre of Great Britain (1971).
- Her first husband, Menachem Gueffen, was an Israeli artist.
- She was awarded the 2014 Will Award, presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, along with Stacy Keach and Sir John Hurt.
- She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1988 Queen's New Years Honours List then to DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1994 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama.
- She was a Patron of International Care & Relief and was for many years the public face of the charity's child sponsorship scheme. She was also Chancellor of the University of Stirling, being succeeded by James Naughtie when her ten-year term of office ended on July 31, 2008.
- Graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, England; became an Associate Member.
- She refused to appear as Alice in the remake The Avengers (1998). The role went to Dame Eileen Atkins.
- She was considered for guest roles in Doctor Who (1963) - Kassia in "The Keeper of Traken", Todd in "Kinda" and Jane Humpden in "The Awakening". She would later play Mrs. Gillyflower in The Crimson Horror (2013) opposite her daughter Rachael Stirling.
- Passed away five months after Honor Blackman, whom she famously replaced on The Avengers (1961). They had both also played main 'James Bond Women' as well. Oddly, both Rigg and Blackman are also the only main Bond women older than their Bond actor himself.
- 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".
- She was awarded the 1992 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress for her performance in "Medea".
- She appeared on two television series about Queen Victoria: as Baroness Lehzen in Victoria & Albert (2001) and The Duchess of Buccleuch in Victoria (2016).
- She has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Hospital (1971).
- She was considered for the role of Amy Sumner in Straw Dogs (1971), which went to Susan George.
- She was considered for the role of Ursula Brangwen in Women in Love (1969), which went to Jennie Linden.
- She was originally offered the starring role in Countess Dracula (1971), but turned down. The role went to Ingrid Pitt.
- She received honorary degrees from the University of Stirling (1988), the University of Leeds (1992), the University of Nottingham (1995), and London South Bank University (1996).
- Daughter of Louis Rigg (1903-1968) and Beryl Hilda Rigg (née Helliwell) (1908-1981).
- She was nominated for 1999 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award (1998 season) for Best Actress for her performances in both "Britannicus" and "Phèdre".
- She received the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for Best Film Actress in Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun (1982).
- She had a grandson, born 2017, to Rachael Stirling and Guy Garvey.
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