Rigg, Diana (1938- )

English actor. Her stage roles include Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew (1961), Cordelia in King Lear (1964), Héloïse in Abelard and Héloïse (1970), and the title roles in Medea (1993-94) and Mother Courage (1995); she also appeared in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1996).

Television roles include Emma Peel in The Avengers (1965-67), Clytemnestra in The Serpent Son (1979), Lady Deadlock in Bleak House (1985), and Lady Blackwell in Avonlea (1990). Films include On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), A Little Night Music (1977), Evil Under the Sun (1981), A Good Man in Africa (1994), and Running Delilah (1994). She became the presenter of Mystery Theater on US public television in 1989. She was created a DBE in 1994.

She was born in Yorkshire and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London. She appeared in repertory in Chesterfield and York, joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford, in 1959, and made her first appearance in London in 1961, playing in rep.