DIANA RIGG: MRS PEEL THE AVENGERS

Diana Rigg was a big hero in my childhood. She and of course Honey West were our very first women action figures! The carried gun and beat up the bad guys! Especially Emma Peel OMG she was a toughie that girl. She often defended John Steed from bad guy assaults. Emma was my first image of being an independent while still being beautiful. The boys at school loved her but so did the girls! We had a character we could portray.

 

Diana Rigg was a troublesome girl, born in England but raised in India, where her father worked as a railroad executive. At the age of eight, she was sent back to England for a more proper upbringing, but classes, she has said, were boring, and she was often caught daydreaming. One particularly bright teacher suggested that Rigg channel her daydreams onto the stage, and performing in a school production of Goldilocks, she knew she wanted to be an actor. 

 

Rigg has made a career out of playing troublesome characters. She went straight from high school to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she made her professional debut at the age of 19. The pay, however, was meager, and she supplemented her income with work as a shopclerk, a switchboard operator, and a fashion model. 

 At 21, she signed a five-year contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and when that deal expired she auditioned to spy with Patrick Mac Nee in The Avengers. She stayed with the series for only two years, but her second season was aired in America as well as Britain, making Rigg a worldwide star. And she was simply smashing as the smart, sexy, widowed Mrs. Emma Peel, an expert in kung-fu, tai-chi, and other forms of hand-to-hand combat. 

 

In one understandably beloved episode, "A Touch of Brimstone", Rigg was disguised as "The Queen of Sin", to infiltrate the Hellfire Club, a clandestine group determined to topple governments through practical jokes. She wore an extremely tight Edwardian-style corset, high heeled leather boots, and a three-inch spiked collar. According to legend, that memorable outfit was not provided by the program's wardrobe department, but instead came from Ms Rigg's own closet. Really great Diana Rigg slideshow HERE Read Wiki HERE