Why Diana Rigg Was ‘Uncomfortable’ Being a Sex Symbol — and How the Late Star Fought for Equal Pay

A year before Bruce Lee began doing martial arts on TV’s The Green Hornet, The Avengers‘ Emma Peel, played by 26-year-old British actress Diana Rigg, was disposing of bad guys with a well-placed karate kick.

The feisty crime-stopper, and her memorable black catsuits, made the British espionage series a hit at home and in the United States. But Diana never aspired to television success.

In fact, she had never even seen The Avengers, where she replaced another actress, before her audition.

“It was just an opportunity to make money,” Herbie J. Pilato, author of the new biography Diana Rigg: One Tough Dame, exclusively tells Closer. “The Avengers became a massive, massive hit. Diana became a sex symbol, and she was uncomfortable with that. Her mother used to take her fan mail, because she just couldn’t look at it.”

Diana may have been blind to her own sex appeal, but she understood her own worth. She demanded a pay raise for her second season.

“She loved [costar] Patrick Macnee, but she wanted to know why he was making more money than her,” says Pilato. “She wanted to know why the cameraman was making more than her.”

It was not a popular stance at a time when few women were brave enough to demand equal pay. Diana left the show after 51 episodes.

Born in England but raised in India until she was 8, Diana discovered her love of acting very early. “She had a teacher who inspired her and told her to read poetry out loud,” say Pilato.

At 17, Diana began studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Two years later, she made her stage debut.

“The theater to me is home,” she said. “In some curious way, I don’t belong anywhere else.”

Yet she experimented with other forms of acting. In addition to her turn as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, she appeared in a diverse roster of films, including Theatre of Blood with Vincent Price, the musical A Little Night Music and The Great Muppet Caper.

“She could go from drama to comedy,” says Pilato, who notes that at one point Diana was considered “the Carol Burnett of the U.K.”

In her personal life, Diana married and divorced twice. She had better luck in her strong relationship with her daughter, Rachael Stirling, her fans and young actors.

“She always encouraged young actors to go to the stage,” says Pilato. “She told them that was what it’s all about, not stardom.”

Ironically, before her death in 2020 at age 82, Diana experienced a second round of TV fame playing imperious Olenna Tyrell on Game of Thrones.

“The young, I don’t expect them to know about my past, but if, through Game of Thrones, they discover me, that’s good,” said Diana.

She also made her peace with her time as The Avengers‘ sexy crime-fighter. “She realized that some people were always going to think of her as Emma Peel,” says Pilato. “And she became OK with that.”