Acting legend Dame Diana Rigg dies aged 82 

Dame Diana Rigg has died at the age of 82. 

The British actress made her name in the original 1961 TV series The Avengers, as well as All Creatures Great and Small and Game of Thrones.

She also earned worldwide acclaim for her turn as a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in 1969. 

Last year, Dame Diana revealed that she ‘suffered a Me Too moment’ early in her career at the hands of a ‘powerful’ film director.

Speaking on Newsnight, the actress said that she welcomed the rise of the #MeToo movement in recent years, following her own experience as a young actress.

Dame Diana – who also starred in the original 1961 TV series The Avengers – also spoke about how she felt like a ‘lone voice’ after she discovered she was being paid less than her male co-stars.

The British actress made her name in movies including The Avengers 

Tough time: Diana Rigg has revealed that she ‘suffered a Me Too moment’ early in her career at the hands of a ‘powerful’ film director

Speaking to the BBC in 2019, Dame Diana – who played the cutthroat Tyrell matriarch Olenna in Game Of Thrones – said: ‘I had one experience, which I’m not about to talk about but when I was very young, with a director who was very powerful.

‘I simply, hardly acknowledged it was happening. I think scorn is quite a powerful tool. I would urge women to use scorn whenever possible, because it sort of scorches the gentleman.’

‘I’m all for the women who speak out, and I’m very glad that they now have a platform to speak out.’

Rough: Speaking on Newsnight she said: ‘I had one experience, which I’m not about to talk about but when I was very young, with a director who was very powerful’

During her time on the Avengers – when she played Emma Peel from 1965 to 1968 – the star was stunned to discover that she was being paid significantly less than her male co-stars, and threatened to quit unless producers gave her a pay rise.  

Bosses on the show obliged, thanks to the show’s incredible following in America. 

She added: ‘I was a lone voice in the wilderness, nobody backed me up. Pat Macnee kept his head well below the parapet when I stepped forward and said ”I think it’s quite wrong that I’m being paid less than the cameraman.”

‘Of course then I was painted as this sort of mercenary woman, and hard headed and money grabbing and all the rest of it. But it struck me as being unfair so I spoke out.

‘I’ve always thought that equal pay gets you a long way to being treated equally by a man.’