Olenna Tyrell was one of my favorite characters in Game Of Thrones. She was brilliant, a masterful strategist with a keen understanding of human nature. I only know the character from the HBO series (I have not read the books) and it was Diana Rigg who transformed Olenna into a force of nature: regal, lethal, and utterly self-possessed.
Every time I watched her perform as Olenna, I flashed to Katherine Hepburn’s Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter: the same steel-trap wit wrapped in centuries of breeding and regret.
Diana Rigg died September 10, 2020.
Diana Rigg was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1994, for her services to drama. Formally: Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE.
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BBC obituary and tribute – A Dame of the Order of the British Empire.
The Guardian presents a wonderful overview of her performances.
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Her rise to fame began in the 1960s with her role as Emma Peel in The Avengers.
As Emma Peel, Rigg was James-Bond-cool, a martial artist and intellectual, radiating sang-froid in leather catsuits. She also portrayed the only woman James Bond ever married in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
There she played Countess Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo opposite George Lazenby, the lone actor to play Bond just once. Tracy was a fiercely independent woman whose strength and intelligence matched Bond’s own. Their love story ends in tragedy: moments after their wedding, Blofeld’s assassins open fire on their car, and Tracy is killed instantly. Bond cradles her body, whispering, “It’s all right… she’s having a rest. We have all the time in the world.”
That line, and Rigg’s quiet, lifeless grace, still stands as the emotional high-water mark of the entire series.
Memorably, she infiltrated the Hellfire Club as the Queen of Sin. Reportedly, the outfit she wore came from her personal wardrobe:
And that role and outfit clearly influenced Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s creation of Jean Grey’s transformation into the Dark Queen in The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Diana – you will be missed!
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