One Tough Dame: the Life and Career of Diana Rigg
Herbie J. Pilato. Univ. of Mississippi, $35 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4968-3797-4
Biographer Pilato (Connery, Sean Connery) presents an admiring portrait of Diana Rigg (1938–2020), the actor best known for her portrayal of secret agent Emma Peel in the 1960s British TV series The Avengers. He begins with Rigg’s childhood in 1940s India, where a predilection for the dramatic (“She was always a bit of a ham,” Pilato writes) led her to the theater world. She began as an understudy at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and later made waves on The Avengers, gaining fans with her “adventure-girl allure” and “husky” voice. The show also made her a sex symbol, a “shocking” and sometimes unwelcome experience for an actor who still thought of herself as a “shy little Yorkshire girl.” Pilato makes much of Rigg’s impact on the male-dominated acting world of the 1960s, writing that she “dropp[ed] jaws with a blunt delivery of lines that blurred reality and performance” and openly pushed for equal pay (upon discovering that she was getting paid less than an Avengers cameraman, she spoke out, but failed to garner much sympathy from the press or the film industry). While Rigg’s independent spirit inspires, repetition and a heavy reliance on quotes (from friends and colleagues, reviews, and interviews with Riggs herself) makes for an often bland narrative that struggles to link granular details of Rigg’s acting roles to broader arguments about her legacy. This doesn’t quite come together. (Sept.)
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Reviewed on: 09/20/2024
Genre: Nonfiction
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