“It is with tremendous sadness that we announce that Dame Diana Rigg died peacefully early this morning,” her agent Simon Beresford said in a statement, PA Media reports. “She was at home with her family who have asked for privacy at this difficult time.”
Her daughter Rachael Stirling said her mother died peacefully in her sleep after she was diagnosed with cancer in March, according to PA. “I will miss her beyond words,” Stirling said.
CNN has contacted her representatives for comment.
More recently, Rigg found fame with a new generation of fans as Lady Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones, but perhaps her most definitive part was secret agent Emma Peel in “The Avengers,” in the classic series that was later adapted into the 1998 movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman.
Daniel Craig, among others, called Rigg’s Teresa di Vicenzo one of the most memorable Bond girls of all time. The only woman to actually marry Bond (George Lazenby), di Vicenzo is killed shortly after they tie the knot in 1969’s “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
This story is breaking news. More to follow…