DIANA RIGG Always Ahead of Her Time

THE STAR OF TV'S THE AVENGERS FOUGHT SEXISM AND REVELED IN EVERY KIND OF ACTING ROLE

- Louise A. Barile, Amanda Champagne-Meadows

A year before Bruce Lee began doing martial arts on TV's The Green Hornet, The Avenger's 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," explains Herbie J Pilato, author of the new biography Diana Rigg: One Tough Dame. "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."