Women we admire. Although actress Diana Rigg has had a distinguised and diverse career she will forever be remembered as Emma Peel on the 1960s TV series The Avengers. I found Mrs. Peel wonderfully heroic. Not because she was a karate-chopping amazon, but because she seemed to place a great value on human life. In a decade of "bang!--you're dead" secret agents she showed a reluctance to use deadly force except as a last resort. She was strong yet feminine. She also had good manners, didn't smoke, and wasn't into bi-sex. Today's TV and movie heroines could learn a lot from her.  

Even today 40 years later Emma Peel and The Avengers remain a part of our culture and one of our most treasured memories. But unforgivably, Diana Rigg left the show just as it was catching on in the U.S. It was a devastating loss from which the series never recovered.  

(Above) A little out of focus, this image has a dream-like quality which I find attractive. Here Vivian looks at the camera and pretends to listen while viewers repeat a line of spanish aloud.