Nancy Rigg

Biography

Gertrude Ann Plugge (nee Muckleston) was an English Silent Film Actress ; Socialite ; husband of Conservative MP Captain Leonard Plugge (RN) and mother of Gale Benson. Plugge appeared in The Arcadians 1927 and A Little Bit of Fluff (1928 film) both under the stage name of Nancy Rigg. In 1934 she married the Conservative MP and commercial radio pioneer Leonard Plugge MP in New York City and spent part of her honeymoon as a guest of Randolph Hearst and Marion Davis at Hearst Castle. In 1940 the Plugge family moved to the USA where she and her husband became friends and house guests of the financier Bernard Baruch. Her husband returned to the UK and later that year she ,and her son Frank settled in East Hampton, NY. She returned to England in 1943 to her family home at Hamilton Place, Park Lane, London where she and her husband regularly hosted extravagant parties whose guests included King George II of Greece, HRH Paul of Greece and Archduke Franz Josef of Austria, Prince of Tuscany. Later her home at 15 Lowndes Square ,Knightsbridge, London was the filming location where all interior scenes of the 1970 film Performance were shot. Molly Parkin described Plugge as " a chic and charming hostess , a green eyed beauty with a lithe body like the Duchess of Windsor." In January 1972 her daughter Gale Benson was murdered in Trinidad by activist Michael X and members of his Black Power group. The murder and subsequent trial caused newspaper headlines around the world. John Lennon paid William Kunstler's fee as defence lawyer.